Do other fiction writers make characters like people they know in real life? I know, there are many reasons to avoid representing real people in your fiction, but I mean, at least as far as appearances go, are there writers who secretly see a fictional character walking around with the face or body of a real person they know?
The other week, I saw a little red-headed girl whom I saw only once before, a year ago. She was so cute with her hair back in barrettes, her little teeth poking out between her teeth, her eyes heavily lidded. I wrote a preschool-age character in my novel and modeled this character, Jaibee, after this real-life little girl. Seeing her again surprised me, both with the passage of time, and the clash of the character I wrote and what this real little girl is like.
I am a very visual person, and what my character looks like really matters. I read that Stephen King really doesn't think that's important, and he keeps physical description to a bare minimum. That bothers me. I need to see a face and body because as I read, my mind makes a film for me to watch. I hate it when a writer keeps physical description sparse at the beginning, so I just have to make something up--and then, later, the writer tells you a detail about the hair color or some feature and it totally smacks against what I was forced to invent before!
I'm reading Anna Elliot's "Twilight of Avalon" novel right now and I appreciate how she introduces characters with physical description--not exhaustive, but adequate. The better I can visualize characters, the more real and distinct they are. When writers don't describe them in concrete ways, I run the risk of mixing them up because their physical appearances change and morph, they're so indistinct.
When I write, I sometimes can't help visualizing someone I know as the face of a character I made up. I'm the same way as a reader. I'll never forget, my entire life long, that a freshman I met in college, who is now a working musician, was what I visualized for the character Ransom in one of CS Lewis' space trilogy novels; the boy was a classmate in the class for which that book was assigned, and I think a small description of the character's hair matched this boy's distinct hair, and before I ever realized it, this unsuspecting person I barely know is forever running around in my literary imagination, living the life of Ransom.
In writing, the same happens. For instance, one of my supporting female characters looks like a mom I met years ago in a mom's group. We were not close, and I never knew her particularly well, but nonetheless, I found myself seeing her as this girl in my own in-progress fiction. Their personalities aren't the same, nor are their lives; it's just the face. The problem is, what was once a mere acquaintance when I began writing the character is now someone I know much better and see regularly! It's just a bit weird to see this now-friend walking around in the imaginary world, as a different personality, living a life I invented.
I try to invent my characters entirely--rather than inspired by living, breathing people in my life--even the face. (Though many writers may agree that is sometimes nearly impossible--but that's another blog entry.) In a previous novel attempt, I did lots of sketches of my characters so I had something to visualize without relying on existing faces in my world. That really helped. I didn't do this for my Asher novel, so I've run into these funny problems of real-life look-alikes. I just realized too that another of my supporting characters, a male neighbor, looks a lot like someone else I went to college with. My female leading character though, she's entirely her own. I've been successful in seeing her face and form and not letting her morph into someone I know in real life. Maybe because I don't know anyone in real life with her facial structure. The closest description I can give would be comparing her to the actress Emily Deschanel who plays the lead character in the TV show Bones. Her jaw line is something similar to my character Ginny's, but Ginn'ys features are entirely other than Deschanel's, and her hair is dark, heavy. This is good. I'm starting to wonder if there's a connection between a character in my book having a set, original physical form which I see clearly, and my understanding of that character's personality. Hmmm...
My main character, Asher, has been giving me the biggest problems, both in that his looks keep morphing in my imagination, and he gives me the msot problems in anticipating and understanding his reactions to events. (I don't clearly idnetifiy with him as ocmpletely as I do with my other characters.) I've been writing him all these years and he's still morphing in my mind. I know I even have conflicting physical descriptions in my first draft of the novel. Some things stay the same, always; his hair is blonde and curly, he's short and well-muscled. But even in those parameters, there's a lot of latitude, and I find I don't even visualize him the same way in all chapters.
Last summer, while at the beach, my family took a little touristy boat ride tour of the area, and the tour guide had the right hair, and a face I liked. So I decided I'd let him be my face for Ash; I never knew him, will never see him again. he as a real person will make no impression of his own on me to conflict with this character I made up. But even since that, my mind is having a hard time not letting him morph. I ca go back to chapters I wrote years ago, and I realize now that Ash looks like what I thought he looked like back then--my mind made a film for me to watch of the scenes I wrote, and that "actor" is still there, even if I recast him more recently. (In one of the earliest chapters, his hair is even brown in my mind's eye, though it never was in the writing.)
But in writing this I've pondered if there is indeed a link between the facts that my character's face is hard to nail down, just as it's hard to nail down his personality. Asher is very much unlike me; I've been reading personality books and such to help wrap my head around his psyche.
This really matters to me because I'm so visual. Another fly in the ointment is the comparisons between Ash and his dad, Curtis. Curt was easy for me to visualize; he was created with the description that he looked like Michelangelo's David, with brown hair--complete with a funny story from his college days about that comparison. I also have a very set image of Curt the age he is in the present time of the novel: he's got long white/grey hair in a ponytail, and his face is fleshy from age. But though Ash is said to look like his father, over the years, I've changed, in my mind, and in my writing, what exactly is retained from Curt's looks into Ash's face. Curt was easy to set in stone in my mind because his face was literally set in stone centuries ago!
Maybe I need to go sketch, to get Ash's face set firmly in my mind. It's a technique that works. But seriously, the last time I tried an honest sketch of a person was--? Years ago. 5 years? Ten years? That's a scary admittance. I grew older in a life where I couldn't sustain both writing and my visual art pursuits. I chose writing and let drawing fall completely away. (That too is another blog topic...)
In the meantime I also have written some nonfiction articles:
Natural Deodorants: Do Any Work as Effectively as Popular Commercial Brands?
Organic Food: Eight Benefits for You and Your Children
Veggie-loaded Meals Kids Like
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
What I learned from Stephen King
I don't like reading thriller novels. (In fact, I cannot let myself, because I really need my sleep.) And I can't say I've read a single of King's novels. But I read his book On Writing this summer, and I got a lot from it about the process of putting a novel together.
First, I love that I'm now free of this weird burden I'd put on myself: while writing my first draft, I kept going back, trying to do everything all at once. But King reminded me that a writer is first a storyteller. I've got to worry only about telling the story in this first draft. Symbolism, beautiful language and style are things to worry about in the second draft. Whew. I don't know why I was expecting so much of myself in the first draft. (Or maybe I didn't like feeling like a crap writer making a crappy first draft--and so went back to older chapters, refining them, so I could experience the feeling of writing something really good, with style, with refined figurative language. Cuz writing a first draft for years can make you feel like you're in an interminable first-draft helll....) But somehow, the way King talked about it, it got through to me. No one is going to read this draft--it's not supposed to be stellar. No one is expecting it to be a measure of all my skills.
Second, he got me to see I shouldn't be letting anyone read my first draft. It led to the problem I just mentioned. I was letting a small group of novelists read my beginning--and what that did was stop all forward motion as I made the beginning better and better to present. But I realize I may have wasted a lot of time. Until I can tell my whole story, who knows how much of those first chapters I will completely ax out of the book in the end! King talks about writing the first draft with the door closed. I'm now committed to that. I'll not worry about workshopping and etc until the second draft.
The third thing I learned made me feel a lot of comfort. King thinks plot is very over rated. He swears he doesn't plot, but lets his characters work out their problems It's apparently worked for him. Now I'm not going to say all I've tried to learn about plot is useless to me now. I really needed to learn it--I've got to get the bones of storytelling down. But I now need to take a step back from that and not worry if I've got a 3-act storyline or that my climax happens where people say it should be, etc.
King talks about how he doesn't plot, but instead takes a problem and then watches to see how his characters get out of it. That's a pretty good reflection of what I'd say I do. King calls it "what if" inspirations. I wrote a short story called the Advent of Asher, and it was a what if story about two college friends who, years later, after they marry other people, meet again and confess they'd both been interested in each other. The story was a what if tale of the terrible drama that ensued. That story was about them. But someone in my writing group suggested maybe the story was really the beginning of a novel about the baby. Then it became a what if question: seeing the unstable situation the baby is born into, I wondered what happens to this boy as he grows and becomes a man.
I'm encouraged to know a successful writer has made this sort of "plotting" (I used that term very loosely here) work. But I am a little apprehensive still--for one reason. King is successful--but have you noticed how long his books are? That's my problem too. I've got a manuscript of over 128,000 words and I may have written only to the climax so far. But I'm trying not to worry about that now. My second draft experience might be about very heavy editing, after I see what the bones of my story really are.
But I have to say, I got a lot from King's book. Shortly after reading, I made myself a one-year deadline to finish my first draft.
Some other things I've written online:
How Much Genetically Modified Food Do You Eat?
Job Search: How to Make Your Application Climb to The Top of The Pile
Power Your Electronics with Your Body's Own Movement? The nPower PEG, The First Kinetic Energy Recharger
First, I love that I'm now free of this weird burden I'd put on myself: while writing my first draft, I kept going back, trying to do everything all at once. But King reminded me that a writer is first a storyteller. I've got to worry only about telling the story in this first draft. Symbolism, beautiful language and style are things to worry about in the second draft. Whew. I don't know why I was expecting so much of myself in the first draft. (Or maybe I didn't like feeling like a crap writer making a crappy first draft--and so went back to older chapters, refining them, so I could experience the feeling of writing something really good, with style, with refined figurative language. Cuz writing a first draft for years can make you feel like you're in an interminable first-draft helll....) But somehow, the way King talked about it, it got through to me. No one is going to read this draft--it's not supposed to be stellar. No one is expecting it to be a measure of all my skills.
Second, he got me to see I shouldn't be letting anyone read my first draft. It led to the problem I just mentioned. I was letting a small group of novelists read my beginning--and what that did was stop all forward motion as I made the beginning better and better to present. But I realize I may have wasted a lot of time. Until I can tell my whole story, who knows how much of those first chapters I will completely ax out of the book in the end! King talks about writing the first draft with the door closed. I'm now committed to that. I'll not worry about workshopping and etc until the second draft.
The third thing I learned made me feel a lot of comfort. King thinks plot is very over rated. He swears he doesn't plot, but lets his characters work out their problems It's apparently worked for him. Now I'm not going to say all I've tried to learn about plot is useless to me now. I really needed to learn it--I've got to get the bones of storytelling down. But I now need to take a step back from that and not worry if I've got a 3-act storyline or that my climax happens where people say it should be, etc.
King talks about how he doesn't plot, but instead takes a problem and then watches to see how his characters get out of it. That's a pretty good reflection of what I'd say I do. King calls it "what if" inspirations. I wrote a short story called the Advent of Asher, and it was a what if story about two college friends who, years later, after they marry other people, meet again and confess they'd both been interested in each other. The story was a what if tale of the terrible drama that ensued. That story was about them. But someone in my writing group suggested maybe the story was really the beginning of a novel about the baby. Then it became a what if question: seeing the unstable situation the baby is born into, I wondered what happens to this boy as he grows and becomes a man.
I'm encouraged to know a successful writer has made this sort of "plotting" (I used that term very loosely here) work. But I am a little apprehensive still--for one reason. King is successful--but have you noticed how long his books are? That's my problem too. I've got a manuscript of over 128,000 words and I may have written only to the climax so far. But I'm trying not to worry about that now. My second draft experience might be about very heavy editing, after I see what the bones of my story really are.
But I have to say, I got a lot from King's book. Shortly after reading, I made myself a one-year deadline to finish my first draft.
Some other things I've written online:
How Much Genetically Modified Food Do You Eat?
Job Search: How to Make Your Application Climb to The Top of The Pile
Power Your Electronics with Your Body's Own Movement? The nPower PEG, The First Kinetic Energy Recharger
My Deadline to Finish a Complete First Draft
So, in June, I got serious. I've written multiple posts in my blog about my freelancing journey about how I started much of this writing thing--going in many directions--as an experiment. After a year of data, I said I'd reassess and decide which avenues were best for me to focus on. Well, it took me longer than a year. About 14 months I guess, but by the end of June I'd made one decision, leaving the rest in the gray area.
Goal: I will finish the first draft of my novel by the beginning of next July.
There, I said it--though it took me over 6 weeks to commit publicly like this. I made the deadline generous, because I really hope I may be done sooner, and by July, be in the second draft.
I enjoy what I'm learning in freelancing, but I refined my goals. If I'm going to get anywhere as a novelist, i've got to start getting serious NOW. It takes years to get a book written, marketed, accepted and then published. I don't want to waste any more time not pursuing that. I'm a member of one writers group full of novelists, and going to those meetings helped me decide it was simply time to get down to business. I've been working on it for over a year, but just by squeezing it in between writing magazine articles, online content articles, and other essays. It's time I said the opposite--focus on the novel and write other things only when they're really compelling or I'm doing it to deal with writer's block with my novel.
Strange as it may sound to my own ears, I'm looking forward to the second draft. I think that part will be maybe the most fun. This first draft is a real mess of a thing. Hugely long (over 128,000 words already--past the top limit agents and publishers say they'll even consider for a first-time novelist), it's going to need not just pruning, but some outright amputation. I've finally been able to just leave beginning chapters alone (instead of editing all the time) and just press on to the end. When I'm done cranking out the story, then it's time to go back. Til then, wish me well on seeing my characters to the end. (And that end, I now finally see. While on vacation at the beach, I got a clearer glimpse than ever before of how the characters are getting to the end. That's a great thing for a writer who writes into her story--not exactly from an outlined, predetermined plot!)
My sparse online writing activities of recent months:
Zucchini for Breakfast, Dinner and Dessert: Five New Ways to Use Up Summer Squash and Zucchini
Omega-3 Fatty Acids Protect Against Obesity?
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
100% Whole Wheat Bread with Honey or Molasses, for a Bread Machine
For fun, two from over a year ago:
Potty Training: Cloth Diapers vs. Disposables
Baby Food: Save money by Making Your Own
Goal: I will finish the first draft of my novel by the beginning of next July.
There, I said it--though it took me over 6 weeks to commit publicly like this. I made the deadline generous, because I really hope I may be done sooner, and by July, be in the second draft.
I enjoy what I'm learning in freelancing, but I refined my goals. If I'm going to get anywhere as a novelist, i've got to start getting serious NOW. It takes years to get a book written, marketed, accepted and then published. I don't want to waste any more time not pursuing that. I'm a member of one writers group full of novelists, and going to those meetings helped me decide it was simply time to get down to business. I've been working on it for over a year, but just by squeezing it in between writing magazine articles, online content articles, and other essays. It's time I said the opposite--focus on the novel and write other things only when they're really compelling or I'm doing it to deal with writer's block with my novel.
Strange as it may sound to my own ears, I'm looking forward to the second draft. I think that part will be maybe the most fun. This first draft is a real mess of a thing. Hugely long (over 128,000 words already--past the top limit agents and publishers say they'll even consider for a first-time novelist), it's going to need not just pruning, but some outright amputation. I've finally been able to just leave beginning chapters alone (instead of editing all the time) and just press on to the end. When I'm done cranking out the story, then it's time to go back. Til then, wish me well on seeing my characters to the end. (And that end, I now finally see. While on vacation at the beach, I got a clearer glimpse than ever before of how the characters are getting to the end. That's a great thing for a writer who writes into her story--not exactly from an outlined, predetermined plot!)
My sparse online writing activities of recent months:
Zucchini for Breakfast, Dinner and Dessert: Five New Ways to Use Up Summer Squash and Zucchini
Omega-3 Fatty Acids Protect Against Obesity?
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
100% Whole Wheat Bread with Honey or Molasses, for a Bread Machine
For fun, two from over a year ago:
Potty Training: Cloth Diapers vs. Disposables
Baby Food: Save money by Making Your Own
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Writer's Block--how to write the holiday meal....
I love movies with great family holiday meal scenes. Some of my faves: ones from National Lampoon's Christmas and While you were Sleeping. It's long been a goal of mine to write a really great one of my own. A novel lends itself to the space and character development prior necessary to carry such a scene, and my novel-in-progress has had this empty chapter just sitting for months. It's titled, but I've yet to write the scene. In fact, it might have been 2 or even 3 years ago when I knew there would be one, and yet I haven't been able to touch it.
I'm stuck, asking myself, what am I trying to accomplish in it? i don't want to just launch into it rambling, hoping to find direction once I'm there. (though i do that often enough in this novel...I tell myself, my later drafts have got to be good, cuz my first drafts of chapters are sometimes, as writer Anne Lamotte says, really s----y.
Years ago, I assembled my characters for the scene--it's Ash and Ginny's house, and in attendance was her best friend Daniella (who is driving Ash nuts, though he cannot let on at great personal peril), Ginny's mom and stepdad (the latter of which normally drives Ash nuts, but is welcome in comparison to Daniella), the academic hermit next door neighbor, Ginny's teen mother cousin who is ridiculously naive , and Ash's best weight lifting buddy. But I had little idea what I wanted to accomplish.
Well, in two years, I've written more of the novel, and i know a few things. 1) The scene must serve to really ramp up the stress on Ginny. A lot of that is accomplished because Ash invited most of those guests, last minute, without even asking Ginny, who has to prepare the dinner. I need the day to put Ash and Ginny at pique contention with each other. To further this goal, I think I'm going to have Ash invite the neighbors from the other side of the house--the family of seven. That'll really cook Ginny's goose! 2) I think the scene also will be about Ginny trying to come to terms with her family--her mom, the black sheep of the family, echoed in the teen mother cousin, and those who aren't there. 3) Ginny will also be processing her relationship with Thomas, and it too must be very uncomfortable, and she'll be mad at Ash for inviting him (though I have to write that prior chapter, and figure out why. 4) Some of the arguments are debates revealing the clash of world views at the table. Thomas in particular doesn't come off well, even though he's right, and Ginny tries to navigate the minefields.
So I guess I knowquite a bit. But I feel something is missing. I can't yet write it. I feel like nothing there is important enough to carry the scene. I didn't plan it to be a dramatic reveal--or should it be? Should there be some high drama, or just the rumblings of all these little conflicts? Hmmm...that's a question I've never entertained before. Does someone snap? And if so, who? Ash could--he's under stress, even though he's normally so mellow. That'd be a surprise. Ginny could, easily, but I'm not really sure what that would accomplish in my story.
Or maybe I have to just start writing, and write my way into something more profound. I've often stumbled onto a narrative gem by bumbling around in a scene, bumping into something that was gold. Maybe I should just get started, and see what else I can find as I go....
Stuff I publish online between bouts of writing fiction:
Zucchini for Breakfast, Dinner and Dessert: Five New Ways to Use Up Summer Squash and Zucchini
Chef Jamie Oliver Versus School Lunches: Where Do The Dietary Guidelines Come From Anyway?
His Eye on The Sparrow? Review of The Novel, The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow
How to Start a Novel You Will Never Finish: Part One
Your Body is Electric-- How Electromagnetic Fields From Cell Phones, Wireless Devices Interact with Your Body’s Nervous System
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Putting a personal, tragic autobiographical experience in your novel?
Driving to church this morning, I had an out-of-the-blue epiphany to solve an apparent lag in the second half of my novel--and it was strange to me that the idea was to have one of my characters experience one of my life's most tragic events: pregnancy loss. I was thinking of the advice I've read for novelists: "Keep upping the stakes"--when you've got your character in conflict and struggling, what more can you do to test him/her? The truly unbidden idea (dare i say flash of inspiration) does offer a great many features that would strengthen my second half--it'd bring other existing relatioships and conflicts to great stress and would also really change the character herself. My experience is that you're never the same after losing a baby. And i can say from experience it's quite different too, the experience of an early miscarriage versus a later loss; the latter kind affects you much more. It changed me greatly, but the early miscarriage did not so much.
Having this idea made me realize: my characters in this novel-in-progress really have been echoing little of my life experiences. Whereas my first novels were very much about my life experiences, thinly guised by fictional characters, this novel is rich with characters who are in places i've never been. I've never been a 50-something year old woman who's lived with the guilt of killing her husband, failing her children. I've never been a man who lost everything for following his heart, facing terminal illness. I've never been the only child of a single, never-married mom, whose husband had an affair, or had an affair myself. And I've never been a child of a dysfunctional family, therefore searching for love in all the wrong places... i think I'm giving myself a pat on the back for this--the idea of the pregnancy loss being the first real-life event to make it into this novel makes me feel god. I've been making characters who are truly themselves, and less of me, than ever before.
NOW my real question is to figure out the intricate dance of timing. With everything else in the book happening--another character having a baby, the outcome of the affair and broken marriage the ongoing drama of the terminal illness--where is the optimal place for this to occur? In some ways, it's pretty flexible--I mean, it could take only a few months from beginning to end. The only obvious restriction is that conception obviously has to take place, and because I want the experience to be 3 months into the pregnancy, I guess my first real decision is the timing of the conception in the context of the other events. Hmmm. I just realized a snag: I was planing to do a Part 1 d Part 2 set-up, letting me fast-forward through a few months to speed the story along. But doing that would have me fast-forwarding right through when this pregnancy could naturally occur.... I'll have to think on that some more... Maybe skip only a month or 2?
I always knew I'd someday want to put into a novel the experience of pregnancy loss--because it's something not dealt with much, and i had more than a bit of anger about how it went down, how i never knew it was possible to occur the way it did for me. It's not just a powerful experience to create drama in a plot--it's a social issue I've long wanted to be able to address. I've had little luck getting nonfiction articles on the topic published; it's a hard sell--which is precisely why women who face it find themselves completely unprepared. Even if youre' searching for the information because you know you will lose the baby, you cannot find info about what it'll be like, to prepare yourself.
I never thought of putting the experience in this novel though--but thinking about it has opened a lot of doors. Advice for novelists talk about the value of putting your characters in really vulnerable positions--this will certainly do that--and leave her at the mercy of neighbors or anyone she can get to help her, as she'll be alone when it happens. I also like the possibilities in how it will affect her husband, and her best friend...
Hmmm... I've got chew over the possibilities of the timing....
Having this idea made me realize: my characters in this novel-in-progress really have been echoing little of my life experiences. Whereas my first novels were very much about my life experiences, thinly guised by fictional characters, this novel is rich with characters who are in places i've never been. I've never been a 50-something year old woman who's lived with the guilt of killing her husband, failing her children. I've never been a man who lost everything for following his heart, facing terminal illness. I've never been the only child of a single, never-married mom, whose husband had an affair, or had an affair myself. And I've never been a child of a dysfunctional family, therefore searching for love in all the wrong places... i think I'm giving myself a pat on the back for this--the idea of the pregnancy loss being the first real-life event to make it into this novel makes me feel god. I've been making characters who are truly themselves, and less of me, than ever before.
NOW my real question is to figure out the intricate dance of timing. With everything else in the book happening--another character having a baby, the outcome of the affair and broken marriage the ongoing drama of the terminal illness--where is the optimal place for this to occur? In some ways, it's pretty flexible--I mean, it could take only a few months from beginning to end. The only obvious restriction is that conception obviously has to take place, and because I want the experience to be 3 months into the pregnancy, I guess my first real decision is the timing of the conception in the context of the other events. Hmmm. I just realized a snag: I was planing to do a Part 1 d Part 2 set-up, letting me fast-forward through a few months to speed the story along. But doing that would have me fast-forwarding right through when this pregnancy could naturally occur.... I'll have to think on that some more... Maybe skip only a month or 2?
I always knew I'd someday want to put into a novel the experience of pregnancy loss--because it's something not dealt with much, and i had more than a bit of anger about how it went down, how i never knew it was possible to occur the way it did for me. It's not just a powerful experience to create drama in a plot--it's a social issue I've long wanted to be able to address. I've had little luck getting nonfiction articles on the topic published; it's a hard sell--which is precisely why women who face it find themselves completely unprepared. Even if youre' searching for the information because you know you will lose the baby, you cannot find info about what it'll be like, to prepare yourself.
I never thought of putting the experience in this novel though--but thinking about it has opened a lot of doors. Advice for novelists talk about the value of putting your characters in really vulnerable positions--this will certainly do that--and leave her at the mercy of neighbors or anyone she can get to help her, as she'll be alone when it happens. I also like the possibilities in how it will affect her husband, and her best friend...
Hmmm... I've got chew over the possibilities of the timing....
Monday, June 6, 2011
How to Organize Your Novel: An Excel Spreadsheet or Your Fridge?
For months, I've been overwhlemed by the immensity of my project. I'm no longer able to remember what I've written and what's in what chapter, etc. I knew I needed a way to keep track of my sequence of events, but I hadn't found anything to work for me. I'd tried keeping a word document list of each chapter with a summary. I've even more recently tried making this list in an Excel spreadsheet--and that makes sense--rows can be added more easily, etc. But still, I found it such a huge chore to have to go back and update that stupid list--sadly I wasn't disciplined to do it often enough, and having that file soon became a ridiculous totem to my inability to organize my novel; it was so outdated, it didn't help me at all...
I have a friend who made me jealous when he posted on facebook a photo of a 2-door closet in his room which he'd transformed into a white-board, for the purpsoe of plotting his novel. That was so brilliant! He shared it was easily made with a painted-on surface--but sadly, I have no such feature in my house that I could paint with that just to use for plotting.
But it stuck with me, and I guess, got me thinking about how the method to organize my novel could be visual, and not in a list on a computer file. Years ago (about 9 or 10 to be exact) I'd taped old computer paper to the wall of a spare bedroom I used as my office. Do you remember the computer paper where each sheet was joined to the next by perforation, for a dot matrix pritner? Yep, that's what I used. I put it at eye level across an entire wall, and there I began visually plotting a plot line for my second novel (which I've long ago ceased working on).
So I got to thinking--how could I make a workable, visual system? Well, one of my problems was that I do a lot of thinking in the ktichen. I make a decent amount of decisions about my novel while cooking, doing dishes, laundry, etc. I've often been there with an epiphany, or an idea to change the order of some chapters, but can't leave at the moment to get to my copmuter and make them. The idea is there to make a note, but it often got lost. So I figured, if I made a visual way to chart the sequence of my novel, having it in the ktichen might be the best place. I could even purposely try to work on my novel, thinking while filling the dishwasher, etc.
I'd tried one type of visual system with notecards before. I still have a stack of them in my desk drawer, a chapter synonsis on each. The idea was I could lay them out and then be able to visually see how the story would change if I changed the order. (Changing the order of the telling of my story is a big part of my craft--it has led me to a lot more depth and more possibilities.) But as good as this method sounded, I've never used it more than once. And those cards are now so outdated, half those chapters discarded, I'd have to start all over to resume.
But then I found my husband's box of old business cards I'd been saving to make flashcards for my kids. And I took some of those long twist-ties that always come around the brocoli I buy at the grocery store, and stapled them to paper like clotheslines. I pinned each sheet of paper to the fridge side with magnets. On the back of the business cards, I began writing a one-sentence description of a scene, with an initial for the character whose point of view tells it. Then I began clipping them with mini closethespins (yes, I really have them--a craft store find from 10 years ago I bought simply because they were neat and figured I'd find a use for "someday.")
Now the side of my fridge is graced with 3 of these mini clothelines hanging scenes of my novel from them. I love that they are small enough that I can see the arragnement in one contained place, and I can easily reshuffle them based on ephiphanies I have while mopping the floor or frying eggs. And perhps best, it's always there--I never have to put it away, which meant I sometimes neglected getting it out when it could be of use! And, it's not reachable by the little hands of toddlers!
When get new ideas for chapters and the forward motion of the story, I grab a bsuiness card from the junk drawer next to the sink, and jot it down, then clip it to the wire on the fridge. So far it's the best system I've used.
The other day, it solved my latest stalling point. I was glaring at a set of chapters I knew were slow. I'd been doing a lot lately to carve up some story lines by inserting other story lines between those chapters. But I was so frustrated because I was staring at a group of chapters I couldn't rearrange to any better sequence. I'd been alternating between Ash and his wife Ginny, every other chapter from each voice. But staring at a set of Ginny chapters had me sutck because I did not want to move forward in Ash's storyline just yet. Suddnely, because I could see this all laid out visually, with tangible cards in my hands representing scenes, I realized what I hand't been able to grasp when all this was in a list on a word file: there was no way to rearrange those chapters because they were, of themselves a single storyline. My only way out was to bring in another voice entirely. I had to write some chapters form another characte'rs point of view to intersperse between Ginny's. It is the only way to break up what to me seems might be a dragging, bu necessary, journey for her in the plot. Perhaps dragging is the wrong word--it's just so focused on her emotional state that it's hard to wade through if you don't get a break, a little distraction.
So anyway, that's the story of how my fridge is now a writing tool....
Other things I write (but not so much lately):
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
How to Determine If Your Child is Ready to Begin Kindergarten
100% Wheat Bread with Honey or Molasses, for a Bread Machine
Lyme Disease and Autism Patients Prescribed Diets Free of Genetically Modified Foods
I have a friend who made me jealous when he posted on facebook a photo of a 2-door closet in his room which he'd transformed into a white-board, for the purpsoe of plotting his novel. That was so brilliant! He shared it was easily made with a painted-on surface--but sadly, I have no such feature in my house that I could paint with that just to use for plotting.
But it stuck with me, and I guess, got me thinking about how the method to organize my novel could be visual, and not in a list on a computer file. Years ago (about 9 or 10 to be exact) I'd taped old computer paper to the wall of a spare bedroom I used as my office. Do you remember the computer paper where each sheet was joined to the next by perforation, for a dot matrix pritner? Yep, that's what I used. I put it at eye level across an entire wall, and there I began visually plotting a plot line for my second novel (which I've long ago ceased working on).
So I got to thinking--how could I make a workable, visual system? Well, one of my problems was that I do a lot of thinking in the ktichen. I make a decent amount of decisions about my novel while cooking, doing dishes, laundry, etc. I've often been there with an epiphany, or an idea to change the order of some chapters, but can't leave at the moment to get to my copmuter and make them. The idea is there to make a note, but it often got lost. So I figured, if I made a visual way to chart the sequence of my novel, having it in the ktichen might be the best place. I could even purposely try to work on my novel, thinking while filling the dishwasher, etc.
I'd tried one type of visual system with notecards before. I still have a stack of them in my desk drawer, a chapter synonsis on each. The idea was I could lay them out and then be able to visually see how the story would change if I changed the order. (Changing the order of the telling of my story is a big part of my craft--it has led me to a lot more depth and more possibilities.) But as good as this method sounded, I've never used it more than once. And those cards are now so outdated, half those chapters discarded, I'd have to start all over to resume.
But then I found my husband's box of old business cards I'd been saving to make flashcards for my kids. And I took some of those long twist-ties that always come around the brocoli I buy at the grocery store, and stapled them to paper like clotheslines. I pinned each sheet of paper to the fridge side with magnets. On the back of the business cards, I began writing a one-sentence description of a scene, with an initial for the character whose point of view tells it. Then I began clipping them with mini closethespins (yes, I really have them--a craft store find from 10 years ago I bought simply because they were neat and figured I'd find a use for "someday.")
Now the side of my fridge is graced with 3 of these mini clothelines hanging scenes of my novel from them. I love that they are small enough that I can see the arragnement in one contained place, and I can easily reshuffle them based on ephiphanies I have while mopping the floor or frying eggs. And perhps best, it's always there--I never have to put it away, which meant I sometimes neglected getting it out when it could be of use! And, it's not reachable by the little hands of toddlers!
When get new ideas for chapters and the forward motion of the story, I grab a bsuiness card from the junk drawer next to the sink, and jot it down, then clip it to the wire on the fridge. So far it's the best system I've used.
The other day, it solved my latest stalling point. I was glaring at a set of chapters I knew were slow. I'd been doing a lot lately to carve up some story lines by inserting other story lines between those chapters. But I was so frustrated because I was staring at a group of chapters I couldn't rearrange to any better sequence. I'd been alternating between Ash and his wife Ginny, every other chapter from each voice. But staring at a set of Ginny chapters had me sutck because I did not want to move forward in Ash's storyline just yet. Suddnely, because I could see this all laid out visually, with tangible cards in my hands representing scenes, I realized what I hand't been able to grasp when all this was in a list on a word file: there was no way to rearrange those chapters because they were, of themselves a single storyline. My only way out was to bring in another voice entirely. I had to write some chapters form another characte'rs point of view to intersperse between Ginny's. It is the only way to break up what to me seems might be a dragging, bu necessary, journey for her in the plot. Perhaps dragging is the wrong word--it's just so focused on her emotional state that it's hard to wade through if you don't get a break, a little distraction.
So anyway, that's the story of how my fridge is now a writing tool....
Other things I write (but not so much lately):
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
How to Determine If Your Child is Ready to Begin Kindergarten
100% Wheat Bread with Honey or Molasses, for a Bread Machine
Lyme Disease and Autism Patients Prescribed Diets Free of Genetically Modified Foods
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
So who says you should get a first draft down before you revise?
I'm here to question if it's really necessary, or best, to nail down that first draft. As one who's gone against the advice and has instead worked on revising the first half multiple times, I can see some benefits to do it this way.
I'm still riding a high from my recent writer's group critique of my prologue and a couple opening chapters from the point of view of Asher, the central character. It's the first time I've felt my writing in this novel has finally arrived. It was amazing to hear the fellow writers/readers talk about the characters, getting exactly what I wanted them to get, seeing the characters exactly the way I'd hoped they'd be seen. Also, I've been through enough drafts (7? 13?) of that prologue that I've finally arrived at a narrative voice that I'm starting to like. (Click here to read the prologue.) To be told I had a strong narrative style was amazing to hear. I fall in love with novels because of their voice--and knowing how important it is, I have long felt the real lack of that in my novel-in-progress. I guess I'm learning a first-time novelist's lesson: maybe that voice and style doesn't, or at least not always, pour out, whole and gripping in the first draft. It took me many to get there. It took me years to get comfortable in my characters' shoes enough to speak for them, to let the poetry begin to seep out as I tell their story. I've long been frustrated by how bare my prose has been in recent years. Because I've been working at freelancing for magazines I thought to perhaps blame that. Other moments, I tell myself I'm really just primarily trying to figure out plot and my characters--how can I expect my prose to sing like poetry? But as I read aloud my pieces last week to my writer's group, I saw that it was there, finally. The writing was good.
It's not done. But it's much closer to the kind of rich writing I used to do in poems and short narrative essays. Man, is a novel ever a different kind of beast to deal with!
And that is why I can see the merits of writing, rewriting, revising and editing the beginning before getting to the end. Because I have done so, I think my yet-unwritten second half has got to be better. I've revised my way into knowing my novel enough to have a glimpse of its ending.
I've been feeling really bad that my novel still hasn't seen the end of a single draft. I've been working on it 4 years, or 6 if you count the 2 years I created the 2 short stories which eventually became the impetus for the novel. I've got maybe 60,000 words and no end in sight. I've heard again and again that i just need to get that first draft nailed down--a sketch even, so I can then later go back and fill in the details and subplots, etc. I even bought the book on how to write novel in 30 days, outlining how you do this bare bones type of draft. (I never intended to use the 30 day perimeter, but I saw the merit in doing the method)
I've had little forward momentum on the plot because I've spent a lot of time going back over my first half. (Largely exacerbated by having joined an online critique group that needs to read from the beginning, making me want to spruce up every chapter before I sent it.) Part of the reason I couldn't nail down the second half is because I simply don't have a really good handle on it. I sort of know some events and outcomes, but the few times I've tried to write ahead, I got stalled, or simply trashed it, because i didn't have great insight into my characters' emotional landscapes. I just now am realizing a lot of that is due to the fact that i didn't know my characters well enough, because I didn't write them deep enough in the beginning. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'd been avoiding one of my main characters and writing from his point of view. And I have to say, finally facing him, writing a few opening chapters form his perspective, has really grounded me in the time and place of my novel in a way I hand't yet been. With him in place, all my other characters' psyches are deepening. This work has transformed my beginning, and I'm sure, as I go about editing the middle, it'll transform that, maybe even change it significantly.
So here's to questioning well-tested advice for writers. But I do know I do eventually need to heed it--I still DO have nail down that first draft, all the way through! I'm just now maybe not going to beat myself up over the fact that I didn't do it first.
Some examples of journalism that I blamed for my bare-bones prose:
Acidity in Your Diet Linked with Weight Loss Struggle, Depression and Degenerative Disease
Antidepressants: If They Work Due to the Placebo Effect, What is The Harm in That?
Chef Jamie Oliver Versus School Lunches: Where Do The Dietary Guidelines Come From Anyway?
How to Determine If Your Child is Ready to Begin Kindergarten
I'm still riding a high from my recent writer's group critique of my prologue and a couple opening chapters from the point of view of Asher, the central character. It's the first time I've felt my writing in this novel has finally arrived. It was amazing to hear the fellow writers/readers talk about the characters, getting exactly what I wanted them to get, seeing the characters exactly the way I'd hoped they'd be seen. Also, I've been through enough drafts (7? 13?) of that prologue that I've finally arrived at a narrative voice that I'm starting to like. (Click here to read the prologue.) To be told I had a strong narrative style was amazing to hear. I fall in love with novels because of their voice--and knowing how important it is, I have long felt the real lack of that in my novel-in-progress. I guess I'm learning a first-time novelist's lesson: maybe that voice and style doesn't, or at least not always, pour out, whole and gripping in the first draft. It took me many to get there. It took me years to get comfortable in my characters' shoes enough to speak for them, to let the poetry begin to seep out as I tell their story. I've long been frustrated by how bare my prose has been in recent years. Because I've been working at freelancing for magazines I thought to perhaps blame that. Other moments, I tell myself I'm really just primarily trying to figure out plot and my characters--how can I expect my prose to sing like poetry? But as I read aloud my pieces last week to my writer's group, I saw that it was there, finally. The writing was good.
It's not done. But it's much closer to the kind of rich writing I used to do in poems and short narrative essays. Man, is a novel ever a different kind of beast to deal with!
And that is why I can see the merits of writing, rewriting, revising and editing the beginning before getting to the end. Because I have done so, I think my yet-unwritten second half has got to be better. I've revised my way into knowing my novel enough to have a glimpse of its ending.
I've been feeling really bad that my novel still hasn't seen the end of a single draft. I've been working on it 4 years, or 6 if you count the 2 years I created the 2 short stories which eventually became the impetus for the novel. I've got maybe 60,000 words and no end in sight. I've heard again and again that i just need to get that first draft nailed down--a sketch even, so I can then later go back and fill in the details and subplots, etc. I even bought the book on how to write novel in 30 days, outlining how you do this bare bones type of draft. (I never intended to use the 30 day perimeter, but I saw the merit in doing the method)
I've had little forward momentum on the plot because I've spent a lot of time going back over my first half. (Largely exacerbated by having joined an online critique group that needs to read from the beginning, making me want to spruce up every chapter before I sent it.) Part of the reason I couldn't nail down the second half is because I simply don't have a really good handle on it. I sort of know some events and outcomes, but the few times I've tried to write ahead, I got stalled, or simply trashed it, because i didn't have great insight into my characters' emotional landscapes. I just now am realizing a lot of that is due to the fact that i didn't know my characters well enough, because I didn't write them deep enough in the beginning. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'd been avoiding one of my main characters and writing from his point of view. And I have to say, finally facing him, writing a few opening chapters form his perspective, has really grounded me in the time and place of my novel in a way I hand't yet been. With him in place, all my other characters' psyches are deepening. This work has transformed my beginning, and I'm sure, as I go about editing the middle, it'll transform that, maybe even change it significantly.
So here's to questioning well-tested advice for writers. But I do know I do eventually need to heed it--I still DO have nail down that first draft, all the way through! I'm just now maybe not going to beat myself up over the fact that I didn't do it first.
Some examples of journalism that I blamed for my bare-bones prose:
Acidity in Your Diet Linked with Weight Loss Struggle, Depression and Degenerative Disease
Antidepressants: If They Work Due to the Placebo Effect, What is The Harm in That?
Chef Jamie Oliver Versus School Lunches: Where Do The Dietary Guidelines Come From Anyway?
How to Determine If Your Child is Ready to Begin Kindergarten
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