Tag Archives: writing

Revised revision

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I’ve learned that one of the rules of writing is to Finish What You Start.

That’s a terrible rule. For me. I’m great at starting things, not so great at finishing. I’ve been working hard to overcome that particular failing of mine.

But there is this little voice in me that says, Oh, but your story will be so much better if you change it.

BACK! BACK, DEMON!

animetowen-concept

I originally started my current project as a Personal Novel Writing Month one hot July. I had great fun with it, but then I made a mistake. I decided it was good enough to try for publishing when I finished it. So, two-thirds through the project, I scrapped it and started over. The Great Rewrite.

Now, two years and a two-year-old later, I’m stuck on the project again. Stuck hard. I know where the story should go, but I can’t seem to get it there. In comes that little voice . . .

Just a small change. Try switching POVs.

headdesk

I’ve gone and done it – I’m going through the manuscript line by line changing from 1st person to 3rd limited. I’m hopeful, because it seems to be working. I’m enjoying myself again . . . but I need all the luck and encouragement I can get to keep pushing through to the end. I have decided not to bother my critique group with “Blue Tiger” again until it’s finished. Let’s hope I can last that long!

CPGO – Step 6: Scene by Scene

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We’re down to the meat, the scene by scene outline. The structure I use for this is inherent in yWriter, but let’s talk about scenes first.

A scene is a moment in the story defined by a time and place. BiaM and You Can Write a Novel both adhere to the ten scene model. That is, action packed movies and books have ten or less major scene. Neither of them are talking about fantasy. A lot of writers I know look at the ten scene theory and freak. However, this, like other things involved in novel writing, is only a suggestion. Me? I go through and lay out the scenes without counting them.

Exercise: Do the Scene Shuffle.
If you’re having trouble figuring out which scenes go where then this might help. Write out the descriptions of each scene you know is going to be in your novel on index cards or in a software package that allows you to reorder cards or scenes. yWriter does this but sometimes I like things a little free form. My current writing computer is a touch screen with Windows 7 installed. So I use Windows stickies on the cork board. This way I have card like in real life without needing the space of the cards. Most novel writing packages have this ability and a lot of people use mind mapping software to organize. Do whatever works for you.

After I know what order my scenes are in, I create the number of chapters in yWriter I think I need. This is based off the Setting Sketch step. Currently I think I need nine chapters. Then I go to chapter one. I ignore chapter descriptions until I’m finished with the last revision. Instead, I create a scene in chapter one. I open that, give it a date, fill out the scene description, associate characters, locations and items. Finally, I fill out the Goal, Conflict and Outcome tab. I used to ignore that but I’ve found filling that out gives me a better perspective on the scene.

I do this for each scene in each chapter till I’m satisfied. I copy the date and the scene description in my timeline Excel file. I might find I need more scenes and chapters than I think I do.

This is about it. I have an outline. Used to do more rehashing of the plot sketch but stopped exactly because it was a rehash.

The next step is writing the novel. I’ll be back when I start revising Without Honor.

This was originally published at michellejnorton.com

CPGO – Step 5: Plot Sketch

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I’ve said good-bye to BiaM and You Can Write a Novel. Smith’s book will be back when I get to the revision stage. BiaM has a little influence in what’s coming next and will have a say when I get to scenes. Then that is it. BiaM encourages outlining while writing for the rest of the book.

Step 5 is the Plot Sketch. The setting sketch was a list of settings in order of appearance with a description of the story at this place, the time period, season and about how many chapters I think it will take to write out the descriptions (which I’m usually wrong about but hey, it’s a starting place).

Now I have this snapshot of a plot, it is time to answer some questions about the plot. I create a new note called Plot Sketch in yWriter.

FDi30D called the Plot Sketch the list of the elements of the story. In all the books, the elements of the story come up. These are the Hero’s Journey, and Story in 3 Acts, Action/Reaction, Quest, Mini Climax, Black Moment, Climax, Denouement and combinations of all of these. The Plot Sketch asks questions about all of these things.

I really like Alicia Rasley’s article, Outline Your Novel in Thirty Minutes. Here’s a list of questions and answering them gives you a better picture of your plot. So first thing first, I answer her questions about Between Kingdoms. This covers the main character’s motivation and goals. Once I have that down I fill out FDi30D Plot Sketch.

The Plot Sketch starts with the goal and has you identify romance, subplots, conflict, resolution, downtime, black moment and resolution. I now have character motivations and an overview of the plot.

BiaM has two sheets similar to this, the Story Idea Map and the VBIAM Plot Check Sheet. I find the Story Idea Map redundant at this point. The Plot Check Sheet is sectioned off by things that happen in the story and who is there and does it advance the plot. I might come back to this for the revision but for now, I just put it aside.

Next we get down to the meaty part of the operation, scenes.

Originally posted at http://michellejnorton.com

The Editorial Wheee!

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I give good advice. I have to. Otherwise, people would never forgive me for my addiction to giving advice.

Recently Jeff Kirvin asked me to hire on as freelance editor of his seven-book sf-thriller series, the Unification Chronicles. I don’t have an English degree or any freelance editing experience, but Jeff’s had lots of exposure to my critique style, my judgement and my general lack of typos through being in this critique group. I wasn’t sure at first whether to take this on – what… me? I’d never thought of such a possibility before. ‘Flattered’ and ‘excited’ were the two words I’d use to describe me.

Shortly after starting, I would have to add ‘addicted’. You mean I get to be involved in the creation of this awesome project, have a part in seeing its birth, in making it the best I possibly can… yet I don’t have to do the difficult writing part? Sign me up twice!

Being able to offer my insight, reading experience, critique experience, judgment and ideas to an excellent writer and be taken seriously, being able to contribute to a project with this kind of scope and interest… I feel like I’ve come home to a place I never knew existed. I have barely started and I’ve learned so much!

I’ve learned that I have to pace myself, that I can’t get so wrapped up in someone else’s work that I neglect my own. That my years of practice in balancing truth and tact are coming in seriously handy now. That every piece of fiction (very much including my own) needs another invested eye than the author’s – it’s a necessary part of the process. That I can deeply respect another author’s work and still find improvements, without losing any love for the piece in question. That I can, in fact, give advice and strong opinions and yet stand back and let the author be in charge of deciding whether to take that advice, without feeling slighted or being pushy.

I love doing this so much that I’m considering offering it as a service on my website. What do you think? Can a lifelong tendency to avoid hurting people’s feelings… a balancing passionate belief in radical truth… a practiced writer’s insight, wisdom and judgment… and an addiction to giving good advice… be turned into a semi-career?

Writers Write

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That’s it. All you need to do to be a writer is write. Every day.

Don’t say you don’t have time. You either do it or don’t. We all have to make a decision about what we do with our time and whatever isn’t important gets put aside. If you find that writing is getting pushed aside then it’s just not that important to you.

National Novel Writing Month is coming up. The point of NaNoWriMo is to stop saying one day and write that novel now. It’s a base board to which we all need to jump off. NaNo won’t make you a great writer but it will get you in the habit.

You have nothing to lose, except time.