Dear Novel

Posted in the NaNo forums: Writing an honest letter to your novel can help during those days in November when you're full of doubt and want to give up. Just read it and remember why you began this crazy adventure:

Dearest Novel,

I can't believe that you're so close to coming into the world. It seemed just like yesterday you were only an idea to me, an abstraction. Now you're becoming more and more real, and I want to be a part of that reality.

But I'm scared.

Long hours of labor are nigh. It will be painful and exhausting, and well, there also will be relief because the time has come and soon it will be over. I've done this before, but my fear creeps up on me each time. What if something happens? What I dread most is losing you.

Novel, never think that I won't overcome that fear. For though I know that what's ahead will be difficult, I still look forward to having you here. You're worth it. You're worth the heartache and pain ahead. And whether your existence was part of the plan or a happy accident, I want you to be a part of my life.

I want to cry with you, laugh with you, go on a journey with you. There's so much about you I have to learn. Though joy will be in our time together, the experience will be a time of trial, too. And I'll be tempted to give up on you. But you've got to know one thing: I will not give up.

One day you'll be here in my very hands--a beautiful mess covered in my blood, sweat, and tears. Oh, how I look forward to that day.

I'll be with you until that bittersweet end, after I've raised you and nurtured you, and the time comes for you to leave me. That raising will be another period of labor, filled with its own ups and downs. One thought will haunt me: what if you're not good enough? What if no one loves you? However, I promise that I won't leave you half-formed. I will prepare you to go out into that scary world full of those who might hate you and spite you and abandon you without really knowing you.

You will be ready; I know your strength despite your many flaws. They are my flaws too, and I'll see more of myself in you the more you grow. We can overcome our weaknesses--never doubt that. Yet you will be strong, too. And I'll love you for that. In you, I find my own strength. Together, we'll bring out the best in us. I might want to keep you with me forever and protect you, but I know that with hard work you will be taught to stand on your own. I'll be fighting for you every step of the way. I have so much hope for you!

So, dear novel, I promise to give you all I got, and I won't let you down. I will not stop until you're whole and complete. I'm fully committed. I'm all in.

Love,

Your Author

Learning from My Peers

I'm trying to give feedback as much as I can. It helps me to see mistakes that I make in my own writing, but from a more distant perspective. I feel the effects of those hits and misses instead of just assuming that a particular attempt works.

Today I learned the importance of having a full story, one that isn't too thin. I guess this is where subplots and plot layers come in to give a story some heft, and also help to turn things in new directions. If everything hurtles toward the end in a straightforward path, there's nothing much to engage me.

So, I'll keep that in mind when I'm thinking that the plot I have is "enough."

When Plans Change

So I start typing out my story, just winging it, trying to get a feel for what I'm doing, where I'm going, and whom I'm I'm writing about when it hits me.

I'm writing about the wrong characters.

What do I do now? I close the document and write down about these new people and their issues and what they want. And it's totally different than what I'm doing. I can't just keep writing and plug in these characters; it's going to take some rethinking.

Or is it? Maybe these are just secondary characters, or the ones I started out with are the secondary characters. Whichever the case, I might not have to start completely over.

But I'm not afraid to, if I have to.

Writing by the Seat of My Pants

Starting April 1 (how appropriate!) I will be writing a story I was supposed to be developing all this month, but I've only managed to come up with an ending to. I'll be pantsing it.

That means this particular story will be an outline and rough draft in one, full of dead ends and scary surprises. Well, the scary surprises should be there, considering that it will be horror. Yet I think I'm mostly the one in for the unexpected frights. This might be one of my 'hot mess-don't let it see the light again' stories.

And I really liked the idea for this, too. Maybe I can adapt it as a screenplay later. Yeah, that's right. Convince yourself that this isn't a waste of time...

Gender Equality in Writing

When I think of gender equality in writing, I'm not thinking about sex politics. Or how many characters of each gender should be in a story. Or power dynamics relating to gender in a relationship. I'm simply referring to how I approach characters of a gender in my writing. Too often when I read stories or scripts, one group or another gets the short stick.

I don't like seeing agendas. Oh, this is feminist. This is rhetoric about transgender and on and on. I didn't come to your fictional piece to be preached at. Write an essay (or blog post) for that.

Having one group of people in a story be uniformly negative is usually a giveaway of a prejudice for me--whether sexist, racist, nationalist, ageist, or whatever. Just don't do it. Make each character an individual that stands by his or her own merits, not by the inclusion or exclusion of a group or social status.

You have a character who is a woman? Will she automatically be the one is hurt or rescued? The victim? Will she be the least developed character? Oh, I'm a guy--I don't know so much about girls so I'm not going to bother...blah, blah, blah.

I've seen the same thing with male characters. All the guys are all negative or barely developed. Hey, let's make all the men abusers! Psychopaths... Mindless killing machines who are driven by sex and money. Well, I know plenty of guys like that. This one time, this guy blah, blah, blah...

Yeesh.

What if you don't know you're doing this? Take a piece of current writing--any piece--and change every single character's gender identity. Do the character choices become strange now? Do you find some characters to be bland or weak now? Do you think some characters are detestable now?

Becoming aware of biases is a nice first step. Yet we'll all have this in our writing to some degree even if we are aware of it. It's just a matter of being in control of it and knowing how to subvert it and use it to maybe connect to people surprising ways.

Action Scenes

I don't really like action scenes. They feel so impersonal. I like the closer, more emotional stuff. Not melodrama. Just when people are revealing things without meaning to. I like writing those dynamics and having the characters negotiate and struggle to conceal what they really want while, at the same time, strive to get that want.

However, action scenes are so blunt. It's all about grabbing what you want. Wham. Bam. Got it. Not a lot of room for nuance. Yet I'm trying for subtlety anyway. The action is really about something else, so they can do all these activities so openly and baldly and it still mean something deeper down. Theme...blah, blah, blah. Symbolizes da da da dah.

Old Ideas

I'm looking through my stacks and stacks of writings, trying to organize them once and for all. Yeah, right.

Anyways, I came across old ideas that I've abandoned and that led me to thinking? Do I go back to them or do I march ahead with new ideas? I didn't see anything that made me cringe too mightily so there might be some gems in those heavily creased papers.

Or maybe I abandoned them for a reason.

Protagonist Flaw

I'm back to working on my novel, and the characters for that story. This round of development is their flaws. And it's important for me to get right because it determines not just the character arc, but the story itself.

Also, the protagonist's flaw dictates all of the other characters' flaws because the other characters will be viewpoints on the protag flaw and reveal different worldviews on it.

So the flaw covers how a character might heal from two possible angles: serving others or seeing the self honestly. This can be in any combination or order. The protag might have to see the self first clearly to help others, or might have to help others before she can see herself. Or the story might just be all about internal reflections or just all about external actions. Then again, the protag might not quite learn anything at all. But I think that's advanced writing techniques not meant for us mere mortals...

The protagonist has a need that she doesn't know about but needs to fulfill. The flaw blocks that need. Over the course of the story, the protagonist's actions and decisions will either strengthen the flaw and/or make it more dominant or weaken the flaw and/or make it less dominant. Near the end of the story the protagonist demonstrates that she has overwhelmed the flaw and conquered it or has been overwhelmed by the flaw and been consumed by it.

The flaw may be hidden to the protagonist at first because her life has allowed her to work around her flaw, or at least live with the flaw unchallenged. She might even see her flaw as a strength. However, the impending story comes along and shows her flaw for what it is--a weakness. It holds her back, forcing her to try new strategies and learn different methods/ways of thinking for dealing with problems. She can no longer strive for what she wants with the flaw in her life as it is. Something's got to give.

Will it be her?

Using Presentation Software as Digital Index Cards

Writing, blah, blah, blah. Screenplay, blah, blah, blah.

I've done a step-outline (scene list), and that showed me major gaps in my story. However, I couldn't see where they were. Therefore, I decided to use powerpoint (generic: presentation software) to help me see what needed to be filled in.

I like small scenes, so for my particular story, each slide equals one-2 minute scene. I will need 50-55 scenes to make a 105 page script...that will probably be more like 45-50 in the end, however.

If I can't fit the scene on the card, then I know that the scene needs to be reworked. Then I play the presentation, looking for the flow and pacing. I notice which characters are being left out for too long and which storylines are forgotten. I also get a feel for when I begin a plot point too late or too early.

Something needs to go in a different place? Just drag it there. Need to delete a scene. A couple of clicks (I only do this on the copy) and it's done.

Very helpful. Best of all, I don't have a hundred cards to mix up or lose.

Subplot or Plot Layer

Okay, panic mode is over, and I've just about worked out the kinks in my screenplay.

I've laid out most of the main plot and a lot of the subplot, and I do believe I've got it all straightened out. It all started from figuring out what was really the subplot and what was just a plot layer of the main plot.

So I realized that anything depended on the main character's story was just a plot layer. Anything that was independent, that branched off and did its own thing, connecting and intersecting at certain spots until maybe at the very end, was indeed a subplot. The subplot contains its very own main characters.

That let me see that I had 5 plot layers (for each supporting character that had a small arc and resolution that related to the main plot) and 2 subplots (for the characters that had their own branching stories). I lopped off one subplot, and voila-- I had simplified my story to a manageable level.

Inciting Incident and Protagonist Flaw

Still working on that screenplay. I think I've gotten the barebones structure laid out--something that I'm kind of happy with for now. I was unsure about the climax before, but I see now that it was the whole second act and in particular the inciting incident.

Before I just had the protagonist eventually accept the call to adventure and then hilarity ensue, and she reaps the repercussions from that. However, I came upon this web site that laid out the structure of 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN and at the inciting incident it had the protagonist's flaw linked to it.

I decided to do the same. What could I throw at the protagonist that tests her weakness right from the start? Then I saw that everything began building right off to a natural climax. I didn't have to force anything like I felt I was doing before. The plot points fell into place easier too and made better sense.

So I guess the moral of the story is to get it everything in order right from the start.

Filling out the Middle

In the second story I'm working on (I'm working on three right now--yeah, I know smart, right?), I finally worked out how to make the story build to the climax instead of kind of--I don't know--plateau to it.

I had to think about the 'promise of the premise' and what someone reading my story would expect from it by the title, blurb, cover, synopsis, etc. My job is not to deliver exactly what they want, but to give them an experience that satisfies some part of what they are looking for.

I mean, my story will be labeled by genre, for one. I have to meet those expectations. If my books says 'Western' but I set it at the North Pole, then people are going to be furrowing eyebrows and getting confused. And there's no need for that. People seek out certain stories hoping for certain experiences, and I don't want to fool them--deliberately or not.

Therefore, I thought carefully about the experience and message and story I'll be promising to the audience. Will everything that I promised ultimately be delivered? Am I promising things I have no intentions of giving them? Am I continually building toward that promise to keep their expectations going up? Is what I'm giving them better than what they expected?

That last question is the one I'm always striving for. I'm not always going to give a reader what he or she wants because sometimes the reader wants the safe, boring choice. I just have to be sure to show how, in all its glory, the choice I've presented is the best one for the story.

Boy, do I fail at doing that.

Figuring out the End to Know Where to Begin

I'm forcing myself to develop this story. Not because I'm not interested in it, but because it's so dauntingly blank. I know so little about it.

But today I had a breakthrough. I began working on the ending. In particular, I chose the lessons that the main character will learn about what's going on inside herself and where she's been going wrong in dealing with others. Then I have her clearly see the correct path in righting her wrongs against others. Will she take it?

I immediately became excited when I limited where the story could go. Weird, huh? A lot of writers would say they'd lose interest if they knew the end. Yet, I don't really know the end, the end. I don't know the climax of the story. I just know the resolution. That's different. I know how she solves her problem, but I don't know how she will confront it; I don't know how the battle will turn out. I don't know if she will win or lose.

I still have many choices to make. Knowing that makes narrowing down the ending freeing. And now I know more about where to begin, at what point in the story is the starting point. I know more clearly what my first words will be.

The "Character-Driven" Trap

I'm beginning to despise the phrase "character-driven" and all of its variations. It's something a lot of  genre writers use feel better about their writing, because the literary writers and their critics have told us that only that kind of story or work is worthwhile. It drives me bananas. These writers will use it to describe a fantasy story that they feel is a better cut than the rest. "This deserves attention and awards," they think. So they spout off that it's character driven. Then I pick it up or download it and wonder how this new experimentation in high fantasy will read. I watch as stock characters go by and mountains of text that builds up worlds but ignores the character's thoughts. An inner journey is sometimes shown, but it's all based on emotion or action, not the totality of the character. I only get a small part of the character, but the events--the happenings surrounding them--are laid out in all their full glory.

Disappointed, I put the story down. I've had my expectations directed to experience one thing and was given something else.

The sorry part is that I could have enjoyed that story if it weren't pretending to be something else. That writer said that this story is driven by the characters, and I began reading it because that's what I wanted.  I don't always look for this type of story, but when I do, I want to get what I'm looking for.

I'll just say this: "Well-developed" or round characters do not equal a story that is character-driven. They are not one and the same. I wish some authors would get this because it makes me not look forward to their next work. I think, "If this person doesn't know the craft of writing well enough to see the difference in what that person is saying the work is and what it actually is, then I can't trust the writer enough to spend hours of my day reading those stories." I mean, what else do they not fully understand? I don't want to struggle through some careless, ignorant text while they figure out what they're doing. This is a piece of my life and my income that I'm exchanging for this experience. The least the author could do is be honest.

But no, we let others shame us into lying to ourselves. Then we wonder why the readers throw shrill words back at us. This doesn't have to be. We have to stop being ashamed of the wonders we have written. If I spend a year developing a character, a world, and their stories, I'm going to be freaking proud of what I've accomplished. So what, it isn't a character study? Not everyone is looking for that. Oh, but the people who are give out those prestigious awards and the writers who create that work get all kinds of recognition. This small group says that this is an important work.

Who cares?

Not me. I've struggled through many an important work, full of basic writing atrocities. They show me this character in all of its aspects, but forget to connect it to me. They write if for themselves and the critics and leave me out of the picture. It exists for dry study, shallow because it only explores the one dimension of idea. Don't we realize that those stories are flat too?

In fact, the literary stories I have enjoyed the most had an external journey for the character to follow while pieces of the whole character were revealed to me. Those are the ones that stuck with me. Today, the critics honor those experimental pieces that move the indifferent parts of the mind, but don't touch the heart. Tomorrow, that might not be so. This is just a current trend in writing that may pass away.

But you know, that story that turns me into a character study, that inspires me to explore my mind, my heart, my soul, my past, present, my future, and that of those around me--that story will endure. So that plot that is disdained but secretly loved (admit it; you love it) is what drives your story. This happened and the character reacted. The character did that and this happened. (We do realize that the order doesn't matter, right? Plot-driven is plot driven.) Well, this is how my life goes. It passes me by and I run to catch up, to get ahead of it. I like to see that reflection in situations (plot + setting!) that aren't mine. I am a well-developed character in the midst of plot. Aren't you? Are we ashamed of ourselves?

Romance Cliches I Can't Stomach

For true happily ever afters a pure romance novel must follow these rules...

• Rule 1: The heroine must never be more successful than the hero. If she begins the story being more successful, either she will lose her success or the hero will all of sudden strike it bigger (because of his savvy and hard work paying off, of course)
• Corollary 1A: If the hero left the heroine poor, he will return rich.
• Corollary 1B: If the heroine and hero are in the same position, career-wise, then the hero will be a natural talent and the heroine will struggle with her successes, if any.
• Rule 2: The heroine must have enjoyed sex with the hero the most. Most of the time the hero is her first, but now that sexual mores are relaxing, a more experienced heroine still can't truly enjoy sex with anyone but the hero. Because true love=best sex of your life. Oddly enough, she can also have enjoyed sex with her dead husband (not just ex-husband, unless he is also the hero), but that sex will be described as 'warm'--not hot.
• Rule 3: If the heroine hurts a man and is not punished/doesn't say 'sorry,' then the man is not her true love. (The story is letting us know that he isn't the one, and showing us that we will soon see the man being terrible to the heroine.)
• Rule 4: The hero can be as rough as he wants when it comes to lovemaking-- if he can't convince her that it's good, then he isn't 'the one' (and only then is he a rapist). See Rule 2.
• Rule 5: If the heroine is doing her own thing that is incompatible with the hero's...life, then she must give up the life she built because he sure won't give up his.
• Rule 6: If the couple doesn't have big, dramatic, and passionate fights, then the man will prove to not be the one.
• Rule 7: Hate always turns to love if the hero is persuasive enough.
• Rule 8: Heroine can't control her responses during sex or even making out.
• Rule 9: If the heroine has made a mess of her life, the hero will be the only one who can sort her out.
• Rule 10: If she's rich, he's also rich. If she's poor, then he's rich. See Rule 1 They will only be about equal if they're blue-collar or middle class.
• Rule 11: Even if the hero appreciates larger than average women, the woman will still be self-conscious about her body and lose the weight by the end.
• Rule 12: The bad boy must be emasculated by the love of a good woman.
• Rule 13: If the heroine is a bitch--that's fiesty. If the Other Woman is bitchy, she's a bitch who deserves only bad things to happen to her.
• Rule 14: She so bootiful, but she doesn't know it.
• Rule 15: One man-- arrogant, more aggressive, and more domineering. Other--respectful, quiet, and egaltarian. Who wins? Mr. Testosterone, of course. But she is still rather fond of Other.

'African American' Fantasy Novels

Is it weird that I can tell what a story in this category will be about just by the setting?

• If it's LA--gangs;
• Georgia--slaves in the Civil War era;
• Mississippi Delta--black people overcoming racism;
• The Carolinas--interacial couple;
• Lousiana--mulattoes mixed in with hoodoo and voodoo;
• Africa (y'all know that's a big ole continent, right?)--tribespeople finding spiritualism.

Why is a genre with so few black authors already limited and stereotypical in what those authors do?

LeFiWriMo 2012 - Day 9

Twenty-one days left.

I'm exactly halfway behind. I thought I would have plenty of time to write with the kids out of school, but my situation's been the opposite of that. I've been running, running, running. And when I have the space and time to write, my mind's so burned out that I can't do anything.

At least I got 1,000 words down yesterday while I was traveling.

3217 words out of 25000. Only 21,783 words to go. Yeesh.

LeFiWriMo 2012 - Day 3

Okay, my momentum is... nonexistent. If only I could come up with the excitement I had when I was thinking about writing this. Every other minute I come up with some other idea I think I would like to do more than what I'm doing now.

But I'm invested in this. I want to have a series of stories for my husband's blog. I want to write them. But it's just so boring. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The research is the best part for me, going to different sites, looking up passages in my Bible. The act of writing them out, on the other hand, is like pulling duck's teeth.

I hope I find my joy in this. Soon.

I'm supposed to be at 2500 words right now. *Murder >.<*

LeFiWriMo 2012 Day 2

It's that time again! The LegendFire Writing Community is hosting another Writing Month this April as a counterpart to NaNoWriMo. The differences? Well, the word goal is 25,000 instead of 50,000; it's hosted by my favorite writing community; and it feels more cozy and close knit than the sprawling NaNo site. It's LeFiWriMo.

Hopefully, I'll do as well as I did in the previous one. This seems to be the only time that I can actually stick with my writing every day. I'm writing morality tales about how a demon (it never actually shows up) influences the people attending a church youth group.

Today is Day 2 and I've got to get my 1K words down. So far I've found ways to procrastinate.

Procrastination #1: Created my own Word Count Progress bar.

Goals

Big sigh.

I'm making progress with most of my goals. The word count and writing everyday? No problem. The learning about the writing craft? Done and done.

The writing a different plot type to learn plots? No go. I can't finish the story I started. I just can't. It's not coming out the way I picture it. I'm so bored with it. I probably should just start over or on something else but... I'm lazy.

There. I said it.

I've been clocking in around two to four thousand words a week. I can do better. I will do better. I'll be diligent and persistent. Side note: I need to figure out how to update my goals more often.