Author: Danielle

Planning a Novel with Post-Its!

Writing

As I said in an earlier post, I tend to get images of major scenes, and then I sort of write my way towards them, picking up other ideas and threads as I go.  Right now I’m organizing everything through the magic of Post-It notes!

ImageThey’re just inside a cabinet door in my room.  The blue ones are scenes I know for certain will happen–and in what order–while green are scene ideas that haven’t indicated when they’ll occur.  Or if.

I like this set-up because I can move ’em around, rewrite, or ‘lock in’ scenes whenever.  On the downside, they occasionally fall off and get crumpled when I’m getting my pajamas out.

“One person’s mess is merely another person’s filing system.”  –Margo Kaufman

The Wall – Part 3 (Or: The Dream)

Writing

In our last episode, I discovered that now that I’d said goodbye to the novel ending I’d imagined for ages, new ideas and scenelettes were popping up, and I now had a recipe for a satisfying ending.

But I still had no idea how to get to that ending from my current state.  I kept writing anyway.

Then, one day, I had a dream.

I’m no hippie, but I do believe that the unconscious mind wants to help you out and sends up dreams to help your waking mind access insights that’d otherwise remain buried.  Also, I rarely dream about my own characters.  I can count the number of times they’ve shown up on one hand–and they’re usually cameo appearances.  So when I had this full-length dream that was nothing but my own characters, I took notice.

Instead of rolling over and forgetting the dream, I dragged my dream binder out from under my bed and jotted down the dream as best I remembered it.  (Then I went back to sleep.)

When I got up in the morning, I re-read the dream.  The strangest thing was that this newcomer character had the starring role in the dream–but he seemed to be taking the place of my protagonist!  Though he looked like himself, the other characters treated him like my lead.  And the way he reacted to the different places he traveled to sounded like my lead character talking.  In the end, this character actually met my protagonist in-dream, and he was acting differently!  That was an interesting conversation!

I thought about it a while, then realized: if I, in my novel, had my protagonist do the things and have the reactions I saw the newcomer have in this dream, there was a pattern here which, applied to the novel, could get me to the ending.  Not only that, but it something I’d never thought of before–in fact, it was the exact opposite route I was planning on taking.  But the more I reviewed the dream, the more I realized–yes, this could work!

So that’s the path I’m at now.  After reaching the end of my last map, I have suddenly been handed a second, and it looks like I know the way to the end!  Hallelujah.

“Name the greatest of all inventors.  Accident.”  –Mark Twain

Danger: Artist Experimenting

Music

Today I will attempt to create the mashup that’s been floating around in my head for ages:

Hawai’i ’78, by Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’ole (Just the “Reprise” version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzy5quOw-Bc

Somewhere, from WEST SIDE STORY (guess I’m using Barbra’s version!)

with just a pinch of MJ, for a bridge (the 1:56 section)

It works out well on the piano!  We’ll see if Audacity has the chops to do what I need… :P!  Can’t hurt to try, tho!

The Wall – Part 2

Writing

In our last episode, I had written a farewell to the ending SCVK would never have.  Afterwards it seemed natural for me to start wondering, on paper, how it would all end.  Wondering on paper led to my making tiny notes.  Conceits began falling into place: my character’s main conflict was X, and it looked like choices W, Y, and Z would have to happen to resolve it to my satisfaction.

For fun, I began thinking a little more about the story’s structure.  I’d already given the first few major sections names.  Now that the Lanakila Camp milestone had passed, I knew I was moving into a new section, and that the section after that would have to be the end.  I made a little list in my notebook:

  1. Emergence
  2. Line
  3. Going Underground
  4. Buried
  5. ???
  6. Rest

5 being the part I was actively working on.  Seeing the sections laid out like this, I decided, when the time comes for editing, that I should see if parts 1 and 2 could be combined.  I’ve always hated the name “Line” for segment 2  (I mean…What??) and FILM CRIT HULK convinced me that 5 might be the magic number for story structure segments.

* * *

When I’m not writing, I have a tendency to think nebulously about scenes that are “down the road” apiece. Now that I didn’t have the old ending hanging around my neck, I found new scene ideas floating into my head.  There was no rhyme or reason to their order, but the images were clear and they seemed to be growing out of scenes I had written or was currently writing.  For me, this is a good sign to me that they’d probably show up to be written later on.

When I was writing, I found that the scenes I was currently feeling my way through contained the seeds for future mischief.  For example, The newest member of the cast–one I’d envisioned many years (like the deleted family) but who hadn’t yet shown up in-scene–came onstage.  At first, I’m like, “WHO IS THIS GUY?”  I was so used to envisioning him at the peak of his career, I didn’t know where he had come from!  Now I was meeting him at the beginning.  I scribbled away, hoping his background and idiosyncrasies would become evident.  Instead of showing me his history, though, he began displaying some concerning symptoms.

Little did I know this character and his problem would show me the path to SCVK’s new ending.

“May the bridges I burn light the way.” –Dylan McKay

The Wall – Part 1

Writing

I am not 100% a “pantser” nor a “planner”–I’m more of a “road trip writer.”  I know the general direction I’m heading and some major landmarks along the way, but I’m not picky about how I get to the landmarks: I let the characters do their thing and I end up seeing some pretty spiffy side-jaunts, and we end up where we need to go.

Recently I hit the last big landmark, a massacre at Lanakila Camp (for years it was called “Litlen.”  One of my major characters also got a name-change midgame, from Marzu Makza to Marzu Mākaha, because I want POLYNESIA IN SPACE durnit!!).  After the massacre, I knew my protagonist would date a gal, get married and start leading his double-life with a family in tow.

Only one problem: the family wasn’t showing up.  And except for a name-drop a hundred pages ago, the date wasn’t showing up either.

For many years, I knew Lanakila Camp was my last big scene, and I didn’t have any solid landmarks after that.  I knew afterwards, this family thing would happen (I had bios and names and occupations for all the kids; I’d fleshed out different scenarios with these characters every night in my head while waiting for sleep to arrive) and I figured from there, the novel’d guide me.

It was extremely strange, realizing that this entire time, while I thought I was preparing for the second half of my novel, I’d basically been envisioning fanfic of it for the past few years.

Hunh, I thought to myself.  There was no way I could shoehorn a family in.  And I wasn’t feeling it anyway (I refuse to force things into my stories…they’re either there–usually extremely there, with making up mind-melting explanations as I hang on for dear life–or they’re not.)

Unsure how to cope, I did what any self-respecting writer would do: I wrote about it.  I wrote out all my fears about no longer having a clear direction to follow, about how, if I was honest, it was true, his wife had never had a character that gripped me.  I talked about how this made sense–my cast had grown to a point where it couldn’t sustain another five major characters…but also had enough different personalities to work interesting things with.  Plus, I realized, the story really got cookin’ when things were focused around my two leads–adding a third lead would just dilute the impact of that relationship.

Writing all this helped me let go of that alternate universe that I thought was going to be canon.  I typed out the aftermath of Lanakila Camp and reminded myself that if I showed up, the writing would show me what it wanted to do.

“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. ”  — Coco Chanel

Busy Writing

Writing
I just filled up a 95-page notebook in one month!! All but 5 pages of it is my novel!  8D That is a record for me!
 
My journey writing SCVK has taken some interesting turns since I last posted; I’ll try to set them down here for future reference.
 
“I haven’t had the time to plan returning to the scene because I haven’t left it.”
–Mick Jagger

 

A Toolbox for Prosesmiths and Poets alike!

Muse at 11, Writing

While trolling through the library, I stumbled upon a book which bears the world’s wittiest cover:

The Poetry Home Repair Manual, by Ted Kooser
It was a fantastic find that I want to share with you all.

I dabble in poetry, but have never really sat down and made a serious study of it.  Mr. Kooser does a fantastic job of describing how poems are different than prose and what makes some poems stronger than others.  He uses tons of readable examples, stays conversational throughout,  and the chapters are really short.

Even if you poetry’s not your thing, it’s still worth a read.  The chapters “Working with Details” and “Fine-Tuning Metaphors and Similes” opened my eyes to the mechanics that go into setting a scene’s atmosphere.  I’ve already seen a difference in how I approach scenery and emotional details, and I think it’s making my work stronger.

Reading this book is like chatting with your kindly grandpa if your kindly grandpa was also the Poet Laureate of the United States.  Grab it!

“[T]he word sentimentality, so difficult to define, is the death ray in the literary critic’s arsenal of weapons.  Once a critic deploys it, entire books of poetry can be summarily vaporized.”

–Ted Kooser, The Poetry Home Repair Manual

Thoughtful Links for Writers and Artists

Muse at 11

I’ve been accumulating some nice artsy links, so I thought I’d share them with ya.

First, a nice lady at Pixar posted some story “rules” that will get you thinkin’! (I really don’t like to think of proffered writing advice as RULES…because every piece requires something different, but that’s what the post’s titled.)

http://dimespin.tumblr.com/post/24841702614/pixar-story-rules

Second, if you’re not reading FILM CRIT HULK, you probably should be!  He not only offers some practical writing tips, but also analyses of various movies and such that are all focused around “Does the narrative work?” (Note: some cursing at times.)

http://filmcrithulk.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/the-complete-film-crit-hulk-archive/

Third: ever have those days where your work is just NOT GOOD ENOUGH?  There’s an encouraging post for that!  (This is one I’ll have to re-read myself from time to time.)

http://emmyc.tumblr.com/post/24779890783/not-good-enough

And finally, just for fun…PROMETHEUS in 15 Minutes. Wonderful send-up, you needn’t’ve even seen the film before (I hadn’t!).

http://m15m.livejournal.com/23209.html

Do you have any helpful artsy links you’ve run into recently?  Post ’em below!

Why You Need A Writing Buddy

Muse at 11, Writing

You don’t need a writing group.  (That is my personal opinion and I will explain myself later.)

But you do need an awesome writing buddy so that, when you realize your novel (which you originally thought would be this pleasant 200-page YA book) has hit 501 pages and shows no sign of stopping, you can have amazing chat conversations like the following:

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