May 9, 2016

How I (Don't) Brainstorm

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At the end of the [very good] 2006 film "Miss Potter," Beatrix Potter (Renee Zellweger) notes, "There's something delicious about writing those first few words of a story. You can never quite tell where they will take you."  Personally, the first few words are never my favorite part of the writing process; I don't like not knowing where I'm headed.  I like the uncertainty about just how the path forward is going to shape up, and I love the way the flow of any given scene may take me away from what I originally intended or may present me with some new aspect I hadn't recognized before.  In that sense, I'm 100% behind Miss Potter (only I don't think she ever really said that; it still makes for a great quote).

Overall, though, I like to have a pretty clear idea of the plot and its main markers -- something a little more concrete than just a vague idea that This is Where We Start and This is How It Ends, although in some cases I'd be happy even to have those two things laid out.  It's frustrating to feel bewildered by your own story, uncertain how to make it all work.  Hitting a roadblock on the way from Point A to Point B is bad enough, but feeling like there's a massive pothole (or two or three) that you can't seem to bridge and being unable to progress until you do bridge it (or them) is even more frustrating.  The same goes for a vague story idea of which you have one or two elements, maybe a handful of characters, and...basically nothing else.  This is when writers start to talk about "brainstorming."  Sometimes they even talk about sitting down and brainstorming.

Confession time: I've never really figured out how this whole brainstorming thing works, and I am really, really bad at it.

I think best through the process of writing, and there have been a number of times when I have become so frustrated with a story idea for not taking shape or with huge plot questions for not resolving themselves that I have sat down with a pen and a notebook and tried to confront the problems head-on.  I wrote out the questions that had hitherto just been floating in my brain: Why don't the characters just resolve their problems by doing X?  (I've no idea.)  What is motivating this particular character?  (Don't know that, either.)  I know this character needs to be involved, but how?  To what purpose?  What even is going on here?  (Noooooo clue.)  The problem with this approach, I've found, is that I end up with a list of the questions that are bothering me and no answers.  Seriously, I've looked back at old lists from story ideas that are still embryonic and thought, "Yeah...  I still don't know what to do about that."

"Sitting down and brainstorming" is also generally ineffective, since unless I am in some way incapacitated, I don't like just sitting and doing nothing but thinking.  My mind also tends to drift, or to keep turning over the same questions again and again without producing viable answers; it's the same ineffective process as writing out the issues.  Pinterest is a nice idea for "gathering inspiration," but a) I don't ever use writing prompts, because they feel too inorganic; b) I'm very picky about which images fit the world of the story, so I rarely see things that just scream "Wordcrafter!" or "Tempus Regina!"; and c) pictures don't go very far toward inspiring me with words, anyhow.  At most they remind me of things I already love about the story.  They don't tend to help me moving forward.

I still haven't come up with a great way to plot, but generally the most effective course has been outlining.  I know I've already commented many times that I am a big fan of outlines, no matter what I'm writing; I charged into NaNoWriMo 2010* with nothing but the names of two characters and an idea that I'd be writing about the Barbary Wars, and while it turned out alright, it was not a pretty picture and I didn't like doing it.  Since then I've been a little smarter, or at least a little more conscious of my planner bent: Tempus Regina was still an extremely difficult book to begin writing, but I made sure I started with several pages' worth of outline; with Wordcrafter I thought I wouldn't need one, it being a rewrite, but I've revised my opinion on that in the last couple weeks.  (Translation: I was totally kidding myself.  I need outlines.  I need them so bad.)

Stumped by a number of points, unable to get resolution by writing out questions, I began by listing the plot points I was sure about in chronological order.  Then I started on an actual, handwritten outline, filling in the gaps between those plot points and forcing myself to put something down even if I wasn't positive about it.  This did lead to a number of question marks, but it also turned out to be useful on three fronts: it showed me that I actually have a clearer idea of where I'm going than I originally thought and reminded me of upcoming scenes I'm genuinely excited about; it got some clutter (useful clutter, but clutter) down on paper so that I will (hopefully) not forget it; and it forced me to make some choices in order to keep moving.  Just writing down questions presents me only with the things that have been frustrating me; it doesn't allow me to put those questions within the context of the whole plot, or to see the elements of the story that will actually hearten me.  Organizing all of my thoughts, on the other hand, lets me see the full story unfold -- even down to the minor elements of a scene I've already charted out in detail.  It's the short hand of writing the whole story, and I find that more thoughts come in that process of tracing the lineaments of the plot.  Even in outline form, the words can take you -- or at least they take me -- to unexpected places.

*Oh my word, how was it almost six years ago?  That's not possible.

Tell me about your plotting process!  How do you get past a roadblock in a story you're writing?  Do you ever get a story idea that just. won't. develop. properly., and how do you coax it forward?  I'm bad at it, so do tell!


March 19, 2016

Proof of Life: March Snippets

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I can't actually write to music, for the most part, even though most folks I know have a hard time writing without music in the background to drive them on.  I think maybe the music fills up too much of my brain, especially when there are lyrics to distract me.  Still, that doesn't mean I'm not often inspired to write after hearing a particular piece of music.  Then I put on headphones and listen to the song on YouTube every now and then while writing in between.  Not the most efficient means of getting words down, but reminding myself of the piece of music helps keep a mood.

All that to say that I just got my brother two "Of Monsters and Men" albums for his birthday, and after hearing a couple of their newer songs, I've been playing them on YouTube and wanting to write.  (No, I didn't keep the CDs: they did get to their destination.)  I should be studying the American Revolution or Latin vocab, but the song "Human" obliged me to pull up Wordcrafter for a few minutes.  It's getting along in fits and starts: 110,000 words in now.  And heaven help me, I don't know how long the thing's going to be in the end.

I throw up my hands in despair.

march snippets

We sat in silence, the wind sighing around us like the tide on the shore, the flames crackling and snapping hungrily among the branches. Copper’s veil fluttered; the light shot through it and I saw her lips parted in something like yearning. Ethan had his arm on my shoulder still and as the shofar-call slipped away his fingers dug at my collarbone, the blood thudding urgently in their tips, dragging me along with him into the heady expectation: the ale seemed to have mounted, to swirl around and around and around inside my dizzy skull…

//

The water from the faucet shut off; the shower was still running. He returned to the threshold, and as I raised my eyes unwillingly from the figurine it struck me, almost comically, that with his razor in his hand he looked like Death come to claim a few souls for the dance.

//

“So,” he said. “I wondered what the Hound found to like in you. Now I see you’ve got a fire in your belly after all. I suppose I should have known.”

//

The Jackal had not yet come with our horses, and while we waited for him, our backs to the light and our shadows thrown out long in front of us, Ethan spoke again.  “While we are talking of saving lives,” he said, in a voice that was mellow like his father’s, “and while my lady insists on walking alone, I would that she carried this.” He fiddled with a buckle at the inside of his right thigh and the strap of the dagger sheath swung loose, the hilt falling heavy into his palm; it was plain dull metal, a match to the one he had loaned me, and it gleamed blandly in the moonlight as he offered it to our companion. “Granted, it’s not as fashionable as a pair of pistols, but it will do you more good should you find yourself in a tight corner.”

//

A bonfire blazed in the clearing, the flames ducking and leaping like native dancers as the breeze whirled the sparks away, and in its lurid light the standing Horsemen looked like martyrs waiting to be burned.

//

He poured me a cup and handed it over, warm and dripping, and glanced at [her] from under his brows. “Care for one?” 

She watched him like a suspicious cat, her fingers tightening in the folds of the blanket, her mental tail lashing. “I’d love it,” she said sharply, “but I’m rather afraid you might poison it.” 

His mouth jerked.  “Poison isn’t my weapon of choice,” he said. “But the sentiment is there.”

//

His face was a thundercloud, and flushed as with too much wine; he was dark from dancing so near the fire and the smell of singed flesh hung over him. When I gripped his arm in mute acknowledgement I felt the muscles jumping frantically under my hand. 

“My lord dances as though he will kill himself,” [she] remarked, almost reproachfully.
 
meet the authoress
I am a writer of historical fiction and fantasy, scribbling from my home in the United States. More importantly, I am a Christian, which flavors everything I write. My debut novel, "The Soldier's Cross," was published by Ambassador Intl. in 2010.
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published writings






The Soldier's Cross: Set in the early 15th Century, this is the story of an English girl's journey to find her brother's cross pendant, lost at the Battle of Agincourt, and of her search for peace in the chaotic world of the Middle Ages.
finished writings






Tempus Regina:Hurled back in time and caught in the worlds of ages past, a Victorian woman finds herself called out with the title of the time queen. The death of one legend and the birth of another rest on her shoulders - but far weightier than both is her duty to the brother she left alone in her own era. Querying.
currently writing



Wordcrafter: "One man in a thousand, Solomon says / will stick more close than a brother. / And it's worthwhile seeking him half your days / if you find him before the other." Justin King unwittingly plunges into one such friendship the day he lets a stranger come in from the cold. Wordcount: 124,000 words

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