Discovery Writing (or Pantsing) World Building - How it Informs your Plot and your Characters

Otherwise known to me as gardening. Bizarre gardening, but gardening none-the-less.

Imagine, for a moment, a plot of land. Nothing growing, nothing there but fresh, fertile soil. The sort of soil that smells of cows and sweet rotting things.

You pick a particular corner, and you start building a path. As you build this path, you scatter seeds around you, plant trees, roses, place streams and rocks down. But you only really create the garden around the path. You sort of make it up as you go along. The things you just planted inform what you next plant, but if you decide to just go ahead and whack a gum tree in the middle of a bunch of roses, no-one will stop you. You decide to maybe plant the roses in a nice circle, framing the gum tree, so it makes sense.

Your path will have offshoots, and you'll set up the garden around those offshoots, and then come back to the main path. When you finally finish the path, you'll look back, adjust some things, plant some things in the gaps that are visible from the main path.

Your first visitor comes along, and you take them through the path, down all the little offshoots. You notice they're getting tired about halfway through, so you resolve not to take your next visitor down the little offshoots. The plants are still there. You can still point them out to the next visitor if they want to know.

And maybe some of the other visitors ask about the bits beyond the garden they can see. So you think about it, look what else you've done, then plant some more stuff.

This is essentially what my world building looks like. The path is my story and plot, the offshoots are little plot bunnies I chase that don't really come to fruition, and the friends I'm showing through are my alpha and beta readers. I make up the world that informs the plot first, then fill in the rest later. I make it make sense by looking at what else I've created, and fitting new information into that. If something seems totally out of left field, but I love it, I'll just go and make the world building around it fit.

Notice the offshoots. There are many many times when I'm writing something and it makes no sense at all on the read through. So I change it, or get rid of it, or rebuild my plot. But that offshoot had value because I learnt more about my world and my characters while writing it.

Another important thing to realise is that your characters reflect their world. When your character does something, think about why they do it, and that might give you your next clue for what to plant next. If you get stuck, take a step back and look at where you've come from. Maybe build a stream in the middle of everything so when you show people around this garden of yours, they have to jump over it. World building can cause complications for your characters just as much as anything.

And if something random pops up, justify it. Sometimes you'll just be coming up with bullshit. And sometimes it will present new character motivations, political manoeuvres, and plot points. Discovery writing is literally about that - making shit up and seeing if it works. If it doesn't work, then that's fine - you've learnt something about the story you're writing, trust me. You've learnt something about your characters, about how they react to the other people and places around them.

The trick in pantsing and discovery writing isn't finding a plot. It's recognising what is plot, and what isn't. It's figuring out which part of the garden you've created to show to people, and which part to keep in your own files, for your amusement and joy. Because while pantsing can be frustrating, you can't get closer to that joy of creation, because you're literally creating everything, all at once.

Happy Holidays  All,

Sian

On Turning Points, and Small, Non-Act Defining Ones Especially.

One of the books I've read recently has been "The Rook". Despite being mostly exposition and talking, it managed to hold my attention so completely that I finished all just-under-500-pages in a day. It's about a woman who wakes up with no memory, and only letters from her previous self to guide her through the totally bizarre world which she apparently used to help run. There's not a lot of action, most of what goes on is internal, and takes part in offices and in letters from her previous self. There are a few notable exceptions, but it is largely much more a political thriller/mystery than an action novel.

 So I went about looking for what kept me interested. And it was quite straight forwards: I was introduced into a world I knew nothing about, and every time I got used to everything, something happened which would either propel me further into the world and the politics, or would force a turning point.

Now, to define turning points as I see them: they rely heavily on character choice and resolution. They are, essentially, the character changing their mind about how to solve their major problem. This can either come as an active choice:

•  I did this before, it's not working, time to try something different 

Or

 As resolution by the character:

• I've been thinking about this, now it's time to fully commit to this action.

Ideally, a turning point also represents the growth a character has undergone.Their decision or resolution is a result of all that has come before.

You can find them in every story - to make an example of Harry Potter - the first turning point is where he agree to go to Hogwarts. Second one is where the trio decide to go and fetch the Philosopher's Stone for themselves. The third is when he decides not to hand the stone over the Voldermort.

None of these would have been possible without all that had come before. If Harry hadn't spent his life being mistreated by his aunt and uncle, and hadn't just been dragged around the countryside for a month and had his birthday completely forgotten, his decisions about going to Hogwarts might have been different. He may have made the same decision "go to Hogwarts", but with different implications. He may have kept in touch with a nicer family, may have been less desperate for acceptance and friendship when he showed up in his new world. His second major decision, to go get the Philsopher's Stone himself, would not have happened without everything that went on before that - finding out about the Philospher's Stone, facing the troll and Fluffy with Ron and Hermione, having Ron and Hermione there to back him up.

And the third major turning point would not have happened if he hadn't created a place and a family for himself in this new world. He might well have accepted Quirrel's offer.

But these are the major turning points. They are the decisions that bookend acts. What about in between? Especially in books, which tend to be longer than movies. Are there smaller turning points within acts?


I would argue, that yes, there are. Not every decision in a story changes the entire direction of the story, but they do make an impact on the character, and what they try next. They are not

• What do I have to do differently to solve this big massive problem?

They are instead:

• What do I have to do differently or strengthen my resolve in to resolve this issue in front of me right now?

And that's what The Rook did well. There was one scene in particular, where the MC acted differently from how those around her expected her to, given how her previous self had acted. And the MC, despite the danger of someone discovering that she'd had her memory wiped, resolved to act how she wished to act, not how her predecessor had.

Now, this decision didn't change the way the story played out, but it did foreshadow other major decisions and changes of direction. The character took charge of her narrative, and it led her onto her next set of actions.

These smaller turning points, when I looked at the book, popped up every 30 pages or so.  They weren't huge, I wasn't getting whiplash from a rapidly changing story, but they were there, and they were interesting enough that I would then read the next 30 pages to witness the consequences of that choice. And then another turning point would pop up, and I'd want to see the emotional consequences of that decision.

This interests me, because previously I'd been led to believe that turning points only came at the end of acts. But if you look at any story (of sizable length), you will see more than three turning points. You just can't go for 50,000 words without the characters making decisions of import.

So what can we learn from this? Well, I made a short list:

1. Keep your characters involved and active in their destinies. Whatever the circumstances, have them make decisions about what to do
2. this will depend largely on the type of novel you're writing, but I think a good rule of thumb is to put a small turning point every time the consequences from your MC's last major decision have run their course.
3. Try and give these turning points emotional resonance. Irregardless how small, they should both impact on the character, and show the impact of the last run of events. The decisions the character makes 60000 words in won't be the decisions they made 30000 words in.

So yes. Things to keep in mind I think. I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays, and writing all the words.

See ya invisible readers :D

Tying your Antagonists Together for Greater Impact

I'm not a fan of planning things out in minute detail. If I do that, by the time I get to the writing, I'm already bored of the story. It's never worked out well for me before.

But I was looking at the basic notes and the first few chapters of my story the other day, and I realised that I didn't really have much in the way of antagonising forces.

As someone once said - the cat sat on the mat is description. The cat sat on the dogs mat is a story.

So if conflict makes a story, then does it follow that there must be an overarching antagonistic force? I'm not necessarily talking a blood and bones individual antagonist here. For example, look at Harry Potter. The main antagonistic character is Voldermort - but he doesn't truly show up until the last chapters of the first two books, and doesn't even make an appearance in the third.

Instead, often what Harry is fighting for is to be accepted. That's all he wanted from his adoptive family, that's all he wants from school and friends. So anyone making him stand out, either by antagonising him, or making him out to be bigger than he is, or forcing him to be a hero, is a driver of that antagonistic force.

Voldermort is part of that. So is Draco, and Snape, and Ron's jealousy. Individual antagonistic events, but they're all connected by this. As the books go on, Harry's motivations change - revenge, anger, love. While there may be many antagonists, they all contribute to the antagonistic force that he is pushing against.

So without an overarching antagonistic force to push against and worry at my main character, I had antagonists, but they were all over the place, and thus, they didn't have much of an impact on my character. They may have been hard for him to defeat, but they didn't force him to change, or weigh him down mentally.

I finally figured out that it was because they had no connection to each other. These events were just the shit he had to get through on a weekly basis. Difficult, yes. Memorable, no.

So I had to think about what my character wanted - to become a doctor and serve his community. Great. But why did he want that?

He wanted that because his brother had bled to death in his arms and he was sick of the fate that was granted to those in his community. So what did he want? He wanted to cheat fate.

And then, suddenly, all my antagonistic forces tied themselves together. Still the same events and people, but if they reminded my MC of the fate he was trying to avoid. They hammered home the message that he would never get out, that his fate would follow him everywhere, stop him from getting his love interest, stop him from achieving his freedom from his fate. As such, these events had a much greater impact.

As individual events, they made things difficult for him. But unless one totally defeated him (in which case it'd be the end of the book), they weren't going to effect much. They were basically scenery. Interesting scenery, but scenery none-the-less.

Tied together, they not only made things hard for the MC, but they shaped the story and how it evolved.

So if you don't have one individual making things hard for your MC, figure out what your MC wants, not just on the surface, but really wants. Your overarching antagonistic force will be that which is in conflict with that foundational need. If you can then adjust all the forces that work against the MC so they reflect, in some small part, this overarching antagonistic force, your conflict will have a much greater impact on the reader. It'll be like he's being constantly hammered by something that doesn't want him to succeed, rather than just having hammers thrown at him.

There is a difference - one is personal, the other is just part of the landscape. And while both are interesting, the personal always has a better effect.

Happy Writing,

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

Characters - Nothing Without Decisions

Okay. You have an idea. You've either done a plan, or you haven't. Each to their own.

What next?

Now, this depends on what type of writer you are. In my limited experience, those that prefer discovery writing will pick up a pen, and start. Maybe not on their book. Maybe they will. Planners won't start yet. Or if they do, it will be character profiles.

But whatever type of writer you are, eventually you're going to come across your characters. You can't have a story without them. It's impossible. Maybe they're not human. Maybe their inanimate dining chairs that want to do ballet. But you will need something.

Of course, if you wish to experiment, be my guest. But generally speaking, a story needs characters.

Some writers will just start. I would recommend that if you're going to do this, start with a character doing something that forces him to react and make a choice. It will tell you, as a writer, about your character. It will give that character a distinct voice from others, as those others make different decisions.

In the end, your characters will be the decisions they make. That's it in a nutshell. If the chair decides to slide along to a ballet class and watch from a corner, this leads to questions. Why isn't he trying it outright? Why did he sneak out of the house? Why hasn't he told his family? If his family disapproves, then why is he still doing it? What inspired his decision?

Every decision has to have a reason behind it, a cause. And every decision will have consequences, will influence the development of your character, change/challange/affirm his moral values. Decision are every thing when it comes to thinking about characters.

After that, everything else is window dressing. What movies they like, what they read, what sports they play - if it matters to the decisions they make, then it is important information. Otherwise, it goes back to being window dressing. Sometimes window dressing becomes important information. The chair likes soccer, he makes a decision to go watch a soccer match, and finds another chair there who wants to do ballet.

Window dressing also differentiates the characters for the reader before the characters start making decisions. While decisions differentiate characters, you can't have major, life changing decisions that show your characters moral compass, religious and cultural identity ever five pages. They will do other things. These other things become important in forging a connection between character and reader.

If you don't start by diving in, you can start with character profiles. You can do a mock interview with your characters. You can chart their entire life history up to this point if that makes you comfortable. If you do plan out who they are before you write, make sure the character fits the type of story you wish to tell. Characters must have motivation for what they're doing - otherwise they become cardboard cutouts. And not many people wish to read about cardboard cutouts.

If you don't plan, my advice would be to start with conflict. It doesn't have to be explosions on the page, it just has to be something that shows us about your character. This start might not nessercarily be part of your book by the time you're finished. some writers start their books and discover their characters as the plot unfolds. There's nothing wrong with that (just be aware there will be editing later). Some writers have to know what their characters will have for breakfast before they can even start page one.

But above all, make your characters memorable. Don't make them perfect (more on this later). Don't make them evil without making them interesting. But make them memorable. I personally will put up with a plot full of holes, as long as I like the characters.

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~

Mystery and Suspense

Someone (I can't remember who) once said that you don't need a bomb to go off on your first page. But you had to at least hint at it. The thing that starts my book off is at the end of my second chapter. But my world is complicated, and I needed readers to understand both what is normal for this world, and my characters mental state. So I started four pages before major inciting incident.
So I've had major hints towards an impending bomb. (This bomb thing is not literal, mind you. Just a metaphor). Overhead conversations, weird people showing up - all very good and fine.

There is just one problem. My MC. Given a chance, she will ignore what is going on around her. She doesn't want to know. Her mother has just died, she has a hard time relating to people normally, and she just wants the world to leave her alone.

After the end of the second chapter, she becomes less passive. She has a very definite reason to start paying attention - she is literally dragged into the plot.

I think I should be doing this earlier.

The whole idea was that the mystery of what the heck was going on would make readers interested. Fine. good. But that still leaves me with a passive main character for most of the first chapter. She has her reasons, but I need to make her care.

But if I make her care, than the mystery will be lost. My inciting event at the end of chapter two won't have the "slam" that it had before.
But then I realised that there is more than one way to keep a reader interested. Not only mystery, but suspense.

The difference between the two is simple: where is the reveal? In suspense, you know there's a bomb in the room, and you're watching to see how the characters deal with it. In mystery, there are hints that there's a bomb in the room, but you're watching to see if the characters figure out that there's a bomb even there. You, as a reader, don't even know that there's a bomb there. You just get hints or clues.

The only problem is that my MC is in the mood to plain out ignore any such hints or clues. So I have to show her there's a bomb there earlier, so she does something. Anything - even if that's just agreeing to go to a place she hates. At the moment, her grandfather makes that decision. She should make it.

And so the first chapter gets a makeover. Again.

The difference between ideas and plot

I've been away for a while - mostly because I found this awesome site called AW (Absolute Writer). Well worth the visit if you have time.

But back on topic :)

I've been writing stories since I was 12 - one story in particular, which is finally reaching completion. Now, I know this story, inside and out. I would be irritated if I didn't after all the work I put into it.

Now I'm having to face up to the fact that I might actually finish this story. This means coming up with something new to write about. Which, if you knew how many ideas I come up with a day, wouldn't seem all that difficult.

But there is a huge difference between ideas and plot. I'd just forgotten how much. Take Varrick for example. I started off with an idea, one that I liked. I created a plot, using three act structure as a basis. I wrote the first twenty pages. They weren't bad - I liked the characters, ect.

But what they did was stale. Incredibly so. Because what was happening to them (and while active protags make do their way and some of their problems, obstacles are often not of their creating) was not boring, but had been done. So many times. I'd read books like this more than once. And while plot points can be archetypal, this wasn't archetypal - it was crap.

I think the main problem is that before hand, when I sat down and plotted my other books (namely THE MANDA) - I had already written the entire thing out twice with no plan. So lots of random and wonderful things had to be tied together, and that created something new. I already had the originality, I just had to figure a way of getting it under control.

But I can't write 6 drafts every time I want to write a book. I just won't have the time - university will eat it up like nothing on earth.

So I have to figure out a way to plot that allows for random ideas. And what I've been doing so far (following three act structure) obviously isn't working. It needs to be part of it, but not all of it.

If that's all I use from scratch, all I end up with is staleness.
T
*sigh* back to the drawing board.