Procrastinating

I have done precisely zero work since my last post.  I`d like to think I`m `composting` and just sort of letting my thoughts sit on the work that I`ve done, fleshing things out in my head before I do more planning.  But that`s not the case.  I know it`s not.  Really I`m just lazy and would prefer to lay in bed with a glass of lemon water and read Teen Wolf fanfiction than actually do work.  I`m aware that this is work I would actually enjoy doing, but that doesn`t change the fact that I`m inherently lazy.

In an attempt to feel like I`m working on stuff, I`ve been on the NaNo forums, trying to help others and check out adoption lists for things that might spark my creativity a little more.  So far I haven`t got much, but apparently someone`s been stalking me:
(Adopt a Character Trait/Quirk)

Talks to dogs before talking to their owners

Will put anything in their mouth when they're thinking: pens, fingernails, jewelry, hair, lanyards, etc.

Is that person who when watching something talks about how they recognize that one actor from somewhere and doesn't stop until they can look them up

Needs to leave an extra toothbrush anywhere they spend a lot of time (their workplace, a friend's house, a significant other's place)

Frequently misses their stop on the bus/subway because they get too absorbed in a book/listening to music

Has a surprisingly detailed and specific zombie apocalypse plan

Has a favorite color of M+Ms, insists that it tastes better than the other colors

Barring the toothbrush thing (I usually just have my travel one close at hand) and the missing the bus stop (it happened a couple times and now I`m paranoid so I pay very close attention to the stops), I do all of these things.  It`s creepy. 

Next week I`ll be stuck at work without lessons to teach, and I`m prepared for the first couple lessons of all of my classes, so I should have some free time and less staff members in the staff room to potentially see that I`m not working on work.  Maybe I`ll figure out my scene list then.

In a World...

I`m throwing Step 7 of the snowflake method out the window for the most part as well.  I`ll take some time to figure out what my characters actually look like, their birthdates, and other inane statistics that make up people, but for the most part, I think I fleshed them out fairly well back in Step 5 (my half-to-full-page synopses became at-least-two-and-a-half-page synopses).

Since this is fantasy work, I need to take more time to actually build my world.  This isn`t something Randy`s process seems to deal with, but it`s kind of crucial if you`re not setting something in a real place.  My plan is to work in the following way:

1. Make a list of major towns/cities/buildings where you know a lot of action is going to occur.

2. For important buildings, write a descriptive paragraph for the exterior and interior.  If specific rooms within that building are important, a paragraph for each of those rooms is also important.

3. For towns and cities, write a paragraph about the history of the place, and another paragraph describing the overall feel and look of the place.

4. Draw maps.  This has been my downfall before, because I get frustrated with the map, and then end up abandoning the project altogether.  But it`s going to help when your main character is racing through the streets trying to shake off pursuers and you actually understand the route they`re taking.  Even if it`s as basic and blocky as the original The Legend of Zelda map, have something to help you plan.

5. Find images that sort of fit what you`ve described, so you have something to reference when you need a spark of inspiration, or information on some tiny detail that you didn`t bother with in the previous steps.

6. What`s going on in your world socially?  What`s the hierarchy/class system like?  Governing body?

7. How does time pass in your world?  With this particular project, I`m trying to determine whether using the modern calendar is too jarring for my world, if I can use an older version of our calendar, or if I have to make up another calendar system entirely.

8. What`s the climate like?  That blob you drew on a piece of paper with all the major cities is great, but where does that fit in the greater scheme of your world?  Is it in the North and super-cold?  Is it a desert?  Do you even have North and South, or are you creating another Discworld?

Planting the Plot

Welcome to Step 6!  This is proving gruelling for me.  According to the snowflake method, this is where I grow my one-page story synopsis into a page-for-each-paragraph-of-that-synopsis synopsis.  But my mind is panicking because it thinks we`re about to start actually writing the novel (we`re not even close to that point yet), and that blank document is the scariest thing I`ve ever seen in my life.

Things I Tried
1. Copying and pasting the paragraph to be expanded into the new document, so I can see what I`m working with and then delete it when I`m done.  Usefulness rating: 0.  I just keep staring at the thing, going `Okay, now what?`

2. Looking at the character synopses for each character for these points in the story.  Usefulness rating: 2?  This would probably be more helpful if I could have them all laid out in front of me in hard copy and the blank Word document up on the screen, but I`d really rather not draw that kind of attention to myself at work, where I should be working, and I can`t really justify digging into the school`s paper budget like that.  Plus I don`t know where this default printer is.  Or any of the printers on my list.  I know there are printers in the staff room, of course; I can see that.  But I don`t know which ones they are.

3. Abandoning it for a while and then coming back to it with a fresh mind.  Usefulness rating: -1000.  This is the worst thing I could possibly try.  For one thing, I`ve already been working on this all day today, so my mind is in the novel zone (even if I can`t get it to actually produce anything) and I can`t concentrate on anything else.  For another, I have nothing else to work on anyway.  Thirdly, I`m paranoid about leaving it and then never coming back, the way I`ve done with all my failed novel attempts before this.  I seem to have commitment issues, and I don`t want to set myself down the path to forgetting I ever tried this.  This might work better if it was more of a physical abandonment than mental, but I can`t exactly get up and go for a run in the middle of the workday.

4. Googling to find out what other authors who use this method are doing.  Usefulness rating: Possibly higher than anything else I`ve tried.  Richard Denning talks about how he basically combines Steps 6 and 8.  Carol Garvin talks about revising the snowflake method into a star to help her creativity.

Yep, I think I`m going to abandon Step 6.  I like the way Carol Garvin likens this method to more of a daisy than a snowflake, constantly going back to the middle.  I wrote way more than what was needed back in Step 5, and I think that`s part of my problem.  I developed so much of the story in my character synopses that I have no reason to rehash it in yet another synopsis.  So if your characters aren`t telling you much you might need this step, but mine are Chatty Cathies, so I`m considering myself ready to move ahead.  We`ll see in a few weeks whether or not that was even remotely a good idea.

Working Out Character Lives

As I said in my post yesterday, I`m working on Step 5 of Randy Ingermanson`s snowflake method of novel writing.  Developing these character voices and going through the story from their points of view is a lot of fun, and I`m really enjoying it, but I keep getting stuck.  But I`m not getting stuck on major plot points (that wouldn`t really make sense when I`m essentially telling the same story over and over again).  My issue is time.

Randy`s method works well, I think, if you`re writing a fairly contained story, chronologically speaking.  If pretty much everything happens within the space of a few days, weeks, or months, you`re probably good to keep rolling (I will admit that I`ve never read his books, so I don`t actually know if this is the case.  It`s probably not the case, and I`m just being complicated).  However, I`m writing a fairy tale of the princess variety.  Nine times out of ten, this involves following the princess from her early days through to the actual story in some way.  So my problem is remembering where events fall on the chain.  Step 7 deals with some of this, as you develop a character`s history, birthdate, etc, but what happens when you`re working on Step 5, writing the story from your princess`s point of view, and you can`t remember how old she was when her parent(s) died?  (It`s a fairy tale.  If she has any family at all, she`s only allowed one parent.  It`s a rule.)

I realize this shouldn`t be as big a deal as I`m making it out to be, but despite my overactive imagination, I actually have a very logical mind, and these kinds of things are important to me.  So I think it`s very helpful to me to lay out a timeline for the whole story. 

Important: This is not to be confused with or substituted for Step 8 of the snowflake method.  Step 8 is so much more detailed than what I need to be working with right now, as it`s basically a chapter index. 

I don`t need to know every incident I will write about.  I want the timeline for my story as it would appear in a history textbook.  If my story centers on a war, I need to plot the major points of that war (when it begins, important battles, when it ends).  Then I need to figure out where my characters`s lives fall along those events.  When did the Capulet/Montague feud begin?  At what point along that line were Romeo and Juliet born?  In the traditional Beauty and the Beast story, when were each of the sisters born?  How old were they when their father lost his wealth?

Again, these details might not seem important to every person, but I find them extremely helpful.  If you were writing the character synopsis from Beauty`s point of view and you decide she was fourteen years old when her father`s wealth is lost, that`s great, but when you`re telling the story from a sister`s perspective, she`s not going to relate the story in terms of Beauty`s age, she`s going to tell it in terms of her own.  You may also discover by plotting this way that you`ve left yourself some pretty huge gaps between major events, and you have to evaluate whether you think you can realistically fill that time, dismiss that time, or if maybe you have to change your character`s ages or your country`s history a bit.  If Donkeyskin escaped her father at, say, fourteen, and your plan is to have her marry the prince and live happily ever after at twenty-one, can you conceivably fill seven years of Donkeyskin`s life with running and servitude?  Don`t worry about scribbling down everything that happens, though; just think seriously about it.  If you can, that`s awesome!  If you don`t think you can, though, you might want to shave a few years off somewhere, and that might change how your character views the world.  Donkeyskin is going to have different experiences and worldviews at fourteen than she is if you up her age to eighteen.

So endeth the lesson.

Documenting the Writing Process

Well, here I am, starting work on my first novel.  ....Perhaps that`s a bit inaccurate.  My hard drive and ten-pound collection of notebooks say otherwise.  So let`s rephrase that: Here I am, starting work on the first novel I might have a chance at actually finishing.  That`s better. 

Now let`s tackle the question many of you are probably asking right now: Why are you writing about writing?!  Isn`t that tiring, not to mention way too meta?  Plus, you`re not successful.  You haven`t been published or anything.  Why does it matter what you do? 
1. Shut up, Pessimist!Mel.  We might be someday.
2. I`ll want to know what worked or didn`t work this time around when I start writing my next novel.  Writing is an extremely lengthy process, so by the time I get to the end, there`s a very real chance that the details about my work at the beginning will be kind of hazy.  Documenting will help my memory, and streamline my processes.
3. I`m working on this in a teacher`s office in Japan, my English supervisor is on vacation, I don`t speak Japanese, and I don`t have a way to talk to anyone back home who might actually be awake at 1AM their time anyway.  Writing to a potential audience makes me seem marginally less crazy than writing out conversations with myself in a notebook (and yes, that has happened today).

Is that enough housekeeping?  Are you sitting comfortably?  Then we`ll begin.

In the past, I`ve tried jumping straight into writing a novel when the idea struck me, and that didn`t work.  Ditto the excessive research notes (I just get caught up in the research and never actually get anything done with it), notebooks full of pointform plotting notes, writing in the dark while sipping a glass of pinot noir (don`t ask), or anything else I`ve forgotten that I`ve done over the years.  (Maps!  Drawing maps was also unhelpful.)  This time around, I`m working with Randy Ingermanson`s snowflake method of writing.  So far, so good.  I`m currently working on Step 5, which seems to be equal parts frantic typing, frantic scrolling through work on the previous steps every time you change or have forgotten something, and staring blankly at the screen while you listen to the voices in your head tell you their story.  (Sane writers only happen in nonfiction.)

Step 1 was ridiculously easy for me, because I`ve been chewing on this story idea for a little more than a year now, so I had a pretty good idea what it was about.  But it`s still helpful, as Randy suggests, to take a look at the sentences on the NYT Bestseller list to really get a feel for what you`re writing.  Some of these sentences are indeed horrible, but it`s not true that you only learn from good things; sometimes you learn better from a solid example of what not to do than ten examples of what to do.  Anyway.  So I got my sentence written out, and I`m ready to move on!  (My sentence is sixteen words, but I`m a rebel and don`t care.)

Step 2 is sort of the point where I would always falter, whether I was actually planning what I was doing or not.  I had this fabulous over-arcing idea for my novel that I set out in Step 1, I knew how I wanted the story to start, I knew how it ended, but the middle (you know, the actual story bit, where everything happens and people develop and stuff) was a complete void.  Spend a lot of time on this step, because this foundation is so, so, so important!  Luckily, this time I`m working with a fractured fairy tale kind of thing, so I had some pre-existing plot points to work with, and I was able to twist them into the disasters I needed.

Step 3 is also really hard.  Naming people sucks.  I don`t have kids, but I would imagine that naming kids is a whole lot easier than naming fully-formed (or even partially-formed) characters.  You already know this kid`s entire background, and their personality is pretty much a blank slate at this point.  Unless you`re writing what could possibly be both the weirdest and most intriguing novel ever, in which every character is a newborn with blank-slate personalities, you have to come up with names for people who don`t necessarily have a full background yet, but you`re aware of some of their personality at the very least, and you have an idea of what they look like, so their name should suit that as well.  Plus there are other levels to consider: Is the character based on someone, and you want to play with their name?  Is this a `high fantasy` novel full of strange new cultures and customs? (If so, just keep dropping your cat on the keyboard and capitalizing the results.)  Are the meanings of names important to you?  Yet another complication at this stage is defining the goals, motivation, and conflict for your characters, especially if you`re like me and having a hard time figuring out the difference between goal and motivation the way Randy explains it.  Susan Dennard does a great job breaking it down with relatable examples. 

Step 4 is kind of a breeze, because everything you need for it has already entered your mind while you were working on the previous steps.  Bear in mind that this is still just a skeleton.

And that brings us to where I am in Step 5.  I started out writing the synopsis for my main character first (makes sense, right?).  I tried writing it in the same narrative style I`m likely to use when I actually write it, but that was a horrible idea and I kept getting stuck, not to mention my verb tenses were all over the place.  So I thought about it like this: you`re conducting some kind of interview with your character and preparing the report.  The character synopsis should be in the first person, in the character`s voice, and follow the story from a natural starting point through to the conclusion.  So much better.  Now, the main character one is easy, because that`s the character you`ve been thinking about the most. You know most of the larger details of that story already.  The problem comes when you`re working on the other characters, and you realize that there`s no meaning behind something,  you don`t know why something else is occurring, and you need a plot point to happen but don`t know how to trigger it.  This is where the writing out conversations with myself happened.  I would normally consider a family member or close friend (preferably one who reads the kind of material you`re hoping to write) to bounce ideas off of, but barring that I will say that writing out that conversation does work.  You know how when you`re trying to figure something out and you just need to talk through it out loud, and sometimes you can solve it without the other person even actually saying anything?  It`s like that.  Except the other person is a notebook and you`re writing it down instead of saying it out loud.

So that`s where I`m at right now.  I`ve got about two hours left in my work day, so I`m hoping to have a couple more synopses done by then.  Happy writing!