The Place For My Writers Notes

Writer's Digest, March 2004, page 42 to 49, has a bonus section with the title, "Novel Writing Boot Camp," by Bob Mayer. I'm probably not going to summarize all of the bits and pieces, but let's pick out some of the odds and ends.

And today, we're going to look at the first couple of pages that talk about ideas and preparation and organization. Probably the first important point is the notion that writing only when you're excited or enthused probably isn't good enough. You want to make writing a regular part of your life.

So maybe start with the calendar and plan ahead. Break your time into writing projects. Give yourself weekly writing goals. Don't forget time to do research, make phone calls, or whatever information and idea gathering techniques you use. And plan on updating the calendar once a week.

Many people find a daily writing goal useful. Some number of pages, hours, or words. Set yourself a goal, and meet or exceed it. Don't destroy yourself if you don't make it, just try to make your goal the next time.

One suggestion is to use an erasable whiteboard -- write up daily objectives and then erase them as you complete them. I actually prefer notepad paper myself, there's something gratifying about tearing up the paper after I've done something.

Characters and setting. Many people find it worthwhile to do character and setting background before starting a novel. Who are all the people? Make a master character list, with quick descriptions and personal histories. And every time you use a name, right down and give a brief description, even for people you don't expect to see again. That way if you happen to run across a parking lot attendant again, you won't spend a lot of time finding her name.

Locales -- check the maps and atlases for real places. And even for places you are creating, you may want to at least do sketch maps. Any important places -- apartments, work areas, the gloomy castle, or whatever -- may also deserve a diagram or at least a description.

Outlining is probably one of the touchiest subjects, with people declaring that they are discovery writers and others insisting that they are outliners. It's an easy way to keep track of what you're trying to do, especially when subplots get involved. When you make them in your process can be very different -- some people like to make a very detailed one, working things out carefully in outline, and then writing to the outline. Other people prefer a sketchy outline, often filling it in as they work. The key point here is to use the outline to help you write. Maybe it's just key words about events and characters, maybe it's short paragraphs describing each chapter. Work out what helps you best.

That's really it. Plan your schedule. Do your background research on characters and settings. And decide how you're going to handle outlining, then do it.

Organization. When you're going to work on something for an extended period of time -- and even fast novels take time -- you need to figure out your own ways to lay out the work and keep track of it.