A special litle snowflake...
So, amidst the chaos that is currently my life, I decided that now is the right time to get serious with writing.
As always, my timing is impeccable.
Anyway, my main problem when it comes to writing, has always been my inability to word-vomit. When meeting with my little writing circle, I would offer up the two small, meager paragraphs I wrote in the ten minutes allotted to flash-writing, while the others could show at least a page. When I don't know which direction I want to go, I stay where I am. While my best friend can write and write and edits later, I have trouble putting sentences together when I have no clue for what purpose.
That's the one thing I definitely learned at University, while being whipped through the Language Practice classes: That the outline is my savior. While my classmates were moaning about mandatory essay-plans, I rejoiced. Hey, if I know what I want to do, I can actually do it! Yay!
So, after registering for NaNoWriMo last September, I sat down on my ass to write my first long work. I would write ... a novel! And I was prepared, too! I had a storyline I would follow. I knew the beginning and the ending, and some key scenes in between, and I had a rough image in mind for my main players. That should do the trick! So on day one, I went to the library, started the computer and typed away enthusiastically.
Three hours later, I had one and a half pages.
I never wrote the damn thing.
But I wont give up!
Obviously, just knowing the general direction of my project was not enough. If I wanted to get it done, I would have to find out more about what I actually want from the story I'm telling.
So, as always, when I need some answers, I fired up the Internet and dug through the advice pages of dozens of writers, legit and wannabe. What I finally settled on trying was the snowflake-method, which demands that you build your story beginning from the most simple form and getting more complex with each new step.
I like that you break the whole thing down into smaller units, the scenes, and first determine their purpose in the story and the relations to each other before actually writing them. It's a nice idea to be able to sit down and say, "Today, I'm going to write the scene in which Heather decides to cross the "moral event horizon" in order to kill two birds with one stone, and locks the traitor into a room with the raging vampire she needs to calm down in order to use him for the bank robbery the next day. Hilarity ensues. " (<-- That's indeed intended to be an actual scene.) Maybe then I can sit down and write the scene, since I know where it comes from and where it goes to, already.
I also discovered, despite practically just having started, that actually, I hardly knew my story. I write the storyline synopsis for my heroine and go, "Wait, why would she do that?". Or "I want her to escape from Vito's mansion, but how does she get back to her apartment?!" Which leads to other questions: "How did the Vampire manage to follow her home, if she left when he was busy munching on attacking Vito's men?" And even more importantly, since it opens up a lot of questions about the nature of my vampires and the reason Vito trapped him in his mansion in the first place, why would he track her down?
I'm not even halfway through Heather's synopsis, and I'm already doing quite a bit of heavy mental lifting in regards to the story.
It actually feels like I'm going somewhere.
As always, my timing is impeccable.
Anyway, my main problem when it comes to writing, has always been my inability to word-vomit. When meeting with my little writing circle, I would offer up the two small, meager paragraphs I wrote in the ten minutes allotted to flash-writing, while the others could show at least a page. When I don't know which direction I want to go, I stay where I am. While my best friend can write and write and edits later, I have trouble putting sentences together when I have no clue for what purpose.
That's the one thing I definitely learned at University, while being whipped through the Language Practice classes: That the outline is my savior. While my classmates were moaning about mandatory essay-plans, I rejoiced. Hey, if I know what I want to do, I can actually do it! Yay!
So, after registering for NaNoWriMo last September, I sat down on my ass to write my first long work. I would write ... a novel! And I was prepared, too! I had a storyline I would follow. I knew the beginning and the ending, and some key scenes in between, and I had a rough image in mind for my main players. That should do the trick! So on day one, I went to the library, started the computer and typed away enthusiastically.
Three hours later, I had one and a half pages.
I never wrote the damn thing.
But I wont give up!
Obviously, just knowing the general direction of my project was not enough. If I wanted to get it done, I would have to find out more about what I actually want from the story I'm telling.
So, as always, when I need some answers, I fired up the Internet and dug through the advice pages of dozens of writers, legit and wannabe. What I finally settled on trying was the snowflake-method, which demands that you build your story beginning from the most simple form and getting more complex with each new step.
- First, you write a one sentence pitch. No names, just the entire story in a nutshell.
- You extend the sentence into a paragraph. And a short one, too. Five sentences, top, summarizing the storyline in beginning, story set-up , principal problem and the ending.
- Then you design the characters. Who they are, their storyline in a sentence, then a paragraph. Then their goals, conflicts, motivations etc.
- Then you expand the summary paragraph from step 2. Each sentence becomes it's own paragraph.
- Then you create a re-telling of the storyline from the point of views of your characters. And not just the main ones, also the secondary ones, albeit less detailed.
- You take the paragraphs from step 4 and the storylines from step 5 to create a 4-5 page synopsis. This seems to be the step where you start hammering the first real kinks out of the thing,
- Back to character-development (I like the alternating focus on plot and character) you fin tune your character as much as possible, using what you know about the story as a backdrop. You are finished with a character, if you know him or her inside out.
- You create a spreadsheet containing each scene in sequence, including first details of your scenes.
- expand each scene with an own narrative paragraph.
- Use the outlines, character charts and the detailed spreadsheet and start writing the first draft.
I like that you break the whole thing down into smaller units, the scenes, and first determine their purpose in the story and the relations to each other before actually writing them. It's a nice idea to be able to sit down and say, "Today, I'm going to write the scene in which Heather decides to cross the "moral event horizon" in order to kill two birds with one stone, and locks the traitor into a room with the raging vampire she needs to calm down in order to use him for the bank robbery the next day. Hilarity ensues. " (<-- That's indeed intended to be an actual scene.) Maybe then I can sit down and write the scene, since I know where it comes from and where it goes to, already.
I also discovered, despite practically just having started, that actually, I hardly knew my story. I write the storyline synopsis for my heroine and go, "Wait, why would she do that?". Or "I want her to escape from Vito's mansion, but how does she get back to her apartment?!" Which leads to other questions: "How did the Vampire manage to follow her home, if she left when he was busy munching on attacking Vito's men?" And even more importantly, since it opens up a lot of questions about the nature of my vampires and the reason Vito trapped him in his mansion in the first place, why would he track her down?
I'm not even halfway through Heather's synopsis, and I'm already doing quite a bit of heavy mental lifting in regards to the story.
It actually feels like I'm going somewhere.