Conveying you world in flashes of detail

For me, the first major issue I come across is figuring out what the hell is going on in my story. I do plan the plot out before-hand, because it saves me from having to do four first drafts, but my planning is more like:

Needs to establish relationship and find out about Otherkind.

So there's no character notes, no description, nothing. I know where the plot is going, but not much else. For me, the first draft if figuring out secondary characters, scenery, dialogue, emotions - the tendons and muscles that go on the bones of plot.

As the story progresses, it gets easier, because I'm using the same characters, or similar scenerary, so I don't have to go and invent everything. I know what everything looks like, and how everyone acts.

Inevitably I end up writing an awful lot of drivel, just so I can figure out what the hell is going on.

And the second draft, for me, is condensing all this knowledge down into moments and flashes.

The human brain is a remarkable thing. Perhaps you've see the chain email or text, where all the letters are rearranged except the first and last letters of each word. You can still read the paragraph - your mind fills in the blanks.

To me, a writers job is to give that first and last letter to the readers. You need to give the reader flashes and moments that their brain can take and extend. This may seem like it's less work for you, but it's not. Because when you write half a page of description, you're conveying facts. And people can't make up facts, so you have to cover them all.

When you describe in flashes, you're conveying mood and emotion. That mood is tacked onto a couple of facts, and the reader is able to fill that description with all the images they have associated with that mood.

One example I have was when I was describing the neighbourhood that my main character grew up in. I described a train ride through the city, the slums, the houses, the way the roads went. That was fine when I was writing it for me.

The second time round, I described the train station - a hunk of concrete sitting in the middle of the rubble of last year's houses. I described that the dirt-track roads, with the occasional brick lain down - testament to a fools attempt to civilise the area. I described the rotting carcass of a dog, which underneath the preparation area for a street vendor who sold street food.

These are details that show you things. They show you the area is run down, hobbled together, a place that has lost a great deal of it's hope. A place where people don't care about food poisoning, because they're probably going to die of starvation in a week anyway.

Those descriptions took up a paragraph when clumped together. But it took time to think them up. I had to sit down and write a list of what I needed to convey about this place to my readers. Facts, mood and emotion had to be conveyed in a couple of details.

It takes time, but it's well worth it. So when you've written down the facts of your world, contemporary or otherwise, go back and look for the mood and emotion. Look for the facts you need to convey. Combining them in details gives the reader flashes of your world that they can extend. This makes for readers involved in creating your world - and there's nothing better than that level of involvement.

Plotting and Hunting Down Research

Or basically, the realisation that I might actually have to do some pre-emptive planning.

Now, me, I'm not a planner. I quite like coming up with characters mid book - it keeps me interested (the books that I have planned out have generally been abysmal failures). But generally, I write things that are set in worlds that I make up. So I don't have to know too much to actually start writing them. And what I do need to know, I can ask professor google as I go along.

A crime book, however, is different. There's red herrings, plot twists, clues, psychological actions... if I don't do some pre-planning before I start, I'll end up with 10 drafts. And I've quite gotten used to the idea of doing under five drafts. I've even started to think I might be able to aim reasonably for three drafts before I send it off to beta readers.

So, I'm actually going to have to plan things out. And given that this story involves the police, fraud crime, and the AFP (Australia's version of the FBI), I actually need to think about more than the plot. Plausibility and accuracy are actually entering into the equation. Previously, it was more a matter of making the world rational, coherent and consistent (which was quite a struggle at times in itself).

But this is based in the real world. Not alternate reality, not fantasy, not science fiction. The only stuff I've written in the real world before have been short literary pieces. And the first story that chooses to poke its head up in our realm is a novel which requires me to know a lot of the in an outs of police work.

Amazing what you can find out from the AFP annual report though :D

If there's silence around here, it'll be because I'm suddenly busy again. I've got editing, research, and now a new beta project :D Middle grade fiction. I really did enjoy betaing it last time, so hopefully it'll be good as it was last time :D

Enjoy all~

Sian

How a Query can actually manage not to be the epitome of evil

Yes, it's hard to believe. Queries, for those who don't know, are a small paragraph of no more than 250-300 words, in which you try to tell someone what happens in your story, why it's cool, and how totally awesome you are as a writer.

Unfortunately, you can't just come out and say this (Imagine that - I am a good writer, and this is the best most fantastical book ever). No, instead you have to show them that by weaving a compelling and individual narrative (ie, you can't have just a premise - you have to show what happens in your book, what the stakes are for your character, and give some hint of what they do).

There should be conflict, tension, character, plot, good writing... in about 250 words. Thus, queries have a reputation for being evil. Their primary purpose is to sell your book, or net it some representation from an agent.

But for me, at least, queries have quite a nifty little second use, which is not quite as evil as the first one.

Okay, you've got 250 words. In that sort of space, you can't muck about. A query forces you to get to the very essence of what your story, characters, themes and ideas are about. That's what makes it so bloody hard - most of us don't try and think that way to start off with. Whether you're a planner or a discovery writer, most people will think out their plot, characters and story, but they won't think about the essence of all those things. And most people don't know what the essence of their story is. Well, they have a generic idea. For example, my story The Manda was about shades of grey in people and civilisations - the idea that no-one is right; that there is only perspective, and while a person can be kind in one instance, they can be downright horrible in the next.

But that has been done before. It's a very broad idea of what my story is about. In a query, you need to be specific - you have to figure out the essence of your story, characters, plot ect, and then you have to figure out what makes it individual, fun, terrifying, brilliant.

This takes forever, or at least it does for me. I spent hours on my last query - it didn't take too long to figure what my themes were about, but to par my characters, plot and structure down into short succinct ideas, and then combine those ideas to make a compelling narrative - took about two weeks, working at it for something like five hours a day. This doesn't sound too long. Then you realise that this is only 250 words I'm talking about. I wrote, and rewrote, and agonised, and cut, and scrapped, and started from scratch, and cursed and got second opinion and third opinions and went through at least 100 drafts of 250 words.

So. Whatever way you look at it, creating a query is evil. But once you have one, they can be gold in so many ways. Once you've had to write a query, you know what you want your book to be about - you know it's essence, not just the big things that make it go. And in my honest opinion, once you know the essence of a book, you can fix anything that's wrong with the plot, story, characters or structure. That fixing may take a entire rethink. (That circumstantially is what I'm doing with The Manda). or you may find your query closer to what you wanted than you thought it would be. Either way, once you nail a query, you've nailed your stories soul.

Then there's just the problem of communicating that to a reader, which is a whole different kettle of fish. That's where the perception gap between what a writer wants to say, and what a reader actually receives from you words, comes up.

But with a query, at least you have a start.

So my suggestion: write your story. Either planning or not planning, however you will. Then agonise over your query. Then, once you've got your query, and know it off by heart, (you will to - believe me, you can't create a query and not be able to quote it in your sleep by the time you've done) look again at your story. Take a good long look. Try and put yourself in the place of the reader, and see how big that perception gap is. If it's huge, make it smaller, until you can't notice one. Then, depending on what type of person you are, send it to a beta reader, or to a publisher. You'll either get a rejection, telling you that that gap is still there, or a report back from your beta reader, telling you that that gap is still there. Read the query again. And again. Think about the soul of your piece, and shorten that gap.

It's worth it. That "ah-ha!" moment you get on figuring out what's wrong is like drinking a redbull + espresso + no-doze shot. That sort of zing is worth being given a Medicare number for financial re-reimbursement.

(Oh, and this is written to hype myself up before I start query writing for my steam punk novel. There is a hidden motive here - if I remind myself of the benefits, I may actually look forwards to putting myself through the hell of writing a query. I'm also going to revise the Manda - this is to hype myself up for that too.)

Anyway, regardless of your motive in writing a query, know that they are evil to create. But bloody useful thereafter.

Enjoy creating~

Sian

Betaing and the Revelation of the Perception Gap

Something odd happens to a person when they write a story out. It becomes very precious to them - they'll put up with all sorts of crap from it because they love it. I can say in all honesty that that is one reason that I've not given up on the Manda after about 5 drafts - I adore this idea and these characters. Never mind the plot holes, unsympathetic characters and the like.

This is a good thing - it allows a writer to go through the insanity of drafting, re drafting, editing, nit picking and so on. But the very obvious down side to being in love with you work is that you don't see it's flaws.

This is where the Beta reader comes in handy. these are the people (they can be other writers or just readers) that go over your work and point out everything that your love addled brain can't see. Now, some of these things you will notice if you leave the manuscript alone long enough, but you will never be able to pick up all the problems.

So the Beta readers point out the problems, and explain why they are problems. You can either agree or disagree (a lot comes down to perception as well, as it tends to do when it comes to that which is creative) but if more than one beta points something out, then you know you've got a problem.

This is bloody useful because once they explain something to you several times around, you actually start to get it, and notice it yourself, sometimes even while you're writing it. But even more useful a process, is your reciprocation.

While someone is tearing apart your piece, and you're feeling like crap about it, you get to tear apart theirs. Now why is this important? It's important due to the fact that you know exactly how they feel about this piece (it's their baby, they're attached to it, it has not a fault in the world) because you are feeling exactly the same thing as they tuck into yours.

And once you make that empathetic connection, you start to think that maybe they're not being vindictive when they point things out. Maybe this is god to honest what they see when they read your work.

Which brings me to the single most important thing that beta reading reveals. The gap between author intent, and what the reader actually receives in character, plot and narration.

Say you write a story about a woman who runs away with her child, out of what you want to communicate is an emotionally abusive relationship. However, your reader sees her as a hypocritical bitch who has just kidnapped a man's life and joy. That is a huge gap - the closer you bring the readers perception of the story and what you intend to say, together, the better your story gets.

Now, this isn't to say you can close that gap for everyone. A perception gap relies on... well, perception. So when it comes to betas you can take one of two roads - either rely on your instincts as to what the beta is correct/incorrect about, or have more than one beta. Or a combination of both.

I have immensely enjoyed both betaing for other people, and having them beta for me. It broke me out of the "writing for myself" stage, and drew me on to "writing for an audience". Strangely enough, when you're writing for someone else, you start to do things in your novels a lot more consciously.

I've found it useful :D

Enjoy creating~

Sian

Second Draft Miracle

There's something wonderful about being able to write when you know exactly what's going to happen. It allows you to think more about what you're writing now, rather than "where the heck do I go with this next?"

Some would argue that is what plans are for. But for me, I do a first draft which is mostly worry and "good god, what have I done". Then I get to the end, and I rather pleasantly know my characters, and have a plot.

But there's something strange about second drafts. Sometimes, there are big problems in the first draft that have to be corrected. Logically speaking, you don't know if your corrections are going to work - you just know that they're fixing the current problem. How then, is it that the corrections work themselves out? How can removing an entire scene, which would have effected the MC in a variety of ways, and driven the plot in a variety of ways, not actually change the book so much that you end up with another first draft?

This happened to me recently - I realised that I had a scene I didn't need. I cut the scene, wrote some other stuff. Not once was there any guarantee that the other stuff would bring me directly back into the plot line, but it managed to. I've been a little perplexed as to how it worked out so well.

I think it comes from my changing of my MC's main motivation.

At the end of the first draft, I knew my MC and her motivation didn't fit. Her motivation didn't drive her to do what she was doing by the end of the book. So I went and changed it, to fit her actions at the end of the book.

This new motivation not only drives her to those actions in the climax, but keeps her on task for the rest of the plot line. There is no other way she can go, given her circumstances, who she is as a person, and her motivation.

Neat, huh? I was quite pleased with this revelation, and quite heartbroken by the fact it means that I've got to go in search of motivation in another WIP. But this revelation provides a tool for fixing things, and that is always useful.

So when you know how things are going to turn out, and you know who your characters are, make sure their motivations are going to drive them towards the appropriate actions. If they are of a certain character, that character, paired with the right motivation, will keep them on track.

Enjoy creating~

Sian

Change of Motivation

Now, this is a rather recurrent problem with me. I tend to think of the action of my MC first, and then their motivation. Side characters, other main characters - generally fine. But the MC is the one I start off with, and it is quite literally impossible for me to know them before I start writing them into a situation, because I don't do a heap of planning when I first start out.

The question is, what do you do, after powering through the first draft to the end, after realising your characters motivation is flimsy? How do you even recognise it as flimsy in the first place? (I had a lot of trouble with this one).

It all boils down to one very simple point. If you start the first draft without a plan, or without background information on you characters, you're going to get a lot of contradictory traits and motivation within your characters to start off with. Somewhere around the 1/4 mark, you'll figure you're main character out, and foget about that bothersome motivation that started the story off.

But it's still there, waiting for you when you get back. So how to fix it?

Just to clarify, you should not really be asking yourself what motivates your characters halfway through the book. If you still don't know them by then, you should really stop and think about what sort of people they are, what sort of history they have. but otherwise, there is normally one of a few things (or more) wrong with your character's motivation:

The motivation doesn't fit the character. It fits the plot, but not the character that you have by the end of the book.

There is no motivation, the character just does what the story requires


In both cases, it is a matter of deciding what you wish to change. It's your story, you can change everything in it. So do you change the motivation? Do you change the character so they fit the motivation? Or do you change the plot, so that the character that you have discovered by the end of your first draft now dictates a new story?

All of these can be done. Changing motivation is easier than changing an entire storyline, or changing a character to fit that motivation. For example, say Jane wants to get into a big business because she wants to get rich. By the time you get to the end of the book, you realise Jane doesn't care about money - she cares about her brother's health, and she needs to be in this business, because they're creating a drug that will help her brother with his illness. Now, you can go back, and change the motivation, make Jane want to get in to reassure herself about the drug from the start. Or you can make it so that she's originally interested in the money, but subconsciously, and gradually conscientiously, she becomes concerned about the medicine that her brother needs. That's changing the character so it fits both the motivation at the start, or the character they become. Or you can give up on the idea of the business entirely, and have this character, who you now know intimately, do something else to guarantee her brothers health.

In the end, the question is what do you like most about your first draft, and which solution is most believable? The character at the end, the new motivation you can come up with, or the old motivation. It all comes down to both personal taste, and believability.

I find it hard to believe that Jane would enter the company purely to check up on her brother's new experimental medicine. But join the company because she needs and wants money, and then slowly get drawn towards information on the drug? that I could believe.

Enjoy creating~

Sian

Coming Back

You may have noticed the odd quiet hanging around here of late. That is mainly due to the fact that, well, I've been writing a first draft, and it does tend to rather consume one's life.

So. I have mentioned my writing process before, but here's something else that starting a new project taught me. I may be getting just a little bit better.

Why? Well, this time round, there was a certain level of detachment and experience. I knew when I did things that were wrong, I knew when I had to go back and fix things. But I knew that as I wrote it, which has never happened for me before. It's always been the process of getting incredibly attached to something, then not being able to see it's flaws until a month afterwards.

This time round, I expected it's flaws. I still have a little voice inside my head informing me that "this is crap, this is crap, this is crap". I have ignored it thus far, and will continue to do so. But it's there, which means I'm on the look out for mistakes. I'm making notes in my head as I go, I'm still loving the story, but looking at it with a much clearer perspective then before.

Frankly speaking, I'm gearing myself for the next haul. The first draft took me 20 days to write, and it's not entire crap. this is always a good start. Over the next two days, I go through, make notes on character, plot, motivation, sub-plots - pull it apart and and analyse it, as it were.

Then we start on the second draft. And by the end of that, I should have something that's not embarrassing. Still needs a lot of work, but you get the idea.

So yes. I'm back. :) It feels wonderful, a bit like work sometimes, but satisfying work.

Enjoy creating~

Sian

Multidrafting! (Or the Most Insane Fun you can Have With a First Draft)

I have never looked forwards to a blog post with more anticipation. Here goes.

This is how I approach the topic with multiple drafts - generally with much dancing and skipping around in happiness. This approach may turn some people green, but it is how I do it.

The first time I ever wrote an entire, original novel, I approached writing like this: write what ever comes to your brain, fix it afterwards. This is all very well and good, as long as you don't mind at least 6 total rewrites (I kid you not. And by rewrite I mean starting from page one on a blank sheet of paper).

Another method I have devised, which seems to work better for me involves three stages: Planning, writing, and fixing.

Planning, for me, consists of knowing what happens at the first major turning point, knowing my characters, and that's it. Nothing more - otherwise it just kills the story for me. It must also be noted that I do a lot of "percolating" before hand, where I think about the story and the characters non-stop for about a month. Some would call that planning in the head, but I think that's different. Planning requires structure, and there is no structure to my thoughts. They just... are.

Then I sit down, and write to the first turning point. I know what this turning point is, and I don't worry about the quality of writing to start off with (this is we the other drafts come in later). I don't really worry about world building either - if I have something fantastical/out of the ordinary that I have to describe, and don't know how to, I'll do something like this

(Insert description of slum here).

I do this because I know any attempt to describe it will be crap, unless I take a significant amount of time and put a significant amount of thought into writing it. There isn't place for that in my first drafts - it slows me down, and it makes writing hard.

After I reach the first turning point, I stop, and think about my second turning point and end. By this stage, I know my world and my characters, so I think about where I want both of them to end up. I think about potential conflict between characters. And then I sit down and write. And write, and write, and write. I don't describe anything that's too hard, I do a terrible job of the show don't tell rule, and my writing is generally atrocious.

But that doesn't matter - as long as the character motavations make sense, and the plot keeps going, all is good. (First time I wrote The Manda, I ignored both these things. Thus the 6 total rewrites)

Then comes the fixing : I look through the book, try and make sure I get rid of any plot holes, any character discrepancies. Large chunks, especially the middle, will be re-written. This is the second draft. I still don't bother with the writing all that much.

Now we're into third draft territory. This is where I sit down, realise no-one else is going to be able to understand this, and go through the entire thing slowly, chapter by chapter, filling in all the descriptions I left out, doing all the research necessary.

Then I leave it. And come back to it. This is the fourth draft - it isn't a rewrite like the others, but a revision. I strike out all the descriptions that hold the story back, rewrite the ones that don't work. By this stage, it's about ready for Beta readers.

They will find a heap of problems with it, I'll go and fix it, and the whole thing will start over. By the end of the Beta revision, I am done.

And that, for me, is multi drafting. Each draft has the possibility of extending into multiple versions of itself - for example, I may have three second drafts, each for a major plot hole or character inconsistency.

But for me, multi-drafting presents me with an immense amount of freedom. I can stuff up some stuff while I get the other stuff right. I'm only concentrating on one thing at a time (notice also that I start with the hardest things - plot and character - and work my way down to concise sentence building) It won't work for everyone, but I find it immensely helpful.

Enjoy creating~

Sian

Plotting and Discovery Writing

Okay. So you've got an idea. You may/may not have characters or setting. But you've got an idea, and it's something that you're excited about.

Now what?

There are many, many different type of writer out there. How they deal with an idea is going to be different. But, generally speaking, there is this line:

Discovery Writer <-------------------------------------------------------------->Plotter.

Most writers will fit somewhere along that line. It's an important line to be aware of, because in my mind, everyone should try both ends of the scale at least once.

A discovery writer (or pantser - I prefer the term discovery writer) will get an idea in their head, sit down, and just write. They won't plan out character backgrounds, or plot points, or worldbuild. They'll come up with all that as they go along. They will almost definitely have to do re-writes, because many things will pop up in the first draft that they haven't considered before.

The first time I wrote anything it was discovery written. I came up with major world building information 3/4 of the way through the book. I put that in, and kept going. I came back to it in the next draft, and wrote it into the story.

The problem with discovery writing is that (in my mind at least) you eventually have to take stock of your story. You've got to sit back, look at the pages, and decide what version you want to keep to. And then you've got to revise what you have to fit that version. Which is where both the fun, and the frustration begins.

Plotters - extensive plotters anyway, seem to come up with less drafts. I say seem because I've never been an extensive plotter. I've never had to come up with the characters, the turning points, the tension and so on before I start. These days I sit more to the middle of the line. I like to know who my characters are, what motivates them, and the world that I'm writing in. I also like to know the end, and work towards that.

Extensive plotters have use for mine maps, for post it notes, for index cards. The ways that a person can plan out a book is about as varied as there are people. I can't tell you what they do, or really offer advice to plotters, because I don't write extensive outlines. The closest I get is thinking extensively about the characters in my mind.

But I can talk about discovery writing. It is a lot of fun to discovery write, to be surprised by your characters. But eventually, one of two things will happen. You'll reach a point where you just don't know what comes next, or you finish the book, and realise that while you understand all of your draft, no-one else does.

To fix the first problem, I recommend identifying the promises you've made so far. For example, there is an idea "checkov's gun". The idea being that if you have a gun in your first scene, you better use it later on. Discovery writers can often figure out where their next peice is going by identifying the "guns" or promises that they've made in their writing. When you write, every description and character sets something up. If you get stuck, it's sometimes because you're not sure of what you've set up and where it's going to leave. If so, go and figure that out.

The second problem is solved through good beta readers and revision. It will be painful. There will be a lot of swearing and "how the hell don't they understand this?!" going on. Some people leave their draft alone for a while, then come back to it with fresh eyes. That's fine for prose, but when it comes to story and characters, my eyes are never fresh. My mind just fills in the blanks, whether it be 6 weeks between reads, or two years. It just doesn't happen.

I have tried plotting. It murders a story for me. But pure discovery writing is too hard - I enjoy it, but there are way too many drafts involved. So these days I generally hover somewhere in the middle of that line. I would recommend trying both at least once, if only for a chapter or so. Just to check what works.

Sian~

Beta's and Stories Not Dying

I love my Beta readers. I truly do. They spot things I would never spot, and if their tastes are different from mine, then they're a little harder on my prose, and it makes me work harder.

But sometimes....

I have a world. It was built rather organically, over the time of about six years, and five drafts. So was my story. There was no planning aspect to it to start off with. So it more than definitely has it's problems. But when I've fixed one, another shows up.

Tonight was one such night. Nobody understood the world that Kira lived in, so I had to show them it. Because it's first person, and I was adverse to changing the story, I did that mainly through her thinking. It worked for one Beta. Another said it sort of worked. The third basically said (paraphrasing here): why the heck are you info dumping and why am I forgetting who your character is.

.............

Wonderful.

I spent the end of what has been a wonderful day mightily depressed. Because I believe that I have a good story here. I believe it has a reason for being. I love my characters.

But what is the point of all that if someone can barely get past the first chapter because of confusion issues? And how to get over the confusion issues if I can not feed out the information (in small chunks, but still, not absolutely huge amounts). there is way too much info that HAS to be understood in order to get on with the plot as it. Believe me, when I started this, I had none of that info in there. It confused the hell out of those that read it.

But the thing is, the point of this story has never been the plot. The plot is better than it was at the start, and it may continue to get better. What I have realised is that a number of things have stayed continuous over all those drafts. They are the major turning points and inciting incident.

And as long as they, and the characters, stay the same, it's still the same story. It may be different in its execution, but it is forever the same. Because the message I want to get across is still the same. That message being: There is no right or wrong side. Everyone believes they are right. And so when my main character if thrown into this world, as long as she meets the same opposition, the story is intact.

How she gets through those points is up for debate. I like what I've got, but I could make it better. I may try to. In fact, I think I will. There are two chapters that will remain largely similar. The rest of the first six chapters are important for the introduction. But they can be done differently.

My character needs to meet the Manda, my world has to be introduced, and someone else has to die and deliver and object into her hands by the end of it. I can still do all that, with the same sort of tension, by writing the start differently.

The thing that amazes me is that there have been several of these moments thus far. These moments run along the lines of : "oh god, why don't I give up and go to the next one (project, book, whatever)."

Then I get over myself, my story pops back up and say: Hey, I'm still the same in essence.

I find it ironically amusing, myself.