Sometimes the Process is Messy

by brenna | Jan 24, 2011 | Doing the Write Thing | 0 comments

And what a mess I’ve made!  In the aftermath of NaNoWriMo!  I had a total of approximately 83,000 words at the end of November.  When I printed out the manuscript (due to a mess of compatibility between Scrivener and Word), several scenes were duplicated.  Beyond that, when I’d started writing some of the “candy bar” scenes, my concept for the novel changed radically somewhere along the way.

For example, my hero had a mother, father, older brother (the heir) and older sister.  During the process of his character development, I decided to kill off the mother and older brother to some 19th century illness (probably consumption) and make the hero older than the sister (a lot older, like 10 years).  A little while later, I got a great idea for a subplot involving the dead brother and so decided that he died in a duel instead of some disease.  All of this made the character concept and motivations so much clearer to me and helped propel the plot forward.

The problem is that I had several of these scenes based on the previous premise and had these people in the scenes walking and talking, etc.  Well, since this is not a paranormal and therefore won’t include ghosts, the scenes must be changed drastically.  In other scenes, the character concept and motivation had changed so much that the dialogue they were giving made little to no sense.

On top of this, I had divided the story into a series of scenes that in many cases had no connectors one to another.  I had no concept of how many scenes to include in a chapter or why.  How to group them, how to include a hook at the end of each one, etc.

Thus, I utilized an excess of toner and paper and printed a hard copy.  I got dividers, one for each chapter, and labeled them with numbers.  I read through the manuscript and massacred every page with red ink.  I discovered, in the process, that I had a bit of a “Frankenstein’s monster” of a manuscript.  Major, major revision necessary and the last 1/4 of the book needed writing, though at the very lease, that portion was very clear to me and would write itself (1st draft) with little trouble.

After a series of mental gymnastics which felt much like fitting square pegs into round holes, I just started chucking scenes out wholesale.  The minute I decided to do that, a burden lifted from my shoulders.  I felt light and free and actually enthusiastic about rewriting the scenes to fit the new vision.  I knew that they would be better, brighter, shinier.

When I cut/pasted all the scenes I would use into the second draft, I had 61,000 words.  Yes.  I lost 22,000 words.  It smarted a bit, when you consider that the goal I’m shooting for is 100,000.  But cutting the bad will make it better.  I’m enthusiastic about the second draft.  I’ve already written about 10,000 worth of new material.

Writing is a messy business, as messy as sitting at the potter’s wheel, though the caked clay under your fingernails, the splattered clothing and ruined lumps of useless clay discarded off to the side are figurative instead of literal.  I have left a trail of crumpled paper from recycling bin to notebook, in case I lose my way.  Good thing I wore my working clothes.

Remedies: Beating Creativity Block

by brenna | Dec 9, 2010 | Doing the Write Thing | 0 comments

A writer is a writer because even when there is no hope… she keeps writing anyway.   –Junot Diaz

Writer’s block is creativity block and it can be frustrating.  Many writers claim not to get it at all.  More power to them, I say.  Unfair are those same writers’ claims that it doesn’t exist at all.  I have never broken a bone in my life–but does that mean that the malady of broken bones does not exist?

I do get blocked from time to time.  When I am being creative on a regular basis, I find my bouts of the Block occur less often.  But they can still crop up.  Most often, they occur when I am feeling under-the-weather, mentally or physically tired.  Tapping into the Muse is all about tapping into your own subconscious.  Therefore you have to be in a healthy mental/physical state in order for this process to occur.

Some of my remedies for beating Creativity Block:

• Look at the Work in a different format:  If you work in mostly an electronic medium, then printing out your work in a physical manifestation– that you can manipulate and annotate–can have a powerful effect on  your ability to “see” where your work is going.
• Draw a Map:  Sketch out a place that figures in your work: the character’s general neighborhood, a country or continent on a fantasy map, the floor plan of a house or castle, etc.
• Change your weapon: If you write in pen, switch to a pencil or start typing.  If you write on the computer, pull out a notebook full of blank, creamy irresistible pages screaming to be filled by your hand.  Let your words run freely off the tip of your pen without fear of self-editing.
• Set doable, consistent short term goals for yourself: Set a small but consistent daily word count or scene goal for yourself and push yourself to stick to it even when you don’t always feel like it.  It all comes down to putting your butt in the chair and doing.  Some days, you’ll notice yourself going over your goal without you having noticed.  Forming the habit of production goes a long way to stave off creativity block in the future.
• Graphically organize:  Not sure where your story is heading?  Set up a chart, a bubble map, a diagram, a flowchart, a calendar or some other graphic organizer that depicts characters against a time frame (or by location or some other qualifier)
• Word Count sprint: Set up a small period of time (1 hour at the most) in which you will write x amount of words.  Check out the hashtag #1k1hr on twitter to see where others have done similarly.
• Visualize:  Spend fifteen minutes before a writing session by closing your eyes and visualizing a locale in your story.  Without worry of where you will insert it, begin your writing session by typing out a description of this place–include ALL the senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, feel.  If you feel inspired to keep going, give a brief history of the place, listing the three most important events to have taken place there.
• Mix it up: Pit one element of your story against a qualifier it does not normally compare with.  In other words, describe a place in relation to time, or a character with respects to the five closest relationships that character has ever experienced in his/her life, etc.
• Lists:  Make a list of 20.  It can be 20 of anything.  Head the list with the question that the list is answering.  “What are the 20 things I know about this character?”  “What are the 20 most interesting things about this settiing?”  “What are the 20 most interesting things that happen during this plot?” etc.
• Be Flexible: Your creativity block might be your Muse’s way of telling you that you are headed in a wrong direction.  Go with the flow and see where it takes you.  But stay disciplined: Don’t allow it to distract or deter you.
• Believe in yourself : Believe you can do it.  When you believe, you can achieve.

90% of life is about showing up.    –Linda Lael Miller, best-selling author

Do you have a remedy for helping you with creativity block that I haven’t mentioned?  What is it?