 For Authors: July 30, 2014 Issue [#6459] |
  For Authors
This week: Plotting the Course Edited by: Fyn-elf  
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Sometimes it's the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination. ~~Drake
Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It's a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write. ~~Paul Rudnick
Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it. ~~Greg Anderson
A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.
John Steinbeck
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I've been talking to folks recently about HOW they approach writing their books. Most seem to use an outline. Others know how the book ends and write the ending first, followed by the beginning and then fill in the middle. Me? I go from point A to B and so on. I allow for side-trips, detours and unscheduled character uprisings when they take the wheel.
This happens because I plot a book very much the same as I plan a trip to somewhere I've never been before. I have the general idea of where we will go. Say, for example Hawaii. I know that in two weeks we can't hit every island without running ourselves ragged. So I do the research. I send for the catalogs the islands put out and go over them carefully, making lists where I really want to go, where I might like to go and what are maybes. I do research on flight prices, hotel deals and car rental costs.
I have to research the various places we want to go added in with how far between them, the travel times and just how much can one do in a day. What else is near where we will go? We narrow our choices to three islands, calculating that on one island we will go the condo route for a week, another we will stay multiple places and on the third opt for military base housing. We decide we have to take the helicopter trip over the volcano, must go whale watching and will drive the Hana Road. (800+ hairpin turns, almost sixty waterfalls and X 268 glorious views.
We build in time for exploring with no specific agenda where if we got lost it is no big deal ... we are on an island, after all! We have a golf day, a wave day and several 'what-ever, when-ever, whom-ever days. We'll allow for side trips, thousands of pictures and extended conversations for Hawaiian 'tell-story' time where we will learn of island culture. We'll adapt, practice being able to twist our tongues around Hawaiian words and start saying 'Mahalo.'
In other words, I do the research. I pack my writing bags and head out for the start of the story. We meet the characters, experience speed bumps, detours, traffic jams and running out of gas. We have serendipitous meetings, glorious sunrises, drinks on the lanai. Possible volcanic uprisings, unscheduled storms and a flat tire or two. There will be at least one 'discussion' requiring an actual map because GPS will be barless and when all else fails, another discussion about getting out of the car and interacting with a real live person who lives there and will know more than any map ever could.
There'll be love in island breezes, a mai-tai or three, and lost luggage. One of us will likely be knocked flying by a wave and likely one (probably me) will sprain an ankle. We will spend a lot of time laughing and when all is done, likely have shed some tears. See the parallels here?
Writing a novel is a journey for both you and your characters. Enjoy the ride, don't get stressed by detours and, in the end, you'll have had a fantastic trip on your way to letting your readers go for a journey of their own!
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#1188832 by Not Available. |
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| | BLAVATSKY'S BUS (E)
Inspired by Carl Sagan, a personal journey that had stimulated the core of my psyche
#1676003 by DRSmith  |
| | There and Back (18+)
I was 20 years old and had been married for 30 days. 1st Place: What a Character Dec/2012
#1910427 by Bikerider  |
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brom21 says: When it comes to characters I never really give them flaws. Keep in mind that I mainly write fantasy, yet my characters must be able to seem real and possess flaws. I kind of have problems with creating likable protagonists, I mean the kind you really admire and remember. Thanks for the advice, I will try to implement it!
Quick-Quill  writes: I just responded to this situation in another NL. I've really just learned that by having your character do menial tasks you give them "character." My MC has a slight case of OCD(B)and you see it in the way he always hangs up his keys, how he explains to his sister why they are the way they are. Family upbringing shapes us all. Think of yourself and your friends "quirks" Add some to your characters. You know why they act the way they do. You don't have to TELL the reader anything. Constant adjusting the rug, straightening a towel or things on the dresser are telling moves of a person with OCD. Things out of place drive them nuts. I'm married to one and I am the exact opposite!
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