Every time I approach a new novel I learn a new way to get the plot going. Rough drafting Wren's Song has put another few tricks in my basket. The first is the power of the blank page. I like blank pages. It feels like there is no pressure from the existing story. When I am terribly stuck I open a new window and write the scene there. It's simple, psychosomatic; it works.
Today's other stupid writer trick is a plot file. As I am writing out the story and jumping merrily from scene to scene as the muse takes me I keep tabbing back to my plot file. Every time I get stuck I start free writing out what needs to happen next to get the plot moving forward. It's turning into a clumsy synopsis/outline. Which helps when I need inspiration about what Wren did on page 8 and how I can mirror it on page 50.
Rough drafting means anything goes to get the words on the page.
Showing posts with label brainstorming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brainstorming. Show all posts
Friday, September 11, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
World building
For Matt's story I didn't have to do much world building. I created the fictional city of Livingston, added in some pertinent buildings and places and organizations. Wren's song is an entirely different world. I know places and people but today things reached a point where I needed to know about magic. Patricia Wrede has a wonderful set of world building articles on the SFWA site. Here is the specific one I am using at the moment.
http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions-magic-and-magicians/
http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions-magic-and-magicians/
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Ending a book
One of my writing friends came to me recently and confessed they didn't know how they were going to end their book. I generally have the opposite problem, I know how I want it to end but not how to get the story there.
I usually start with an idea. Mary Sue Smith gets sucked into Neverland and meets Peter Pan the third. Usually that idea suggest certain scenes, Mary Sue actually getting sucked into a trans dimensional literary portal, meeting Pan at the point of the sword, Captain Hook as a conflict, lost boy acceptance, defeating Hook, Mary deciding how to live happily ever after. I'm a sap. I like happy endings, or at least bittersweet ones.
Those scenes (which are the most fun to write) get me started in the rough draft. The trouble comes in connecting the two. I try to write chronologically. If I get stuck I will skip over scenes with a minimum of narration, putting something like write a cool fight scene here or Mary needs to learn to waltz here. I write the next scene. Then I can back track. Mary needs a sword to fight the pirates therefore I need to get one to her in the scene I skipped. Mary needs to face inner demons personified in Hook, therefore in the earlier scenes we need to give her inner demons.
Each action should have an after effect and a series of events that led up to it. Although it may offend the artistic senses, writing a novel requires a great deal of logic. If the story doesn't make sense then all the flowery prose in the world will not save it.
I usually start with an idea. Mary Sue Smith gets sucked into Neverland and meets Peter Pan the third. Usually that idea suggest certain scenes, Mary Sue actually getting sucked into a trans dimensional literary portal, meeting Pan at the point of the sword, Captain Hook as a conflict, lost boy acceptance, defeating Hook, Mary deciding how to live happily ever after. I'm a sap. I like happy endings, or at least bittersweet ones.
Those scenes (which are the most fun to write) get me started in the rough draft. The trouble comes in connecting the two. I try to write chronologically. If I get stuck I will skip over scenes with a minimum of narration, putting something like write a cool fight scene here or Mary needs to learn to waltz here. I write the next scene. Then I can back track. Mary needs a sword to fight the pirates therefore I need to get one to her in the scene I skipped. Mary needs to face inner demons personified in Hook, therefore in the earlier scenes we need to give her inner demons.
Each action should have an after effect and a series of events that led up to it. Although it may offend the artistic senses, writing a novel requires a great deal of logic. If the story doesn't make sense then all the flowery prose in the world will not save it.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Things that rock about writing....
Spending six hours googling feudal coups, succession wars, and treachery is legitimate time working.
Reading novels also constitutes research.
Friends on facebook who came point out famous historic power struggles at the drop of a hat.
Although sitting down and writing is the largest part about being a writer, the daydreaming out scenes while on cross state car trips is also considered productive time.
Red ink pens and post it notes. (And those nifty binder things that hold all your pages together with the editing equipment.
We are now five chapters from the end of the edits and proceeding to enter them into the file while working on plotting out another book. My muse hates me... or just likes to see me squirm.
Reading novels also constitutes research.
Friends on facebook who came point out famous historic power struggles at the drop of a hat.
Although sitting down and writing is the largest part about being a writer, the daydreaming out scenes while on cross state car trips is also considered productive time.
Red ink pens and post it notes. (And those nifty binder things that hold all your pages together with the editing equipment.
We are now five chapters from the end of the edits and proceeding to enter them into the file while working on plotting out another book. My muse hates me... or just likes to see me squirm.
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