The Great Novel

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Writer, Know Thyself: Plot & Character

I had a revelation in the line of "Writer, know thyself" and decided to share.

There are several goals you hear a lot with writers. None of these goals are mutually exclusive. They often overlap in the same writer, same story, and often diverge in the same writer, different story.

  • Some seek to write literature, stories that mean something, that will be remembered because of their richness or their scope or their significance, etc.
  • Some seek to tell a good story, one that people can relate to and enjoy and want more like it.
  • Some seek to work out their own ideas, questions, or feelings on the page through the means of fiction. (Think Aldous Huxley.)
  • Some seek to give the characters in their mind an outlet and gain themselves some peace.

And you know what?

Any time I tried to write literature, I never could. I've tried. I really, really want to write something that means something and lasts and is worthy of being remembered.

Any time I tried to tell a good story, I got bored before I get through with it. I wrote a sketch and got complaints from my beta—if I was uncomplaining enough to even ship it to her.

Any time I start with a theme or idea, the story dies so quickly on the vine, I might as well have outlined. (I'm one of those writers for whom an outline is a gun—or a nuclear bomb. Outlines for me are storykillers of the first degree.)

I have never been able to do it. I have written many different ways, but the more I consider my issues with plot, the more I realize how absolutely my muse eschews it as a viable factor to be intentional about, which also perfectly explains why I'm always frustrating my beta who as a reader, loves my ideas and wishes I wouldn't skim them instead of dive headlong in.

In fact, almost anyone reading this will remember what I have stated before seems to be my story method, the one which allows me to start with a sentence and reach the end or do a whole write and revise morass that was thoroughly planned.

If you know your premise, your characters, and the rules of your world, then the rest is inevitable but unpredictable, even to you.

Characters are not plot. They aren't even stories—they have them, but exploring characters seems to be the only way I know how to write.

Premise is not plot. Premise is the big idea—or two actually, in my case. I have always had to have two factors to the premise before it's interesting enough to start me scribbling. The world is merely parameters I can use to dig deep into my characters. The premise is merely parameters I can use to dig deep into ideas.

Many of my premises are metaphor and symbology, which is why I don't mind using fictional elements like personality-shaping, conjoined minds, mindreading, soul-based powers, etc. Because I'm commenting through the use of these elements on what we actually do in the real world with our personalities, thoughts, souls.

Plot is "the rest" referred to in that paragraph. As my wonderful beta pointed out recently, all the story elements are tied together and grow out of each other and affect each other, even the ones I tend to ignore until they need weeding.

My method of plotting is beyond risky and I don't recommend it. I generally let it emerge in the same way I let theme emerge because if I pre-plan it too soon, I can't write the story. The story for me is the character. The character arc defines the story. But it's messy. It's literary. Sometimes I vignette a snapshot instead of an arc. Sometimes I show an arc but forget to show the world that makes it make sense. Sometimes I write a novel/ette and am required to stop, drop, and plot in the middle because I finally know enough to do it without killing my creative impulse, but it takes me forever because I don't really plot all that often.

This usually happens when, at the time I start writing, I have too many characters I don't know or too many rules of my world I don't know.

This is my weakness, and it's good to be able to put a face on it at last because I've always wanted to write that great novel and I've always wanted to tell that awesome story and I've always wanted to explore the ideas that pound on the inside of my skull, begging to be let out but sniffing at essays in disdain. The only way I've ever been able to do it was by digging into character.

It gives me a different perspective and one that may help me start pushing myself into plot and finished works if I can view plot through that lens and find a way to connect with it.

What do you know, learn something new every day.

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This is What Happens When...

This entry is part 37 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

...I'm trying to move too quickly.

Scribbling today was aimed toward two things: reformat Dowse and Bleed to 6x9 instead of 5.5x8.5 because I forgot what size I made the cover and write a Yuletide gift-fic.

I'm really wishing I had this book in paperback. Of course, I don't. I'm headdesking pretty well at the moment, which isn't good because I have my once-a-year headache too. :growls:

I did get the story from inferno redone (I need an icon for it, don't I?), and I get to go home, Createspace a template, and fit the cover to the spine width requirements. The new size knocked 12 pages off the book. Pity. I'm down to 60. Ah well.

Procrastination

Wrote a blog post about Collateral Damage. Made an executive decision there. Made up a wishlist of books I'd like to read and/or buy this year. Wandered through the SF classics. Wasted my work break doing the above. Got struck by the lightning and wrote another blog post, this one on my authorial challenge for the year: learn how to at least consider plot.

Writing

You mean I actually did some? I decided to do the direct approach. Start typing and just make yourself do it. Got somewhere on the collaboration.

Publishing

Realized I had a good opportunity for once to finish the cover of Dowse and Bleed without my sister around, so did that. I forgot to email myself the PDF for the interior, but after I do, I can finish the last touches on getting it to Createspace. The only issue remaining on that front is I'm going to have to email them to get additional BISAC categories. Apparently, for the print edition, you only get one. I went with procedural and I'll have them add the science fiction.

Health

While I'm not happy with my word counts for the night, I'm calling it a night, primarily because I need to catch up on my sleep. I had a headache today, which is not a good sign. I usually have one a year under duress and that's it, so I don't have any coping mechanisms developed really.

Word Counts

  • Fiction: 402 words
  • Poetry: 0 words, 0 lines
  • Blog: 1504 words

Splintered Gates

  • Today: 0 words
  • Total: 1028 words

Collaboration

  • Today: 402 words
  • Total: 56,380 words

January Totals

  • Fiction: 2689 words
  • Poetry: 212 words | 45 lines
  • Blog: 3477 words

Completed Pieces

  • Poem: "Before My Eyes," 220 words | 47 lines.
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Here, Have a Snippet

I've got a handful of stories that are on the table right now:

  • belated Yuletide gifts (1 or 2 will do, she's not picky)
  • the collaboration (she's patient, which is good because I'm deep in revision/formatting wonderland)
  • Splintered Gates (which is my learning how to write on a tablet book)
  • Collateral Damage (the follow-up to Dowse and Bleed)

I've had an 4100+ word opening to Collateral Damage from before that phrase appeared in Dowse and Bleed, but I didn't know which direction to turn after that because it starts out from the perspective of Andre and Shift instead of a direct head-on with Rachelle. Which meant I hadn't the foggiest idea whose story it was and why. I only knew what was going on: the crisis.

Today, I went for the dubious option of just pick one. Here's the snippet:

Breathe. This was not supposed to happen now, not so soon, and not like this.

It was an effort to breathe, to shift gears from the world as Rachelle had always known it. Cycling was survival. She had to move the flood of genetic entries through her vascular system and into archive as soon as possible, or the backup would overwhelm her veins, which could only handle so much. But this day had been coming a long time, and it hit her hard when she incorporated one more entry into her own permanent genetic makeup and then felt that harsh inability to breathe that it was the archive out of space.

Don't cycle. Don't cycle. Back up, spin the paddles, find a shield and stop her own genetic flow. How can you deny your very bones?

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Headdesk Equals Scribbling?

This entry is part 36 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

So yesterday was nothing but :headdesk: and today was quite productive. I thought it wouldn't be because I... um... :coughs: read a book this morning into the wee hours again. I know I need to stop, but it just keeps happening. Anyways, it was Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn, and it was very, very good.

Publishing

Finished a decent draft of metadata for Dowse and Bleed and finished hyphenating and PDFing the file. I might actually get this baby out in January. :prays that it will be so:

Writing

First, I hammered away at Splintered Gates, choosing to do so on computer instead of tablet simply because that's where my file with all the original notes was. I had this realization I was in the wrong tense and suddenly I thought I could do something with this. I dumped most of what I had and went from 2239 words to 558 words, then scribbled. And got somewhere. This is good.

I decided randomly I wanted to write a poem today. I wrote three-fourths of a poem, scrapped it, then wandered through my WIP file. I added a couple snippets to Lovemark the Seasons and paragraphed a scene on my way through then stopped at two lines of poetry that had come to me ages ago and given me nothing else besides. I wrote the poem.

Happy Belated Yuletide

Otherwise known as fanfic. I am intimidated by my source material. Full stop. Hint to the scribbler: pick another character. Working... This requires immersion reading. See you on the other side of the flood, 'kay, y'all?

Note: That means tomorrow.

Word Count

  • Fiction: 602 words
  • Poetry: 212 words, 45 lines
  • Blog: 300 words

Splintered Gates

  • Today: 470 words
  • Total: 1028 words

Collaboration

  • Today: 0 words
  • Total: 55,978 words

Completed Pieces

  • Poem: "Before My Eyes," 220 words | 47 lines.

January Totals

  • Fiction: 2287 words
  • Poetry: 212 words | 45 lines
  • Blog: 1973 words
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Scribbling Equals Headdesk?

This entry is part 35 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

12:09 a.m.

Yes, I know. I'm crazy. So I wasn't going to write on this today, due to the lateness of the hour and all that, and technically it doesn't count for the 4th anyway but the 5th, due to the lateness of the hour and all that, but here goes because I'm really, really tired of this particular story not wanting to even get started. There went 8 sentences and 179 words on Splintered Gates. Still hate it.

:scowls:

Writing

So on day five of the wonderful new year, I'm banging my  head against my desk. Mind you, I did scribble at 12:09 this morning, but didn't like what I got and hit the collaboration later this morning even though I had intended to get my gift fics done. They're not flowing and the collaboration is making me want to tear my hair out. I'm rethinking the whole structure I tried working with because as usual, I plot too late and don't really get the opening plotty bits right until I come up with the later material. I have ideas, but...

Yeah. :headdesk:

Finally getting somewhere, then stop, drop, and undecorate, etc. Back to work... Who is related to who in which exact way? Calling it even, though I barely got any new words because I'm knee-deep in structure and percolating again. Ah, well. Sorry, thecatisacritic. I'm getting somewhere, just not fast.

Word Count

  • Fiction: 352 words
  • Poetry: 0 words
  • Blog: 256 words

Splintered Gates

  • Today: 179 words
  • Total: 2060 words

Collaboration

  • Today: 173 words
  • Total: 55,978 words

January Totals

  • Fiction: 1685 words
  • Poetry: 0 words
  • Blog: 1673 words
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More Like Prepping to Scribble

This entry is part 34 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

Today, I didn't do a whole lot of scribbling. This is because I was working on the prereading that goes into the front end of my writing process, then I got commandeered by my sister until 10:30 at night, and I'd like to sleep sometime. These last five days, it seems like she wants literally all my free time, and I've had a very hard time getting anything done.

So I wrote out a brief blog post that had knuckled around in my head last night and read Laurie and a bit of Denny and the compiled current work of the collaboration because I need to know which gaps to fill and the full flow of it had left my head for various editor reasons.

Tomorrow, I'm on Christmas decoration removal, but I'm hoping anyway to pull of a 2-fic Ephiphany gift in lieu of gifting at Yuletide. Some plans just don't happen and you find the next good date to pencil them in.

Word Count

  • Fiction: 0 words
  • Poetry: 0 words
  • Blog: 647 words

January Totals

  • Fiction: 1333 words
  • Poetry: 0 words
  • Blog: 1417 words
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Plot as Illumination of Character

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Writer, Know Thyself: Plot & Character

I came to a sudden realization the other day when I was working on Dowse and Bleed then the collaboration and also thinking about all the aggravating articles recently claiming the three-act structure is the only one: I really don't care about plot.

Now, this doesn't mean I dislike plot or that I don't think it's important, but I do mean it's not even a secondary consideration for me. I care about structure because structure is fun, especially for a poet, but I don't take any time to analyze my own plots or even to develop them. That holds no interest for me, and I don't look for a particular plot in books I read. In fact, that's why I adore love stories and am so totally sick of romances. I'm not interested in the "how did they fall in love" and we're done here. I'm interested in two separate people and then how they interact together, etc.

I wrestled with this for another day before I finally came to the conclusion on how I could not care about something so fundamental to story. Most writing articles and books address characters that drive the plot and plots that are born out of the characters' struggles. That makes for a good story, but I'll probably never, ever write that kind of story ever.

I love plots that illuminate character. And that's probably why I tend strongly to the literary side of genre and love Jodi Picoult's books, even though I've heard some genre writers sneer at them. Her books are complicated messy stories about characters. The plots reveal the characters, rather than characters driving the plot.

Dowse and Bleed is the most incredibly plotty story I've ever written in my life. When I wrote that first draft, it was a quick ramble through a decent, engaging plot, but when I came back to it, it was with two questions: whose story is this and why is it her story? Out flowed something considerably deeper and much more 'me.' The plot is secondary because it exists to reveal something about Rachelle and no other reason.

This is also why I haven't been able to get through Collateral Damage yet, I'm pretty sure, or any of the other Special Unit fics percolating in my head. That revelation, that core idea, isn't there for me yet. I wrote Dowse and Bleed from a prompt about the sides of love:

I've looked at love from both sides now / From give and take, and still somehow / It's love's illusions I recall / I really don't know love at all

"Both Sides Now" by Joni Mitchell

It's not this perfect match with Rachelle, but it was close enough for me to devote a story to this relationship she has to love and the idea of love. It was an interesting revelation for me.

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Scribbling on the 3rd, aka This Way Trouble

This entry is part 33 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

Fandom

I am crazy. I have never successfully completed a big bang or NanoWrimo type challenge in my life, and I just signed up to do a 10K couples big bang writing Tris/Four, which is basically an AU required to happen.

:headdesk:

I am positively certifiable.

Reading

On the rest of January 3rd, I finished reading The Tenth Hell. Crazy me. Another awesome, gut-clenching, nobody's good, nobody's bad, it's all too real round of Picoult.

I always figured Rachelle would like Picoult's books. They fit her worldview.

Publishing

I also finished finalizing my publisher file for Dowse and Bleed. Anyway, it just needs hyphenation, which is driving me batty. I'm going to have to do it manually, and I already hate the idea.

Found via Hugh Howey a wonderfully formatter who will turn my Createspace .doc (which I will separately convert to PDF via OpenOffice) into Kindle and Smashwords files for only $35. I have decided now would be a good time to start putting money into publishing. That saves me a lot of work for a very small cost, all things considered.

Writing

Wasn't I supposed to write in there? I'm sure that was on the agenda. Tonight then, me and the keyboard shall meet. The Drought beckons, but I can't read through all my scribbling time.

So it's scribbling time and I did the normally very bad thing of going on Twitter first. This time it was a good thing. Check this out: My Write Club. Lovely. Thanks, Kayla!

Started in my seven sentence fic, got carried away, and am not going to try and count the sentences. It was 344 words though.

:mulls over scene: I've known the opening scene of this for me for a while now and it keeps coming out wrong. I'm going to kill it and start in the middle like I always seem to do anyway. Ah, well.

I imagine that total is about to get totally shot for Spintered Gates, but that's my no-pressure project anyway. I'm basically percolating it on paper instead of in my head.

Back to collaboration. I don't have Scrivener on my tablet, which is a real pity, though I feel compelled to share the joyous news that my CD backup arrived today and is now tucked safely on my bookcase. You didn't need to know that, but I sure felt like being giddy about it. So what the collaboration particularly needs from me right now is some plot-noodling. Let's do that on paper, shall we?

So in searching out my plot, I didn't find what I wanted, but I did find something interesting. I left way too many gaps when I first started drafting my part of this collaboration. My writing partner is much better disciplined than I am. I sketch, percolate, then gap-fill. It's kind of painful.

And off to bed...

Word Count

  • Fiction: 1284 words
  • Poetry: 0 words
  • Blog: 597 words

Splintered Gates

  • Today: 344 words
  • Total: 2060 words

Collaboration

  • Today: 940 words
  • Total: 55,978 words

January Totals

  • Fiction: 1333 words
  • Poetry: 0 words
  • Blog: 1417 words
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Scribbling? Not so much... January 2, 2014

This entry is part 32 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

So the story of yesterday is that I did some editing, formatting, and plenty of day job work and all that, and I did my chores and Sabbath cleaning and got a new arrival that thrilled me to my toes, then when it was time to write a few sentences for bed, I discovered the book I bought last week, cracked it open, and ended up reading through half before remembering the primal need for sleep.

The book is The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult. Last Sunday, I really wanted to buy a new book. A paperback book, preferably mass market size. I looked and looked and looked and was getting ready to leave when I saw Picoult's name. I'll buy and read anything she writes—anything. It came home. My grandfather handed me Return to Me, so it took me this long to remember I'd bought it.

Sucked in. Want to finish reading it even though I ought to use my work break today for writing fiction. Or poetry. :shrugs:

On the new arrival, I ordered a keyboard for my tablet. I found the on-screen keyboard just didn't work for me when I got into serious writer mode and I couldn't manage any major production. Game changer with my new wireless keyboard. I'm so excited to start using it.

Slow start to January, but that's okay. We'll get there.

Word Count

  • Fiction: 0 words
  • Poetry: 0 words
  • Blog: 739 words

January Totals

  • Fiction: 49 words
  • Poetry: 0 words
  • Blog: 820 words
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A New Year's Scribbler: January 1, 2014

This entry is part 31 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

The daily scribble posts are back. On New Year's Day, I didn't actually expect to be productive. I expected laid back holiday, wherein we ate a scrumptious meal, spent time with family, and kept our four-year-old tradition of a treasure hunt, albeit a week late due to my sister and I having been sick heading into Christmas.

We did that, but I was also productive.

Reading

Read through some Yuletide reveals and one of the two new stories at Beneath Ceaseless Skies. I also 'accidentally' stayed up to 2 o'clock in the morning reading Lynn Austin's Return to Me.

Note: I am extremely picky about historical and non-Old Testamental Biblical fiction. Most of it bores me unless it's written extraordinarily well. I tend to like Old Testament stories and I like classics that were written in historical periods, but not ones written about said historical periods. That said, I liked Lynn Austin's Gods and Kings series about Hezekiah. This book is set during a period of Biblical history that fascinates me (and is Old Testament): the interval between Daniel and Esther wherein there was Ezra, Nehemiah, Zechariah, and Haggai. So I figured I'd like this book.

It had issues. Overall, I liked it. Can't say I loved it because the prologue was fabulous and then the first ten chapters were so tedious that I skipped five of them and probably never will read them. The middle was driven by a bad promise the main character kept despite knowing better on so many counts it wasn't even funny. The ending was fabulous. So... mixed feelings. Probably won't reread.

I've been reading The Drought and Quartz as well and am hoping to catch up within the next month.

Publishing

Hammered away at "Dowse and Bleed" by tweaking four or five lines that were bothering me (apparently I'm one of those artists who won't stop editing until you pry her work right out of her hands), laying out the interior less hyphenation, and figuring out whether to add chronology to the cover. Also categorized it as a science fiction procedural per BISAC. Thank you, lithiumlaughter and in_the_blue, for helping me figure that one out. I haven't decided whether I want to add an excerpt for a forthcoming story in there, but am leaning strongly toward not.

To publish this baby in January, I particularly need to finalize the cover and finish pounding away at the summary, which I was doing yesterday. I thought it was perfect than realized it really didn't have a strong enough emphasis on what a special-type human was or that this was superhuman fiction. :headdesk: Back to the drawing board.

I'm tempted to work on Kingdoms and Thorn for the February story, but then it might be waaay better to do one of the other storyworlds for lots of reasons, so leaving certainty on the back burner.

Writing

Wrote 12 sentences instead of seven on book I should not be writing but is pestering me anyway.

Did some percolating research for fanfics in progress. I've got a particular scene I want to write for Finding the Ground and am still mulling over exactly where I want to check into Laurie. I think I know, but I keep waffling.

Also reread a bunch of Divergent series stuff. Is it awful to say I want a serious romance fic on the level of short story like what I write for Rogue/Gambit? Tris and Four have this serious fade to black moment and I'm pretty sure it was the standard fade to black and I wanted more. Additionally, I've got other serious Divergent plot-bunnies. I'd like to make them wait until I update some of my older fics so many people are waiting on, but no promises. Never those.

Collaboration

Discovered the joys of Scrivener for collaboration. I can add status notes about who worked on which part last, setting keywords, folders for our alternate chapter/scene orders and compiled files, etc., etc., etc. And we're sort of writing multiple timelines, so the brain went crazy with ideas yesterday. For collaboration, Scrivener is awesome.

Which brings me to...

New Arrivals

Scrivener: I officially love you, thecatisacritic. Thank you!

Duotrope: I thought about submitting "Dowse and Bleed" before I changed my mind, but now have a trial of Duotrope. I should do Heinlein's challenge in light of it, but I don't need the pressure, so probably won't.

Word Count

  • Fiction: 49 words
  • Poetry: 0 words
  • Blog: 81 words
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