Posted on

13 and counting

Sufficient sleep has eluded me lately, but it’s not been all bad; a tired, loopy mind is a fertile place for brainstorming to occur.  I sat down this morning and wrote outlines for each of the secondary characters’ arcs, all four of them.  I won’t include at least half of what I wrote down, because it’ll be happening off-screen, but I’m finding it to be an incredibly useful exercise.  Now, when my secondary characters are off-screen, they won’t be like puppets: useless unless I have my hand up their asses.  (Wait.  What?)

Inevitably, my favorite character in (insert show/book/movie/fandom here) is a secondary character, but I’ve yet to quite capture a good supporting cast.  I think this might be the secret: giving them lives outside of recorded events, especially when the tale is told in a limited p.o.v. (in this case, third-person limited, probably to two characters max, barring the epilogue).  Of course, it does help that I’ve known these characters for 13 years, but still, they were never this vibrant before.

Now, to figure out how to make the main character likable and not just a whiner.  CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Posted on

The perfect tools

My personal writersense tends to air on the technological side of things rather than the traditional. I think much faster than I can write by hand (I never took many handwriting courses growing up), so my 120-wpm typing speed is really helpful in that department.  Yet there are times when hands-to-keyboard just doesn’t feel right. I can’t connect as well with the material if I don’t write it down by hand. (This holds true of taking notes and making lists as well.)

I went out yesterday and “splurged” on some perfect tools for my outlining process: a simple Mead college-ruled notebook (green cover, of course), a set of five different-colored highlighters, and two fantastic Pilot G-2 pens with gel roller ink. No strain on my hand for prolonged periods of writing and permission to be messy (i.e. no fancy journal cramping my style)? I think yes!

I’m well on my way to seven solid pages of handwritten notes in just one lunch break, one slow afternoon at the help desk, and one early early morning.  I’d say this is a satisfying start.

Posted on

We’ve all got a head full of ghosts and gods and it behooves us to listen to them, to let them out and play on the page, to use the madness granted to us rather than deny it and walk the safe and sane line.

500 Ways to Be a Better Writer, by Chuck Wendig
Posted on

Abandoning pants

…if you came here looking for my bare legs, sorry. I know, I know. I’m such a tease.

Pants!  Actually, let’s be more accurate, here: pantsing!  Not the really mean kind where you sneak up behind someone and remove their lower garb, but rather the kind where a writer sits down and goes “screw it, I’ve got a great idea and I’m writing it, and I’m writing it NOW.” Proceeding from that initial burst of idea, without semblance of order or planning, is pantsing.  Seat-of-your-pantsing is the origin of the word. It used to be my modus operandi, but it’s gotten me into far more trouble than it’s worth.  (See: zero polished novels.)

Not only that, but I need to try some different methods.  I’ve been stuck in my general writing routine for almost twenty years now, and as much as I’d love to stick to my guns and “be true to me,” that’s just bullshit.  I want to open myself up to new ways of doing things so I can find precisely what works for my creative process.  And I’ve tried outlining before – it’s not horrid, it’s just a bit inconvenient.

To facilitate my learning, I’m reading what’s proving to be a pretty cool book so far: Outlining Your Novel by K.M. Weiland.  It’s short but packed with helpful information, including ideas on how and when to outline.  Instead of reading this all at once and being overwhelmed by all the things I forgot to do in the process, I’m going to follow along and actually complete the steps as I go, so that hopefully – fingers crossed, good thoughts out into the universe – by the time I’m done I’ll have AGGO outlined and ready to write.

That’s the plan, anyway.

(P.S. Excitement – searching for “A God Grown Old” pulls up my blog as result #6…already! Above that are references to the book from which I pulled the phrase, so… I’d say I’m good on that one.)

Posted on

quick reminder to my writer friends

just went and checked the Tumblr Terms of Service…

anything you post on here, Tumblr owns the rights to. original stuff, then, no longer belong to you once you’ve posted it on the site.

thought you should be reminded in case you’re posting anything you plan to make money with!