Save What You Wrote: Teenagers

I’m pretty sure my neighbors yesterday thought I had gone crazy, I was laughing so hard. For fun, I pulled out my old drafts to read. I had realized that my characters were acting entirely too serious. They weren’t like teenagers anymore, so I decided to read the drafts I wrote when I was actually around teenage boys regularly. I about laughed my head off. All of my character’s friends teased him so badly! They were so mean, but that is how teenagers are. I laughed until I cried.

I also enjoyed how my characters morph. Here’s another favorite cut line from the original draft: “Autographs after the show, boys, please,” from an overconfident, large boned, stunt performer at SeaWorld. That character morphed into a girl less than five feet tall who speaks in a timid yet refined British accent. How did that happen?

I about died reading the scene when three of the characters sneak the health nut’s low-fat ice cream from his padlocked freezer (a padlocked freezer???). I think I have some reworking to do. My characters should be teenagers and carefree. They can get serious after they go into battle.

This is a lesson in save what you wrote. If you don’t save the things you write, how can you go back and remember what being a certain age or at a certain place of life is like? I need to pull out my teenage journals, too. Don’t worry, they’re mostly fictional. :-)

Happy Writing!

Place Holders

Sometimes, we can get on a roll with writing, work up a momentum. Stopping to look up a particular word or to write a detailed description can interrupt the momentum for me. So I use place holders. For words I am unsure of, I use underlining with a ?.

Since I’m on a draft 542 (it feels like) of my work in progress, some things I have already described. Five hundred and forty-two times. After all of that, I did not want to describe the military base one more time. In typing my rough draft last week, I came across this place holder that made me smile: (in the margins) “insert description from another draft” (in the body) “He ascended the front steps and opened the great doors. (mess of cubicles, soldiers bustling about).”

I think I’ve mentioned before the placeholder for the description I just was not in the mood to write: “She had her first real view of the city. It was very large.”

:-) So don’t be afraid to stick in place holders when you need to go back over something or don’t want to interrupt your momentum.

One word of advice: be consistent. In one draft, I used an * for everything I had a question about or needed to go back over. When I was in revision mode, I just did a ‘find’ option with my word processor. For my current draft, I’ve been using (?). I just search for ‘?)’ and find all of my questions!

Another example:
“Before he could answer, the door opened and three soldiers came out.
(description of commander)
ruddy beard, well-built and muscled (in spite of age?) air of authority”

Happy Writing!

You Can’t Have Five Characters All Be the Same. Sorry.

I have a problem. All my commanding officers seem to be the same. The squad leader and the company commander, I realized, act almost the exact same way. They have this firm but genuine air. They don’t let people get away with things, but they care. They even look the same! Tall, thin, light hair. Hmm. This could be a problem.

Especially in basic training. I know my military isn’t as tough as our real military, but still, I think it needs to be tougher. For a little while, I was daunted. That almost gentle kind of CO seemed to be the only kind I knew how to write. But then, I remembered the drill sergeant from an earlier draft. Ta da! So, I resurrected him, and I’m really pleased. The problem I have now is keeping gruff drill sergeant different from unreasonably harsh disciplinarian commander.

Here’s an idea! Try putting a completely different character into a scene you already and see what happens. What happens if you add a tough drill sergeant in place of an encouraging mentor? What happens if the rowdy class clown is replaced by a mime or the meek accountant vanishes while a rough and tough cowboy appears?

Happy writing!

The Inbetween Scenes

It’s funny how things go not all the way I intended.

All of my main climatic scenes, I plan out in my head weeks, months, even years before they ever make it to the page. I love writing those scenes. However, some of the most fun I have in writing is when I write the in-between scenes and have no idea what is going to happen next.

Last week, I sent my MC to boot camp. The first night, he paused to talk with a friend. I didn’t realize that would make him late to dinner. I didn’t realize he would get in trouble for being late. I didn’t know the drill sergeant would make him stand in front of the entire mess hall like a bad elementary school kid and watch while everyone else ate.

I didn’t know he would be sent to the CO’s office.

I love it when things work out. :-)

Character Arc

I have finally discovered what is the main difficulty with Epic Novel Part One. Did I mention this is the messiest draft I have ever written? I was reading back through it this morning, trying to get the draft to a point where I can have someone critique it. I was tempted to start rearranging scenes again. Why can’t I get this right?

Suddenly, it hit me: I’m having problems because my character is underdeveloped. He is the one who is messy. I have a basic idea of how his growth manifests, but the details are fuzzy. Before I can get this draft to the point it needs to be, I have to get my MC to where he needs to be. I have a tendency to get my characters’ points of growth confused or mixed up.

If I had my lecture notes and writing books with me (I’m out of town), I would spend some time flipping through to refresh my memory on character arc. That will have to wait until I get home, so I don’t have much insight in how to fix this problem. One thing I do know: before I can write this draft the way it needs to be written, I must answer a few questions.

• What is my character’s desire line for this particular section of the story?
• What is point ‘A’, what is point ‘B’, and what does the journey between them look like?
• What are the details of this journey--does MC have different friends than I thought he did?
• How do I flesh out that journey in scenes?

I’ll let you know once I’ve made some progress.

Outlines

This time I have a very good reason for being MIA: The week before Christmas, I moved into more permanent housing and have yet to set up any Internet. In addition, I have no way of getting around town, so my trips to cafes are few. I will attempt to get some blog posts written and scheduled, though, to slake your constant thirst for my witty words on writing. :-)

Today’s theme? Outlines.

I have never been much of an outliner, but I’m finding it somewhat necessary with this draft. This is positively the downright messiest draft I have ever written. I keep grabbing scenes and moving them. And then moving them again. I can’t decide in what sequence the scenes should take place.

The day before yesterday, I was really getting confused, so I copied all of my scenes to a new document and saved as “Outline.” I then proceeded to delete each scene, replacing it with a two to three sentence summary. I’m a visual person and need to be able to see everything. With the scenes shortened thus, I can view more of them at once and get a better idea of how to arrange them. If I have my printer set-up (still unpacking), I would print this list of scenes out, cut each scene onto its own strip of paper, and feel free to rearrange to my heart’s desire.

My second-semester English professor my freshman year of college had me do that with a research paper: cut out each paragraph and rearrange logically. I was amazed at the new clarity of my paper.

Hopefully, this little tidbit will help you in your writing, too!

A Little Weekend Fun

Time for a little amusement. Some writers throw out their first draft and completely start over with their second draft. I do not recommend throwing away your writing. Ever. For practical reasons, I often realize a scene I had cut out after the first draft actually does belong or that I've gotten away from a character's personality. If I'd thrown out my first draft, I wouldn't have that information anymore.

For a purely entertaining reason, I love going back and rereading what I wrote. Especially some of the things I wrote in highschool. I make myself laugh so hard.

Yesterday, I decided to look at my highschool draft of Book One to see how I introduced my MC's mentor. Well, his mentor was apparently quite gruff in that early draft. At one point, he sits the MC down and tells him how he has two options. He waxes eloquent on how either option will be extraordinarily difficult and ends with this sentence:

"Eventually you will become so disgusted with yourself and everyone around you that you will sink into a fathomless pit of self pity and loathing, wondering each day why you cannot simply die and be done with it."

Wow! I think I'd get a new mentor. . . . ;-)

Daunted by Book One

I’m really excited about writing Book One of The Epic Novel.

So why can’t I start?

All my characters’ motivations are becoming clearer and clearer, the plot is falling nicely into place. Things that didn’t make sense before suddenly make sense. If writing this story is so exciting, why can’t I put pencil to paper?

I think I still have a bad taste in my mouth from six years and twelve drafts ago. I’ve already written this book. Five times. One time, I actually finished it. I’ve already introduced all the characters, written the battle scenes, and cried at the death scenes. I don’t want to do it again.

But I have learned so much about writing in those six years. Whatever I write now will be miles better than those earlier drafts.

Another problem: where to start. I can’t decide which incident is the inciting one. The decleration of war? The trip to another country? The raid? The revelation that the main character is a valuable weapon? The introduction of a mysterious figure? Or is it the highschool graduation from Drafts 10-12? (that seems doubtful).

I think I’ll start in the middle and write the beginning later. I don’t usually do that, but it seems necessary at this point. (I sigh deeply.) Well, if writing Book Two took only a year, then writing Book One can’t be all bad. I just have to buckle down and do it.

Anne M.

How many times have I said I would be consistent in updating this blog? Well, at least I'm consistently inconsistent. Let's see if I can actually do it, this time. I already had been thinking I need to update my blog frequently when I came across a series of posts by my friend Janet Fox. She has three very informative posts on marketing your book and branding yourself as a writer: "Marketing and Publicity for Authors," Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

One reason for my sudden motivation is that I actually see an end in sight. When I first embarked on Epic Novel, I had no idea it would become my favorite project. As I continued to work on it, I wondered if I would wind up taking 14 years, as Tolkien did with Lord of the Rings (not that I'm comparing my story or writing to Tolkien--just the length of time writing the manuscript). After 11 years, 14 years doesn't seem so long. However, I have actually completed the rough draft of Book 2. Yay!

This draft took me about 10-11 months to complete. When I realized that I actually wrote an entire draft of a novel in less than a year, I realized that pursuit of publication may actually be 3-5 years down the road rather than 10-15. Therefore, I should start thinking more seriously about my web presence and my writerly connections.

Now that I have a complete draft, I am mentally organized enough to join a writer's group. Yes, yes, I know, I should have joined one long before now. Just trust me that I know myself, and I would not have functioned well in a writer's group until I had organized my own mind.

Aside from looking for a critique group and other writers with whom to converse, I am currently revising Book 2. The characters are finally growing in the correct order. They kept arguing about things they had already worked out, and they kept being angry for no reason. I'm excited with how the motivations and growth are sorting themselves out. I also have been able to cut numerous extraneous scenes. I love getting to the point in revision when, for the good of the story, I can cut something with which I was once in love.

I am also trying to read more blogs. I enjoyed this recent post on theme by Gail Carson Levine.

And for now, that is all. Today is my one day off this week, and having spent the morning on necessary errands, I shall now devote the afternoon to more revision.

Write on!

Draft Eleven of the Epic Novel

Six years ago, I completed Draft 11 of Book 1 of the Epic Novel. After five years and eleven drafts, I was so sick of that story, I wanted to throw it out the window. I put it away before I'd even finished typing the draft. This spring, when I began working on the Epic Novel once more, I went straight to Book 2, knowing I need to figure out the rest of the story before I can redraft Book 1.

A few weeks ago, I had the sudden urge to reread that old Draft 11. The draft was horrible--I mean, very, very rough. I made myself laugh with all of my "He tilted his head quizzically" and "He raised his eyebrows skeptically." The text was all floating dialogue and action. Very little description or character development. Many scenes did not need to be included. They did not move the plot forward or reveal character. Even I became confused with the plethora of characters, and I had created them all. When I thought about it, I immediately counted eight extraneous characters. So, not my best work.

At the same time, I wrote the draft before I had ever had any formal instruction in creative writing. I could tell when I had taken Comp II at college because the writing drastically improved at that point. The draft wasn't great, but it was a rough draft, and one I needed to write to explore the story.

The more I read, the more I became amazed with this story. The story is there, the characters are there. They just need work. I know I have to make some tough decisions: which characters do I cut? Which ones really are unnecessary, as much as I love them? How much of the characters' complicated back-stories is necessary for the reader to understand motivation, and how much is just too much?

I'm excited. I have already learned so much from this story. Someday, I'll finish it, and I hope that others learn as much from it as I have.
Anne M.