Writerly Ways
Dec. 6th, 2009 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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evil_little_dog beat me to these but since her lj post is locked and I link to moschus often here are her two blogs (off lj) about writing like a bad girl. As the infamous quote goes, 'well behaved women rarely make history.'
writing like a bad girl 1
writing like a bad girl 2
and while there were three remaining nano posts to share, one was from Baty that didn't amount to much and another was by some guy I dont' know but i didn't like his message. He was trying to encourage writers to read. You SHOULD read if you want to write but telling me to kill my TV because a real serious writer doesn't watch it...yeah, you lost me there. Sorry but that's crap.
Actually the last one wasn't that good either but people like Robin McKinley so here you go
Dear writer,
As I write this less than twenty-four hours before NaNoWriMo’s deadline for this pep talk, I also have a book due in eight days. Not just due. Absolute, final, already overdue, my-editor-is-a-patient-woman-but-publishing-schedules-are-publishing-schedules, due.
When NaNoWriMo contacted me last April about writing a pep talk for this year's masochi—er—enthusiastic writers, I had just decided to whack PEGASUS in half and make two books out of it. I have always been a write-each-draft-straight-through-and-don’t-look-back storyteller; it’s the way I develop a feel for the pacing, for where the high and low, careening and meditative, places of each story are—and how I discover where and how it's going to end. Consistency and clarity (and spelling) begin to emerge in the second draft; there are a lot of complete re-rewrites and outtakes during the second draft, and probably the most-per-page screams of frustration: the first draft has told me that the story is there but now I have to make it work on the page. The third draft should mainly be giving the story a really good brushing and plaiting its mane and tail—but there are hazards even here (ask anyone who has ever plaited a mane or a tail), nor is it likely to stand quietly for this operation.
Some time last winter, still on the first draft and beginning to panic, I... stopped. I did not write straight through to the end. I went back to the beginning and started on the second draft as if I knew what I was doing—as if I knew how it ended. I seriously don't know how PEGASUS ends. I won't know till I get there. And I didn't finish the first draft, so I didn't get there. I've never started a second draft without having finished a first draft—without knowing how it's going to end. I've never split a book into two books...
Writing is like this.
Oh, not exactly like this; every writer is different as every human being is different, one from another. (Some writers make their deadlines. Some writers know where they're going. Some writers don't mind not knowing where they're going.) But the chief thing I would like to get over to you, as you look to me to say something inspiring about this maniac—I mean, this energizing and felicitious project to write a first draft of a novel in a month, is the liveness of Story, and therefore the unpredictability inherent in writing any story down.
You need that live, tensile, surprising strength between you and the story you're trying to write, or it'll die on the page. But this doesn't make it easier. It makes it harder. It's more exciting—more thrilling, more appalling: on good days you'll fly higher than a peregrine cruising for dinner, on bad days someone will have to scrape you off the floor with a spatula. This is what writing is like. You have to write on through the highs and lows, the careens and the meditations of your stories. And that's what you're here for now: to write. Go for it. Good luck.
So last April, when NaNoWriMo contacted me, I had decided that PEGASUS was two books, and had cheered up a lot. My due date was the end of August—and for once in my life I was going to meet a deadline with no problem. NaNoWriMo suggested I send my encouraging words to them by the beginning of August. Fine. Happy to. Thanks for asking.
I got to the end of the third draft of the first volume of PEGASUS on 13 September. But PEGASUS has not been one of the easy brush-and-plait ones. I’m still combing the burrs out. I am going to make it. I am going to turn PEGASUS in on the 8th of October. I’m even going to get my pep talk in to NaNoWriMo by tomorrow.
If I can do these impossible things, you can do the impossible thing of writing the first draft of your novel in a month. It’s a first draft! It does not have to be a thing of beauty! Don’t worry about the spelling (or the consistency)! Just write it. I bet you can even get to the end, and find out what it is.
And may you have an absolutely brilliant time doing it. Writing can be the worst, and often is—but it can also be the best. May you come out of that month knowing what you want to do next, and eager to keep going. Try to remember the peregrine days on the days that your husband/wife/roommate/dog needs steel wool to get you off the floor. And keep writing: the only way you can learn how your stories work is by letting them tell you. By putting live words together.
Good luck.
Robin McKinley
as for me, i've had two weeks of serious burn out. I've only writen 139 words of original fiction this week but i am working on fanfic projects so...and i've been keeping you appraised of those.
But during nano i was aware of one issue with my mystery, the setting the hook at the end of each chapter to keep them reading. I feel it's probably lacking in Beneath the Torn Sky. I just read a mystery where it was done well with prehaps an overreliance of breaking a conversation in the middle.
example. I know you're carrying my child. dun dun DUUUUUN. and the next chapter starts with her going oh no i'm not.
does this feel like a cheat to anyone else? Yes, it will certainly make you keep reading. I don't mind when an action is broken and carried onto the next chapter. LIke the dectective gets shot at and we have to flip the page to see if he's hurt.
So how do YOU break a chapter for those of us writing longer works? What feels like a cheat to you? What do you really like as a cliffhanger?
One thing i really don't like too much is the cliffhanger line of 'if only i knew then what i know now' line. Kathy Reichs (Bones) does this way too often for my tastes in her books.
for those of you on the Original Fiction filter, honestly do you think the chapter breaks work or are they weak?
evil_little_dog beat me to these but since her lj post is locked and I link to moschus often here are her two blogs (off lj) about writing like a bad girl. As the infamous quote goes, 'well behaved women rarely make history.'writing like a bad girl 1
writing like a bad girl 2
and while there were three remaining nano posts to share, one was from Baty that didn't amount to much and another was by some guy I dont' know but i didn't like his message. He was trying to encourage writers to read. You SHOULD read if you want to write but telling me to kill my TV because a real serious writer doesn't watch it...yeah, you lost me there. Sorry but that's crap.
Actually the last one wasn't that good either but people like Robin McKinley so here you go
Dear writer,
As I write this less than twenty-four hours before NaNoWriMo’s deadline for this pep talk, I also have a book due in eight days. Not just due. Absolute, final, already overdue, my-editor-is-a-patient-woman-but-publishing-schedules-are-publishing-schedules, due.
When NaNoWriMo contacted me last April about writing a pep talk for this year's masochi—er—enthusiastic writers, I had just decided to whack PEGASUS in half and make two books out of it. I have always been a write-each-draft-straight-through-and-don’t-look-back storyteller; it’s the way I develop a feel for the pacing, for where the high and low, careening and meditative, places of each story are—and how I discover where and how it's going to end. Consistency and clarity (and spelling) begin to emerge in the second draft; there are a lot of complete re-rewrites and outtakes during the second draft, and probably the most-per-page screams of frustration: the first draft has told me that the story is there but now I have to make it work on the page. The third draft should mainly be giving the story a really good brushing and plaiting its mane and tail—but there are hazards even here (ask anyone who has ever plaited a mane or a tail), nor is it likely to stand quietly for this operation.
Some time last winter, still on the first draft and beginning to panic, I... stopped. I did not write straight through to the end. I went back to the beginning and started on the second draft as if I knew what I was doing—as if I knew how it ended. I seriously don't know how PEGASUS ends. I won't know till I get there. And I didn't finish the first draft, so I didn't get there. I've never started a second draft without having finished a first draft—without knowing how it's going to end. I've never split a book into two books...
Writing is like this.
Oh, not exactly like this; every writer is different as every human being is different, one from another. (Some writers make their deadlines. Some writers know where they're going. Some writers don't mind not knowing where they're going.) But the chief thing I would like to get over to you, as you look to me to say something inspiring about this maniac—I mean, this energizing and felicitious project to write a first draft of a novel in a month, is the liveness of Story, and therefore the unpredictability inherent in writing any story down.
You need that live, tensile, surprising strength between you and the story you're trying to write, or it'll die on the page. But this doesn't make it easier. It makes it harder. It's more exciting—more thrilling, more appalling: on good days you'll fly higher than a peregrine cruising for dinner, on bad days someone will have to scrape you off the floor with a spatula. This is what writing is like. You have to write on through the highs and lows, the careens and the meditations of your stories. And that's what you're here for now: to write. Go for it. Good luck.
So last April, when NaNoWriMo contacted me, I had decided that PEGASUS was two books, and had cheered up a lot. My due date was the end of August—and for once in my life I was going to meet a deadline with no problem. NaNoWriMo suggested I send my encouraging words to them by the beginning of August. Fine. Happy to. Thanks for asking.
I got to the end of the third draft of the first volume of PEGASUS on 13 September. But PEGASUS has not been one of the easy brush-and-plait ones. I’m still combing the burrs out. I am going to make it. I am going to turn PEGASUS in on the 8th of October. I’m even going to get my pep talk in to NaNoWriMo by tomorrow.
If I can do these impossible things, you can do the impossible thing of writing the first draft of your novel in a month. It’s a first draft! It does not have to be a thing of beauty! Don’t worry about the spelling (or the consistency)! Just write it. I bet you can even get to the end, and find out what it is.
And may you have an absolutely brilliant time doing it. Writing can be the worst, and often is—but it can also be the best. May you come out of that month knowing what you want to do next, and eager to keep going. Try to remember the peregrine days on the days that your husband/wife/roommate/dog needs steel wool to get you off the floor. And keep writing: the only way you can learn how your stories work is by letting them tell you. By putting live words together.
Good luck.
Robin McKinley
as for me, i've had two weeks of serious burn out. I've only writen 139 words of original fiction this week but i am working on fanfic projects so...and i've been keeping you appraised of those.
But during nano i was aware of one issue with my mystery, the setting the hook at the end of each chapter to keep them reading. I feel it's probably lacking in Beneath the Torn Sky. I just read a mystery where it was done well with prehaps an overreliance of breaking a conversation in the middle.
example. I know you're carrying my child. dun dun DUUUUUN. and the next chapter starts with her going oh no i'm not.
does this feel like a cheat to anyone else? Yes, it will certainly make you keep reading. I don't mind when an action is broken and carried onto the next chapter. LIke the dectective gets shot at and we have to flip the page to see if he's hurt.
So how do YOU break a chapter for those of us writing longer works? What feels like a cheat to you? What do you really like as a cliffhanger?
One thing i really don't like too much is the cliffhanger line of 'if only i knew then what i know now' line. Kathy Reichs (Bones) does this way too often for my tastes in her books.
for those of you on the Original Fiction filter, honestly do you think the chapter breaks work or are they weak?
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-06 10:21 pm (UTC)NSI has been my first experience of writing something longer, and my first mystery. I actually plotted out the chapter breaks at the start, and tried to make sure there was always a hook to the next chapter ... but I think in practice I probably over-planned a bit, resulting in some cheese-tastic cliffhangers (some of which I've enjoyed more than others) and not enough room to manoeuvre when I had to change things. Difficult, because the plot I've been trying to handle is so big and multi-stranded that I've had to do a lot of detailed planning, and there were times I've felt like it was constricting and there's less room to be spontaneous with humour or let characters and relationships grow organically and surprise me.
Beyond cheesy cliffhangers (like pretending to kill Riza! my timing with that one was funny) my idea has been to somehow 'advertise' in each chapter that some interesting development is going to happen in the next chapter. It's been a learning experience and once I've finished I'll probably ask my flist for concrit on the structure of the piece - I want to write a sequel but I'm sure there are lots of ways I can improve.
Re. cheaty cliffhangers - the classic Doctor Who one where you get the character in as much trouble as possible, then handwave it in five seconds at the start of the next chapter. That feels unsatisfying. I agree with you about the crappy cliffhanger you cite. With the Riza thing I felt like I couldn't take her immediately out of danger and was obliged to make the resolution as 'big' as the cliffhanger. Not sure if I succeeded, but that was what was on my mind at the time.
The sort of cliffhangers I like best are game-changing revelations that show the reader that they've been looking at things the wrong way. Papa Longstaff's drying out and making amends is a good example of that although it's not a cliffie, but I do like where it is in the centre of the chapter.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-06 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-06 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-06 11:18 pm (UTC)interesting. See I'ver never actually plotted out anything like that. I just plug away and what happens, happens. I barely even take notes on what should happen (and i SHOULD do that more). I've never run into the 'locked in' feeling. though that is why i don't like to outline much. I have killed my stories trying it. I don't like the structure. I'm more in Steven King's camp, let it spin.
why is it long stories want you to write even longer sequels for them?
I thought the Riza thing (and yes the timing of that was amusing) was paced just fine. though i'm sure once you get it all written and go back you'llbe thinking i did this here? Why? (I know i do that)
there are several game changing things in Placid's story but i can't quite convince them to be the end of the damn chapter so i can make people read on.
and i'm now hungry for bar food after our last talk but my stomach is doing it's 'i'm not going to digest anything today' crap so i'm probablyjust having soup
no subject
Date: 2009-12-06 11:26 pm (UTC)Some of it was more spontaneous - the main villain and his unpleasant spidery ways got dreamed up part way through - when he turned up in Chapter 2 I didn't yet know who he was. I'm quite fond of him now.
I'll try to have a look at the chapter breaks over the next couple of days but in general I'm wanting to read on because I like the gradual unfolding of the story and the characters/relationships. I mean, it doesn't have to be a cliffhanger to keep you going, I feel like the plot's definitely in motion.
I want Mel and Placid to do the do, btw. She can cure him of his poor body image with sexytiems!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 02:42 am (UTC)i love when villians do that. Actually the villian in Placid's story was much the same. now to plant those red herrings.
and that's good to know. So long as the plot isn't stagnanting.
hahaha well since this was originally an erotic short story i doubt there'll be issues there. It's just taking much longer than before (but probably a little more believable. Mel did get hurt)
they were trying to tell me last night about the first night. Go away it's 2 AM. but you have tolisten...ugh that's not sexy. that requires a hanky.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 09:18 am (UTC)My giftexchange fic basically wrote itself. I do need to polish, though.
Were they each others' first, then? Aww. As you know, I love stories about teen sex fail, there's something very funny and adorable about it.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 08:02 pm (UTC)actually that wasn't quite what I meant. but yeah actually they WERE each others first and that's in an upcoming chapter. they're actually closing in on 30 in this story and I meant the first time BACK together. Ineed to learn to be clear
no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 01:07 am (UTC)I usually do a chapter break when the scene changes. So some of my chapters are longer than others at the moment.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-07 02:23 am (UTC)some times i do and other time i do not so i don't have tiny chapters, not that im sure it matters.