Well, it’s been one week of working on The Female Gaze in earnest. And I’ve made a few discoveries.
The draft was and is all over the place. One thing that happens when you have a daily word count to meet is that you see issues a lot quicker, and can course-correct sooner on.
When I write fiction, I write in order. I do this for a few reasons, the main one being that when I write the story in order from A (beginning) to Z (the end) I feel that it creates a head of steam. It builds momentum, like a train or plane accelerating to the necessary speed for its journey.
The non-fiction topic of female gaze is a big one, as I’ve found out. By the third day of writing, I saw that the draft was a jumble of philosophical and political musings, movie reviews, and personal stuff, to the point that I asked myself: “What exactly am I trying to say here?”
Once I had thought about it and narrowed my focus, the writing came easier. Unlike with my fiction, I am continuing to write The Female Gaze out of order, basically just diving in here and there and writing in whatever subtopic I feel most drawn to. (There are actual chapters, each being a subtopic of the female gaze.) And it’s taking shape, though I may wind up cutting out more text than normal. In other words, I’m allowing myself to go outside the lines and let the draft be whatever it is as it comes.
At this point, the journey is interesting. I’ll update again after week two.
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