Bernadette Benda

You know what I just remembered? Fall is almost here. PUMPKIN PANCAKES.

While I’ll miss summer, and am not quite excited to see what winter is like in a pandemic (cabin fever anyone????) I’m just sort of here like FALL FALL FALL FALL, if you haven’t been able to tell.

Fall makes me feel CREATIVE and I’m totally here for that (pause: let’s veer of subject for a moment: what’s up with these new “Oreo Thins” Who wants an Oreo thin???? Don’t we all went MORE cream????? Like I’m sorry but I’m a double-stuffed girl and not here for a little cookie). Unfortunately though, the fall season is not sparking my blogging creativity, because as you can I am ranting about Oreos, so either my brain is bone dry at the moment, or I’m hungry (the only logical answer is both).

The Dry Brain thing is going on today, because this morning I couldn’t think of the word for hatchet, so when I was writing I simply referred to it as a “small axe”

Well. I wasn’t wrong.

I will also add that in the long and glorious history of Plotting vs Pantsing, I recently worked tediously to make a nice outline for OWWTSF so I could edit it in an organized and efficient manner (Yes. Yes go ahead and laugh). Then I swear like ten chapters in my characters rolled the outline into a ball and threw it in the garbage. They said, “We don’t want this. This is trash. What do we want? ASSASSINATION.” (yeah um…some of the characters are a little stabby.)

And that’s why I just *shakes fists* I UNDERSTAND why outlining is encouraged so much, and I like to do it to some extent so my brain doesn’t implode trying to keep track of things and so the story doesn’t sprawl waaaaay off track.

But then this *gestures to my novel* happens. That’s why I believe the creative process needs to be a process. Not step 1, step 2, step 3. You start writing a story, and you legitimately don’t know what’s going to happen. (At least that’s sure how I feel) (and I don’t mean this in a plot sense, of knowing what happens in the story. I mean this in the *makes rainbow arms* whole sense).

“You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you may be swept off to.”

Bilbo Baggins

And that’s what I love about writing. You get to explore a whole new world, go off on a whole new adventure. The story and the writing process itself.

Her Name Was A Ghost has been a long ride (querying!!!) and OWWTSF…I wrote a first draft, scrapped it COMPLETELY, wrote it again, and now this time was supposed to be a nice normal (ha, there’s no such thing) edit, and yet it’s turning into an enormous rewrite. Again.

BUT IT’S GONNA BE EVEN BETTER THIS ROUND GUYS.

I absolutely love this cast of characters. And every rewrite/edit I’ve been able to dig deeper and deeper and it’s *starry eyes* it’s been great. (It’s also going to be like 20k longer than the original draft. We’re going to be pushing 100k for this baby.)

So I’ll wind this winding road of a post up. I’m sitting here late Friday evening, with the windows open. It’s chilly and I’ve got a flannel (FALL) listening to uh…*checks* For Your Love by the Yardbirds.

Signing off.