I know where BK will be set. I’m listing the settings in yWriter and in my notes software. This is the first part of this step. Once I have the settings down for further reference, I start the setting sketch.

What I used to do is start this in my notes program in a tree view. I really don’t like this, nor do I want to use the worksheets from the book. So this time I’m looking towards yWriter to get this down. One of the features of yWriter is the ability to assign locations to scenes. Combined with scene notes I think I can pull this off.

First I write down the names of the setting in the order I think they’ll go in the novel. This could be by country, city, places within the city or times of day.

I create a chapter and a scene, naming the scene “Setting Sketch”. I add the location for that chapter by dragging it over. In the notes tab, I do the setting sketch or what I think what will happen at that setting.

The actual setting sketch details the place, time, who’s there, a summary of what happens and how many chapters I think it’s gonna take to write it out.

There are two things going on here. I’m not just getting down the where and when, but I’m also getting down the basic plot at the same time. I’m not going to go back on this part. Once it’s down I’ll reference it only once more before deleting it.

Tips for Today:

WD: I am not an Exception: That is learn the rules and follow the guidelines. There are rules on writing, submitting and publishing.

NaNo: Study your favorite authors, their voice style and content. NaNo advises practicing to write like them for awhile. This is great practice but it doesn’t belong in a finished piece.

Related posts:

1. CPGO: Step 2 – Research List & Setup
2. CPGO: Step 3 – Characters
3. A Crazy Person’s Guide to Outlining: Step One-The Idea

Maybe it’s wish fulfillment. I’m Jewish and I’ve been watching the conflict in Israel/Palestine with ever-growing horror, especially since the recent invasion of the Gaza Strip. This ongoing conflict has been and becomes increasingly one of the most powerful influences in my own identity as a Semitic person.  And I think that the complexity and emotion behind this issue influences what is meaningful to me in my own writing, the horror, the struggle against the same archtypes or stereotypes the characters define themselves by, and alternatively the hopelessness or hope they experience.

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I don’t do happy.  I tend to create more serial killers than princesses. My characters are more apt to be seeking revenge then to be looking for love and I find sociopaths fascinating.

Cory doesn’t like my writing because he thinks it means I could be damaged or depressed or just plain crazy. Why would a happy person want to delve into the mind of a psychopath?

When I show my work to those outside my writing group will they see me differently? Will they be hiding the knives in case I snap?

What does our genre of choice say about us? Can happy people write about horrible things?

Do non-writers look at horror writers differently than those that write fantasy? Are all romance writers sex crazed and all science fiction writers geeks?

Maybe…maybe not.

Previously published at bridgetshaffer.wordpress.com

Related posts:

1. How to Join Us
2. Bridget Shaffer
3. Hello!

The first is how I thrive on organization. The second is how I fall apart at lack of it.

I don’t know why it is that I can organize not only my life, but that of my son, but I can’t seem to organize my own brain. I go through my weeks with only a vague idea of what day it actually is. I keep my house clean, dishes and laundry done, trash taken out, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and various snacks prepared, time to play outside balanced against ever-changing weather, errands run, and still manage to play with my toddler, to teach him words, manners, safety, and how to do things like use a fork and put his shoes on. In between all this, I find time to write and to job hunt.

Job hunting. It’s a joy. Search. Apply. Fill out yet another application. Submit resumé. Keep track of each position, cross fingers, and wait.

It’s the interviews that make me feel my most unorganized. Why is it that I can do all that I listed above, but I can’t seem to convey to potential employers that I can bring those skills into the workplace? Quite simply, I fall apart when I’m in a situation where other people are watching. I fumble notes, forget what I had planned to ask or say, and so far, I’ve been refused for every job.

I guess the most important thing is that Jaidan knows he can rely on me not to let him down. For now, living here with him is my job, and I will continue to do the best I can. It all comes down to organization.

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Nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s go over the fundamentals and then I’ll tell you how you can use this to make your novels impossible to put down.

Act One: The Beginning

The first act introduces things. It introduces your protagonist, their world, and the change right there on page on that disrupts the protagonist’s status quo. In this act, your protagonist struggles to get on top of things and reacts to the disruption. You’re building slowly but steadily to the first act break, where your protagonist asserts control and takes the initiative, changing the direction of the plot into…

Act Two: The Complications

In this act, your protagonist struggles to overcome the story’s central problem. You’ll throw lots of twists, turns and obstacles at your protagonist, forcing them to continue the struggle. This is often done as a series of try/fail cycles, where the protagonist tries something, figures out why that didn’t work and then uses that to try something new. Mysteries, with all their clues and red herrings, are great examples of try/fail cycles. Act two should be the majority of your book, building to…

Act Three: The Climax

In act three, the protagonist finally succeeds in addressing the story’s main problem. The conflict with the antagonist gets resolved, and then we deal with the aftermath. By the end of your story, you should have established a new equilibrium that puts the protagonist back into a stable state they haven’t seen since the events that began act one. This doesn’t have to be the exact same conditions, and in fact shouldn’t be unless you’re doing episodic fiction where the status quo must be restored.

Turning Points

If you look closely at just about any story, you’ll see they follow the above structure, at least roughly. It’s how we’re wired. But one of te things that separates the average stories from the really good ones is that the good ones make the structure work for them. And the easiest way to do that is by making sure the turning points at your act breaks are as dramatic as possible.

There should be significant changes for the protagonist at the end of act one and act two, major events that completely change the world for that character. Sometimes the turning point at the first act break is so momentous that the protagonist spends all of act two just trying to get back to how things were (The Odyssey and countless others). Push these act breaks for all you can to keep the story dynamic.

Ratios

Traditionally, acts were often 30/40/30% of the total word count. Tolkien and other 19th and early 20th century writers stuck pretty close to this, with a long lead up to the complication and a long wind down after the climax. Over the last 30-50 years, however, both acts one and three have been getting shorter and shorter. Peter Jackson made pehaps his most severe cuts to Tolkiens Lord of the Rings in act three, after the ring had been destroyed, and he was still widely criticized for “dragging it out”.

Your act ratios will vary according to the work. Heavy action works, the sorts of stories that grow up to be Michael Bay movies, will likely be closer to 10/80/10%. But be careful with this. Readers are impatient, true, but without a properly developed act one, they wont care about your characters once you get into the weeds of act two. And act three is just as important. I’ve seen a study postulating that we see so many car chases now because the act three of those stories are rarely televised. People don’t see the arrest, booking and trial, so they start to forget that actions have consequences. Act three is not just the climax but also the consequences, why the story matters. Don’t forget that in your rush to get it over with.

Other Act Structures

Other structures are really three acts in disguise. The four act structure is puts an extra turning point in the middle of act two, often referred to as the midpoint, as it’s likely to be halfway through the book if your ratios are balanced. The Shakespearean five act structure merely breaks act two, which again should be larger than your other acts, into its own smaller three act structure like a fractal. In fact, this kind of recursive, fractal math shows up at larger scales as well. Why do you think trilogies are so popular? Because they resonate with our innate understanding of stories as three part things.

But don’t take my word for it. Do your own research. Look into how a mastery of story structure can help you take your stories to the next level.

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While I do sometimes have conflicting feelings on whether I really should call myself a writer or not, that isn’t what I’m really talking about. I have recently discovered that I need to write in the most traditional sense of the meaning: I need to put pen to paper. It may have something to do with the fact that I’m a lousy typist but the words don’t flow through the keys like they do through the pen. There is a bit of a disconnect between me and the words when I write on the computer.

I have done the National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) 30-day novel writing challenge for the last three years and have written the novels out long hand each time. I go back and type it into the computer at a later date. Why do twice the work you may ask? First off, when I started I didn’t have laptop so in order to go to write-ins (which I highly recommend to all budding Nanos) I needed to write in a notebook. I soon found out, however, that typing what I wrote into a desk-top the same night was not a good idea so I just filled up my notebooks, counted each and every word, and then created a file with that word count to submit for the challenge to confirm I reached fifty-thousand words.

But wait, isn’t that cheating? No, not if someone confirms your word count. If you’re just going to put it on the computer anyway why not do it that night? Great question. And the answer is, I edit as I put it into the computer. In Nano you need to shut your inner-editor off as much as you can.  

Writing the old fashion way has a two-fold purpose for me. It gets the creative juices flowing better and it leads into the first step in the editing process. Maybe I’m not as crazy as you all think. Okay, I did say maybe.

So until they create a device that lets me transmit my thoughts directly onto the page, pen and paper are my go-to medium. I’m a writer so I need to write, right?

Related posts:

1. About Us
2. Back to School Time
3. Spring 2010 Short Story Prompt

When I’m having a bad day, I head to Staples and browse the aisles. I must have enough paper to last me two years or more but I can’t resist a new notebook with a cool cover.

A new notebook symbolizes a fresh start, a new chapter. The clean crisp pages call to me, enticing me to fill them up with ink.

I used to buy fancy, leather journals but the fear of making a mistake kept the pages from filling up. College ruled, wire bound notebooks work best for me. If I have to cross something out or spend some time doodling, it doesn’t bother me. When I’ve found the flow and my hand is having a hard time keeping up with my brain, I don’t have to worry about my sloppy handwriting. I can’t ruin the pages. My notebooks aren’t for perfect writing. They’re for my first thoughts. The ones I don’t want to lose.

I prefer to keep myself and my muse content, happy and excited to write. A new notebook is an easy way to keep us both on track.

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This is the first time I have written something personal that is meant to be shared with others and it’s surprising that so far I have written everything by hand. Other than some brainstorming or sporadic journaling, I’ve always preferred the keyboard. But this time the words refuse to come when I’m looking at a screen. I must admit that I am enjoying the process. It’s so satisfying to fill up a page with ink. Every time I turn to a new page I am much more aware of my progress. Writing by hand also keeps my internal editor somewhat quiet. My hand has a hard enough time keeping up with my first thoughts that I can’t worry about incomplete sentences and misspelled words. There are no red and green squiggly lines to distract me.

Previously published at bridgetshaffer.wordpress.com

Related posts:

1. Our Process

My ideas percolate for years. I create a folder and a text file. There I stick snippets of thoughts, dreams, quotes and pictures. Eventually it fills up with an idea.

As I’ve said before most of my ideas start as dreams, but I also get them from pictures, songs, and movies. I’m working on a short right now which started as our summer challenge picture. Then I heard this song, and this quote. Next I had a dream about it. The last piece fell into place as I watched Toy Story 3 this week.

Another idea that I had a dream about a few years ago also had some action this week. Slot machines gave me an idea for an extension of the magic system. Another dream gave me a few more character ideas.

I have hundreds of these files. I may never write all of them but there are always a few rippening.

Related posts:

1. A Crazy Person’s Guide to Outlining: Step One-The Idea
2. Where Ideas Come From
3. Spring 2010 Short Story Prompt

The first is by outstanding agent Nathan Bransford. This post was brought to my attention by our own Jeff Kirvin. It’s entitled ‘The One Question Authors Should Never Ask Themselves When Reading’.  Go and read it. No, go ahead. I’ll wait.

Don’t forget to bookmark his blog. I highly recommend it for writers at any stage.

I really like the points he made in that article, and agree. But I don’t think ‘do I like this’ is a useless question to ask yourself – as long as you don’t stop there. Consider WHY you like what you’re reading, or don’t like it. Once you’ve read it, pick it apart and see what bits you most enjoyed. Where did you skip past paragraphs, or get bumped out of the story’s grip on you, and how could the author have prevented that?

Reading with an eye to how you would do the same thing is an occupational hazard of being an author. You should still get lost in fiction – we’re readers first, after all – but there’s nothing wrong with admiring cool things as they go by, tucking them away in your head for later. And nothing wrong with reading bad fiction and seeing how you could do better.

The second article was brought to you by the magic of Twitter. This is from top agent Rachelle Gardener, entitled Managing Expectations. Go forth… read, bookmark, return.

The next to last paragraph resonated most strongly with me. As authors in a rapidly changing publishing environment, it’s really required of us to keep our expectations under control.

It’s always a wrench for a new author to realize what ‘getting published’ really means to them – usually a far cry from what they thought. Certainly the beginning of a journey, not the end.

But nowadays, with things changing so fast the word ‘book’ doesn’t even mean what it did when you were a child, it’s even more strange. We would be shooting ourselves in the foot to hold any unrealistic expectation. Ambition and optimism are good – expectation must be fluid. Discover the difference between what you desire and what you expect. The world may give you the former, if you work for it… the latter can cripple you.

Related posts:

1. Writing What You Know
2. What to Pay For