Tag Archives: writing process

by

Ripples in the space time continuum

So, I got all my stuff together reasonably early this morning, so I got to go to the coffee shop and spend a few quality hours getting all jittered up and and writing. Except for the fact that I can hardly sit still just now, I feel good about the progress I’ve made so far. Tonight looks good to make quite a bit more progress as well. Of course, I haven’t checked my work e-mail, so all that could change.

Sometime this past week, I was thinking hard about one of my main characters, and realized the voice I’d tried to give him wasn’t working. It didn’t make for consistent reactions through different parts of the story. It took a bit more character history writing to figure out what voice would work, but I think I got there. So, my task today was to go back through and revise three or four chapters, hitting all of the spots where one of these characters appears, in order to work on giving him that new voice.

After bopping around for a while, updating dialogue, and feeling super good about myself, I hit a point where one of the characters had been written to react in exactly the opposite manner than he had done in an earlier chapter. I wouldn’t have even thought about it except that I was reviewing all of the conversations for consistency of voice, and this one was obvious. It wasn’t a major problem, I don’t think, I just went back and added a few sentences to explain the change his position on the matter, the circumstances already set it up for him to change his position anyhow. Unfortunately, this edit brought my attention to other issues of consistency. Mostly stuff about who said what and when.

Needless to say, this became an exercise in flipping around through all of the chapters to make sure everyone was reacting to situations in a consistent manner, as I progressed through the dialogue re-writing. For the most part, I was looking for instances where new information was being presented as known, or known information was being presented as new. Nothing seemed to require major changes, just a few well-placed sentences, and in a couple instances a paragraph or two. A lot of the inconsistencies appear to have come from earlier revisions where I was smoothing out dialogue so it felt more natural, and less like an information dump. Based on the issues, it appears that I had moved a bit of explanation, then removed it later because I think I thought it had been addressed somewhere else. I’m nearly to the point where I’m back to working on new material, and so it should be easier to prevent those inconsistencies.

I don’t know what the point of this post is, except that I’m making progress. I suppose this is also a note to be careful when you’re revising, even small details, because they can have a way of rippling outward in your story from the point the change was made, even if it’s a tiny change. The longer you let those go, the bigger they’re going to seem to the reader.

by

Writing before bed

The limited number of hours I get in the day to spend writing usually get tacked on the end, somewhere between 8 and 10. Which is fine, except when I get on a roll. Then, after I’m cajoled into retiring to bed with my laptop. I find myself in one of two places. The first place is where I’m just too tired to think. This is the where I am most often. Nothing for it, can’t be creative when I can’t keep my eyes open. The other thing that happens is I gain the kind of focus usually reserved for those college students cramming for an exam or putting the finishing touches on (actually doing) a project. I think about it as problem solver brain (more accurately known as being manic). I get so focused on solving a problem, I can’t rest until it’s done or I have a solution in mind that will work – I just can’t stop thinking about it.

Even though it makes for some rushed mornings and tired days, it’s this sort of manic focus that has gotten me as far as I have. No matter what is going on in my life, and there have been times when I’ve just not even been able to think about writing for weeks or months, I keep coming back to my story, and writing in general. I don’t know if this is one of the things that helps to make a good writer, but this sort of persistence is certainly going to help cross the finish line.

 

by

What the hell is it with all these note cards?

Not that long ago, I confided in a friend that I was stuck in my story. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t know what was supposed to happen, it was more a matter of how to order events or introduce more events to bridge the gap between two things. Her suggestion was to use note-cards like a story board. So, I went through and wrote down the basic subject of each chapter, sometimes splitting up the chapters according to action that could possibly be separated. Then, I wrote down action I wanted to add, and started sorting those note cards. It was a breakthrough for me. I could suddenly see how to organize things and plot a course to the end of this story.

Like anyone else, I’ve got piles of notes stashed in places all about the house. Three-ringed binders, stacks of papers, spiral notebooks and so on… Everywhere. Plus, I’ve got all of my digital notes. However, these didn’t help for the storyboard. I did try to map my story out, it just didn’t work on a static page. Even in a digital file, it didn’t work. I think this has a lot to do with all of the extra detail you can scribble on a note-card, including characters, setting elements, or information that needs to be revealed in that scene. Plus, if a chapter doesn’t seem to fit or work, I can just remove it from the story board and set it aside – perhaps it might belong elsewhere.

Since that helped me better understand my plot, I figured why not apply that to other stuff. Now I also have a stack of note-cards with basic details about each character and place. This way, when I’m writing about a character I can just quickly refer to the cards instead of trying to remember where in the digital notes I might have put that stuff, or sift back through earlier chapters. So, that’s what’s with the note cards, and it’s working very well, thank you.