Tag Archives: writing process

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It’s not working

The last couple of days, I’ve been plugging away at a chapter near the end of my current story. (No I’m not nearly that far yet, but I’m trying to give myself a road map so I stay on track and make sure I’m laying the foundation for the end I want.) After burning a couple of hours on it last night, I reached the conclusion it’s not working. The dialogue feels forced, it’s hard as hell to write and I can’t seem to transition from one part of the action to the next. Even though it’s not narrator heavy, it may as well be. In the same way you end up with problems when there aren’t enough characters to drive the action and dialogue, too many characters can result in having too much information come all at once. I should call the problem by it by it’s real name The dreaded information dump (sometimes these are necessary and, if done well, good).

Once again, I think back to my work-shopping days and how I was frequently told that I had an information dump problem, and I’m dead certain I told people that as well. It’s an excellent thing to help someone find, but saying “you have an information dump here” isn’t particularly helpful. From the reader’s perspective it’s an easy thing to identify. I feel like it can be harder to see from this side of the page. Even harder yet is finding a way to eliminate the problem, or find a way for it to work. In the situation I’m working through now, the solution is to simply break up the conversation. I’m going to remove a character or two from the problematic scene, and have them go away before bringing in the characters I had to remove. In this way, the dialogue will be split up according to the relevant character instead of trying to work it in naturally, after the fashion of a real conversation with a bunch of people.

 

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Is this thing done?

Not my story, I’m still drafting big pieces of it. I was just thinking about this because I just read a blog post from Patricia C. Wrede (http://pcwrede.com/writing-is-like-weather/). A point she seems to make in there is: Don’t sweat the small stuff. I like it, but made me question part of my process. I often go back to previous chapters to make sure characters and events are consistent. Often, when I do this, I revise what I’ve got there, sometimes dramatically. So, how do I know that it’s good enough for now? Well, I have no idea. The answer to the question is this thing done? for me, and I expect most writers, is NO. That applies to each sentence, paragraph, and chapter.

I try not to focus on looking for problems or things that don’t work so well, unless I’m making a specific effort to revise based on feedback or changes I’ve made to the story. This seems to work fairly well. If the prose is bad, I’ll be forced to stop and fix things as I go along. Occasionally, I’ll find myself being drawn into my own story, as if it were a favourite read rather than something I’m actively working on. These are the rare points where I decide it’s ‘good enough.’ It doesn’t mean that I’m calling it done, just that it’s good enough for now, and I can think about on other stuff.

I think the point of this rubber-ducking exercise is to remind myself to focus on the big picture right now. I can always go back and fix the technical bits of my story whenever, and as many times as I like.

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The end is in sight

The actual end is not in sight, but I can see how to get there now. I’ve still got 5-6 chapters do draft from scratch before I land at a point where the action resolves for this story and sets up for the second part of the story (this project is planned to be a multi-part series, I’ve got a chapter 1 drafted already for the next part).

I spent the last two writing days (maybe 5 hours total?) re-working a few chapters that have been drafted for a long while and haven’t undergone significant revision yet. The last of these chapters was split into two, it should have been that way from the beginning, and that second half now needs to be almost completely re-done, and possibly split into a 3rd chapter. When I went to bed last night I put myself in the shoes of the main character, trying to figure out what to do. Needless to say, it took forever to fall asleep, and now I don’t remember half of what I’d come up with. On the bright side, I remember a few of the key elements I was thinking about, which will go on my story-line note cards, as soon as I remember where I stuck them. What I mostly remember though is that the last of those scenes could make for an intense fight. So, all I’ve got to do is get my characters to that point, and from this vantage it seems almost easy, except for the part where I’ve got to dredge up time to focus on it. Of course, then comes the hard part – revision and polishing.