EXER: Quotes for Nanowrimo!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Nov. 2, 2014

And, lest we forgot, right over here there are quotes to be had.

http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3

For example, you might end up with some of these:

1. Old age is ready to undertake tasks that youth shirked because they would take too long. W. Somerset Maughum
2. Proverbs are all very fine when there's nothing to worry you, but when you're in real trouble, they're not a bit of help. L. M. Montgomery
3. If you have a vision, do something with it. Anthony J. D'Angelo
4. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a particularly nasty business concern. C. S. Lewis
5. I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. Pablo Picasso
6. Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. Carl Jung

Pick a number from one to six. Now, work that quote, or at least a reverberation or reflection of it, into your Nanowrimo story. Go on, there's more than one way to twist that saying or the meaning behind that saying into something that fits your story.

Write!

WOW: Nano on the web?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Nov. 3, 2014

Over here

http://madgeniusclub.com/2014/11/02/these-are-a-few-of-my-favorite-things-when-i-do-nanowrimo/

Sarah Hoyt, who is a published author, gave a list of some of her favorite things when doing Nanowrimo (which yes, she is doing!). So...

Get outside, have a hot drink, make sure you eat three meals...
Stuck? Take a shower.
I can fix it in post (aka revision). Just keep going.
Don't expect length of time doing writing to make quality, it is intensity of creation that does that. HOW you write -- how invested you are? -- is more important than how long it takes.
Read? Feed your writing by reading.

and the most important one of all:

"8 -- Write. Just write."

Interesting. What tips do you have, what are your favorite things to make Nanowrimo go?

I think mine has to be a sheet of paper and a pencil. Yes, yes, I like my computer, keyboard, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, but... a sheet of paper and a pencil is where I do my thinking.

This year I'm trying something called "A Novel Idea" on my iPod. It's a little app, free for the basic functions, I paid the extra so I can email the results to myself. All it does is provide a set of notes, novel, scene, characters, locations, ideas, but they link together, and it has various questions about these parts. I think of it as a way to make notes almost anywhere, although some people apparently do write text in it, too. Not sure yet whether I like it or not, but it does provide a little bit more organized way to track notes.

Oh. I usually do end up reading yet another book about writing during Nanowrimo. This year it is Save the Cat! Strikes Back. And blog posts, web pages, and other oddities.

So... keep writing!

TECH: Writing a book in 3 days?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Nov. 4, 2014

I think I may have pointed at this before, but over here

http://www.ghostwoods.com/2010/05/how-to-write-a-book-in-three-days-1210/

Michael Moorcock, who produced a fairly impressive number of books, talks about his approach to writing a book in three days. Yes, it's genre work, but let's take a look at his approach...

1. Get prepared. Spend a day or two on that.
2. Model the basic plot on The Maltese Falcon, the Holy Grail, a quest by any other name. Several people are after something.
3. The hero versus something bigger than him. The hero doesn't want to be mixed up, but something happens that involves him on a personal level...
4. Make a list of things you will use:
  a. Prepare an event for every four pages.
  b. Make a list of coherent images.
  c. Make a complete structure. Not a plot, so much as a list of demands, narrative problems with solutions. He suggests looking around the room, picking an ordinary object, and turn it into what you need.
  d. Make a list of images that are purely fantastic, deliberate paradoxes.
5. Time is the important element. The action and adventure come out of a limited time. "We've only got six days before..." Then count down. I.e., set up your ticking clock!
6. Start with a mystery. Whatever you reveal something, do something else to increase the mystery.
7. Divide your total into four sections. Divide each section into six chapters. Keep chapters about 2500 words. In section 1, the hero says, "there's no way I can achieve the goal unless I start by..." Immediate goal with immediate time elements, and an overriding time demand. Then make each chapter move things forward. Most chapters will be attack of the bandits, defeat of the bandits – simple logic. In every encounter, they need at least information.
8. Use Lester Dent's master plot formula (below). Never reveal something that wasn't already established. Main characters should be in the first part, main themes established in the first part, developed in the second and third, and resolved in the last part.
9. Use a sidekick for responses that the hero can't have. The hero supplies the narrative dynamic. They are driven. So someone else has to ask the common sense questions.
10. When in doubt, switch to a minor character. Keep the narrative moving, and brew something else.

That's it. Then just sit down and write.

Oh, Lester Dent's Master Plot Formula. Doc Savage and other stories. You may know him as Kenneth Robeson.

Before he gets to the formula, he talks about characters. Basically, he suggests making a list of your characters, and then try to get along with about half that many. You probably need one hero, one villain, various people to murder or rescue. That's about it. He suggests a tag to characterize your characters. Something that makes them recognizable. Appearance, mannerisms, disposition, names.

Come up with one or more of the following: a different murder method, a different thing for the villain to be looking for, a different locale, a menace for the hero.

And then we have the master plot. Four parts:

First part
1. First line, or as soon as possible, introduce the hero and swat him with a fistful of trouble. Hint at mystery, menace, problem to be solved.
2. The hero tries to cope. He wants to solve the mystery, defeat the menace, or solve the problem.
3. Introduce all the other characters as soon as possible. Bring them in with action.
4. Near the end of the first part, the hero should end up in physical conflict.
5. Also near the end, there should be a complete surprise twist or revelation.

The beginning should have suspense, menace, and everything should happen logically.

Second part
1. More problems for the hero!
2. The hero struggles which causes
3. Another physical conflict!
4. Another surprise plot twist or revelation.

The second part should have suspense, menace, they hero should suffer, and it should be logical. Show everything. Tag characters.

Third part

1. More problems for the hero.
2. The hero makes some advances, and corners the villain in...
3. A physical conflict.
4. But there is a surprising plot twist, which makes things even worse for the hero...

Suspense, increased menace, they hero is in serious trouble, and it all happened logically.

Action, atmosphere, and description.

Fourth part

1. Even more trouble for the hero!
2. The hero should be at the blackest, worst point...
3. When the hero gets himself out of it using his own knowledge, training, and so forth.
4. Most of the mysteries are cleared up at this point as the hero succeeds.
5. Final twist, a big surprise.
6. A snapper, a punchline to end it.

The suspense should hold out to the last line, the menace needs to hold out. Everything should be explained that happen logically. The punchline should leave the reader with a warm feeling. If anybody is going to kill the villain, make it the hero.

There you go.
Just write!

NANO: Tell a Tale Kickers...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting Nov. 5, 2014

Courtesy of Tell a Tale, an application on my iPad... It provides a beginning line, three pictures, and a finishing line. Your job is to use the beginning line, somewhere in the story or the scene do something with the three pictures, and eventually use that finishing line. Now since I know you like to have some choices, pick a number between one and six, and take a look at what you've chosen:

1. We've been out of cheese so often, you have no idea.
A heron, an old fancy car, and a rat.
That was my strangest day ever.

2. The bell rang and everybody left.
A heron, a rooster, and a Golden Eagle.
Why don't you sit down and rest your feet?

3. She was walking to school.
A railroad train, a country church, and a campfire.
Look, the screen is coming to life again.

4. Come have a look, she said.
A fox, strawberries, a lady's shoe.
Now how do you like that?

5. Turn it down, or you'll burn it.
A Peregrine falcon, a can of red paint and a paintbrush, a railroad train.
I'll never forgive you.

6. We're invited to a party tomorrow.
A swimming icon, a crow, a rain cloud.
Eclipse of the sun? No, but night has fallen.

There you go. Something to help kick your writing along, as we move along in nanowrimo. Day five! So does that mean we are at the 10,000 word mark? Or at least pushing 8000?

Remember, a new character, changing scenes, a new event... These all take some words to add them into your story. And at least right now, more words is a good thing. So consider letting that bit character tell us about their problems, or maybe doing a little more scenery and setting. What is going on around your characters? Did their cell phone just ring? Who is it?

Write!
tink

TECH: Techniques of the Selling Writer (part 8)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Nov. 6, 2014

All right. So this is chapter 8, Preparation, Planning, Production. Swain starts out with a single line "A story is the triumph of ego over fear of failure." Now that's something to think about!

In this chapter, he's going to talk about several things that we need to learn.
1. What it means to be a writer.
2. How to recognize good story material.
3. How to prepare to write?
4. The best way for you to plan.
5. How to get the copy out!

As usual, I've summarized here, but you really should read all about it in Swain's book. There's a lot more material and details there.

So, what does it mean to be a writer? Swain suggests that the key is emotional involvement, feeling intensely. Writers need to react, to feel a desire. They need to be enthusiastic, sincere, self disciplined, and themselves.

Recognizing good story material? Well, there are probably three major considerations. First, is it too diffuse or complex? Look at the scope, the strength of the material, the complexity, and the time involved. Next, does it fit your readers' beliefs or philosophy? Yes, you can make them think, but if it's totally outside their view of life, they probably won't bother reading it. Finally, how does it fit the market? The age and sex of your characters, the settings you use, the categories of fiction, and the treatment you give it. Certainly you want to write your story, but at least thinking about what kind of market it has can help you.

Preparing to write. Basically, you need to get ideas, and then collect facts to back it up and support it. Collecting ideas? Well you have to find something that excites you, something that catches your interest. You can use creative thinking, looking at similarities, contrasts, and related stuff, to help fill the barrel. But you need ideas! Collecting facts -- that's research. People tend to tackle this in two different ways, one is searching for facts that you need, and the other is using information that you already have. Be careful about overdoing this, research can be a full-time job all in itself. But you've got the Internet -- Swain talks about the library -- you can do interviews, and you can get out in the field and see what's there. Lots of ways to get facts.

Making your own plan. This is where Swain talks about discovery writing or pantsers and outlining. He does point out that over planning, just like talking too much about it, can kill a story. He suggests you try a simple approach. Start with five key points. Who is your focal character, what is the situation, what is their goal, who is the opponent, and what is the climactic disaster? Now spend an hour free associating -- brainstorming ideas -- around those key points. Try making small changes, or maybe big ones, and see what you think. Remember, write it down. Then take another hour, and annotate what you are thinking. Next, type it all up. Feel free to make lists of scenes and characters that have been suggested by this exercise so far.

As the next step, Swain recommends going back to his two sentence summary. First a statement, with the situation, character, and their goal. Then a question, including the opponent and the disaster.

With this much in hand, Swain suggest you try writing. As you tackle each scene, stop for a moment and think through the goal, conflict, and disaster for that scene.

Probably the most important thing about planning is realizing that it is your plan. If you want to do free writing and just see where it goes, do that. If you want to do a mindmap or some other visual plan, do that! Collecting pictures from the magazines, laying it all out in a detailed outline, writing character biographies, interviewing your characters -- whatever planning works for you, and for this story, do it. Don't be afraid to take a sidetrip, or even to toss the plan and write. The key to your plan is that it is yours. No one will ever know whether you carefully went down the list and checked off each step, wrote it backwards and then shuffled, or wildly wrote scenes in random order and then revised the whole thing into shape.

Which brings us to the last part of this chapter. Getting the copy out. Producing! Probably one of the hardest things is realizing that as our own boss, working against our own deadlines or goals, it's really easy to let it slide. But you need to set yourself a procedure, figure out how to do revision, what to do for polishing, how to handle cutting, and what to do when it all breaks down, otherwise known as writers' block. So let's walk through those.

First of all, as far as producing goes, Swain points out that you have to get it out. You need to set yourself to work, you probably want to set regular work times. Lots of people find setting a quota is useful. Also, having a regular place to work can help. You need to eliminate distractions. Don't push yourself too hard! You need to stay alive -- get out and in touch with the world, and don't forget the exercise. Working in your head can lead to a very flabby body.

Next, learn revision. Swain is talking about structural change here, not the small stuff. Make sure your story has a straight line. You need to define an issue, with a yes no answer, and your story needs to establish the story question early. Every incident in your story should reflect the story question in some way. Your development needs to be logical. Finally, your climax should answer the story question, your hero needs to act to decide, and the resolution should tie up any loose ends. Along the way, make sure that the story builds from the beginning to the climax. And finally, make sure that the reader cares about the character.

After revision, check on polishing. This is the language, the little stuff. You need clarity, remove clutter, have consistency, sequence, flow, impact, and think about idiosyncrasy.

Cutting. The digital age is changing this, but you still may have to cut your work to fit. Swain points out that you should cut facts, not the emotions. Remember, readers are after emotions. Now there are two levels of cutting. If you just need a limited cut, try trimming words and phrases. Squeeze out those adjectives, tighten things up, and see if you can get what you need. For a more major cut, drop some scenes, or even get rid of some characters.

Swain ends this chapter with a whole section about various things that you can do to try to reduce or take care of blocks and stumbles and all those other things that may be stopping you from writing. Key points are:

1. Separate the creative and the critical. Create first, and be critical during revision.
2. Face your fears.
3. Build your self-esteem.
4. Don't demand too much.
5. Keep your own counsel. Yes, talking to people about what you're doing can be fun, but sometimes... You need to do it no matter what they think.
6. Follow your feelings.
7. Use free association. Free writing, just banging it out, sometimes loosens blocks.
8. Draw confidence from knowledge.
9. Soak yourself in your subject.
10. Incorporate your present interests. When you planned it, that was interesting, but now it's not so exciting. What's exciting now?
11. Take the bull by the horns. Start writing something. You may be surprised.
12. Stay with it. Perseverance is the name of the game.
13. Finish every story.
14. Set up your own private checklist. Where do you have trouble?
15. Give yourself a break. Sometimes you need to do something else.
16. Avoid crutches. Alcohol is not the answer.

Next, Swain takes a look at how to sell it. Stay tuned!

TECH: Fill in the background!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Nov. 7, 2014

This may help a bit with Nanowrimo. Basically, I was noticing that while we have various other things going on in our lives day to day, I still make time to scan the news, watch figureskating, and otherwise keep some tabs on what is going on outside this little slice of life. If nothing else, I check the weather forecast.

Admittedly, if you are doing a historical or something, there may be somewhat less access to news, but newspapers, criers, and such have been around for a while. And in the future, or in fantastical lands of your very own -- I'll bet people still are interested in what the crowned heads of Europe or other folks are doing, and manage somehow to keep track of it.

So -- yes, your story is about this character, who is struggling to succeed despite the nasty roadblocks that Snidely Whiplash is putting in the way. But while the focus needs to be on your hero, with lovers, mentors, sidekicks, and Snidely's horde of minions, you can probably toss in a few words along the way about the Olympics, or maybe the baseball games, or whatever? Hint to us about things that are happening in the wider world around your hero and his struggles, to help make that world feel real.

Okay? Just a dash, here and there, to remind us that there is a bigger world out there. And maybe some raindrops too?

Write!

NANO: Day 10? Wow, where does the time go?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Nov. 10, 2014

So, here we are! Day 10? About 20,000 words? Or at least 17,000, right? Crunch, crunch, crunch...

I have to admit, I kind of hit the wall this weekend. Looked at what I was doing, and said, "You know, that's not really that interesting. In fact, is this really the story I want to tell? AAARRRGGGGHH!"

Anyway, keep grinding. One notion for helping to get the wordcount up. Whenever you can, go ahead and run through the five senses. Don't let your character just see the setting, make sure they also hear, smell, taste, and feel it. What kind of birds or machines are making sounds in the background? What does the air smell like? Did someone really burn microwave popcorn in the lounge? What about that gum he's chewing? And when the train runs down the tracks nearby, the floor shakes. Or perhaps just the tablecloth feeling silky under his fingertips? Whatever, work those senses!

And write!