How do you write? Not by pen(cil) and paper or by computer or typewriter, but how do you write? Where do you get your ideas, how do you know what to write? Do you write without paying attention or do you scrutinize every line, every word? Do you tell your characters what to do or do they tell you? Are they demanding or passive? Do you write up descriptive bios on the characters before you can do anything else or do you write with a vague description in mind? Must you plot out everything in the world or do you just let it come to you?
Just a few questions I was thinking of last night when I was considering my book for this year. I thought it would be an interesting discussion, so I decided to post them up here. ^^
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50,398 / 50,000
nov. 4, 2009 - 08 05
I've been telling myself stories for years, so usually I can just sit down and write. However, my stories are usually about kids who go to boarding school and create a new home for themselves in the attic or run away and hide in said Attic or some other place. They usually are rich, self-made even though their parents might also be rich. And, usually everything just comes to me - gushes in.
This time, I decided to down play the running away, and make it 1 person who runs into a rich, self-made teenager. This is also the first time I've ever been stuck! My characters aren't demanding, instead I'm pulling tooth and nail to get them to move. lol I usually don't pay any attention to what I write as its usually amusing to me the first time around. This time, not even close! First time ever I had this problem and its perplexing. I usually know my characters so well, that I don't need to ever write out a bios. This time, I know them well, but don't know what to do with them. I know I'll have the 'who can have the biggest bash' contest, but don't know the dialogue that should entail there. And, I do have billions of dollars to play with, so...this story might die before it even begins. And, I've seen 'My Sweet 16' party dozens of times, and all the dialogue is the same. Boring.
----------51,237 / 50,000
nov. 4, 2009 - 08 40
The story I'm writing has been kicking around in my head for a long time now and I got a twist of inspiration from a friend and her experience visiting South Dakota. (She homeschools her children and while they were visiting the caves, the park ranger found out that the children were homeschooled. The ranger adjusted his speech and said things like "scientists believe that these caves may have been formed millions of years ago'. This really bothered her as it's not a belief, it's more of a fact and the ranger had assumed that since the kids were homeschooled, it must mean that they're indoctrinated into some young-earth-type thought. ) That launched my story as the idea I had was that there was a monster/creature/alien that fed off of religious thought and killed those who believed. I didn't have a setting for the story, but the ranger acquiescence to that type of belief gave me a good setting for the novel. Pieces started falling into place and some didn't belong at all anymore and were ripped out.
But instead of thinking about this in words, I'm visualizing this cinematically and having the words follow suit. Where would the camera cut to? What would be the background music*? What would end the scene? (I am, however, avoiding all that shaky-hand held camera that turn me green). That's helped me greatly in not only figuring out the scene, but if I get stuck, I rewind the scene in my head, hit pay, and attempt to just "movie out" what happens next.
*Music is a big part for me. Instead of thinking just of the characters and their backstory, I try and think of what song would be perfect for them at that time and place. What would they hit "play" to? If I'm stuck with that, I put my iPod on random and force myself to pick from the first 3 songs that come up to give them more development. I did that for one of my main characters and ended up with PJ Harvey's "Down By the Water" (Little fish. big fish. Swimming in the water. Come back here and gimme my daughter.) That alone gave her so much more shape than any amount of notes would have.
ETA: One other trick I use is from my days taking improv classes at Dudley Rigg's. "Yes, and..." is very helpful in writing. The thought process behind the short little phrase is if one person comes up with a start to a sketch, the other players say "yes and" and add to whatever was just said or done.
"That's a tall building right there." says MC1
"Yes and I'm sure if we develop these suction cups we can crawl up the side of it with no problem" says MC2
"Yes and when we get up to the 81st floor, we can see the co-ed sauna" MC1 nodded
"Yes and that's where we'll find the cedar wood of antiquity to make our boat to sail to the wonderful world of Capricornia".MC2
"Yes and blah blah blah".
It's not that the characters have to be agreeing sycophants, there does have to be conflict, but make sure that conflict doesn't stall a scene.
44,046 / 50,000
nov. 4, 2009 - 09 15
Poorly? In the middle of the night, like a vampire? :P
I had a hard time starting out this year, because I didn't KNOW my characters, but now that they have developed, the plot is moving along.
I just let the characters develop the story around themselves. Like a cocoon, or a beer coozie.
----------It's on, now!
37,278 / 50,000
nov. 4, 2009 - 14 50
This is interesting to think about. This is only my second time attempting nano (last time I didn't make it very far). Back in school, I hated writing (although that was mostly papers: non-fiction), but I've always loved making up stories in my head. Thus far with this story, I've just sat down started writing whatever came next in the story.
I guess I'll really learn how I write when I get stuck.