Arthur Gibson's Blog: A Journey In Mind, page 10

Check Your Mental Filter

A piece of advice I have heard more than once is "read what you write". If you want to be a fantasy author, read a lot of fantasy. If you want to do mystery, read mysteries. This is on one hand very good advice. You learn the genre. You learn some of the rules. You get a feeling for pace and style. It can be an eye opener.

At the same time, make sure your mental filter is operating. It is so easy to get a great idea and find it is something you read a month ago. Granting that there is nothing new under the sun, you do not want to be a copier. Putting a new spin on an old idea is what we do as writers. Using someone else's idea is not.

It is a fine line to walk in any avenue of life. Knowing something works makes us want to do something along the same lines. Wanting to do something unique makes us want to do something totally different. Blending the two impulses is hard. Keeping them separate is also hard. And sometimes someone beats you to it. I remember a fantasy world I was working on. I had developed a system of magic that I thought was unique. I had certainly never seen it in print anywhere. As I was muddling through the details of plot and getting ready to write an author I like published a new book. And danged if he didn't have a very similar system of magic in his new world. Great minds think alike, huh?

I did not have to toss my system or my world. I just had to make a few slight changes to make sure I didn't appear to be copying him. In the end, it make my story better. It forced me to mix things up. I didn't like having to do it, but I do not regret the changes.

It is easy to drink in a great idea and want to use it. It is hard to write something truly unique that hasn't been explored by someone before. And running the middle road has a lot of ups and downs. The important thing is to make sure we use our filters and remove our blinders. To change those things we picked up from others so that we make them our own. To craft our stories as best we can in our own voices and styles. To be the individuals we are. That makes for the best voices. That makes for the best diversity.

Sadly Lacking

A week to the deadline and the ending is sadly lacking. I just do not like how the last third of the book keeps coming out. I have changed viewpoints and dialogue and setting and everything I can think of. But it doesn't match the pictures in my head. Not yet. Will continue to endeavor to persevere however.

Staying true to the vision in your head is harder than you would think. So many things can change in the writing process. New things come in, old things get thrown out. New characters arrive. Others morph into something totally different. But through it all there should be a golden thread that you follow.

The single line of vision that you follow isn't plot per se, but rather the feeling of your story. The germ of it. That is what breeds consistency. That is what gives your story the flavor of you. And it needs to be adhered to. Otherwise no matter how technically proficient your work may be, it will not be as good as it could. Best case it will be good, but no "wow" factor. Worst case it will be ok, but off-putting because the flavor do not mix well at all. The last thing you want to do as a writer - whether your reader agrees with your worldview or likes how you approached an idea - is leave your reader with a bad taste in their mouth. Your punctuation will not be remembered. Just that there was something they didn't like about your work. That means they probably won't read another or tell people about you. Not the ideal.

Piece by Piece

Can you remember what your characters are doing from one chapter to the next? Can you keep your plot in mind for the whole of your story? Most of us live and breathe our stories and characters as we work on them. They begin to be very real to us. Friends (or enemies) that walk beside us through our day. These questions are not an issue. However, it is a whole other can of worms when you serialize.

Alexander Dumas wrote very good adventure stories. Among them is The Three Musketeers. He wrote it chapter by chapter. He would write a chapter and then give it to his staff who would copy it out and send it to the publisher. One of the goals of the character d'Artagnan is to be a Musketeer. It is his dream. And he achieves it. About 2/3 of the way through. Of course at the beginning of the next chapter he isn`t one anymore because the plot isn`t done. Dumas forgot he had done it. That is the danger of serialization.

I have done a serialized novel and had the same issues. Contradictory information. Characters who seemed to own a car in the first chapter are begging a friend for a car in the third because they no longer have one. Characters discover information about an ancestor who apparently accomplished something a year after he died. When you look at a story chapter by chapter it is too easy to forget all the little details that you put into your stories. Not major plot points, just small little things that we throw in to give our stories dimension and color.

So how do you avoid it? If you are posting or publishing a chapter at a time, how do you keep what has passed in mind? There are really only two ways. The first is the easiest and the longest. You re-read what you have written before you write the next chapter. But we don`t always have time for that. The second is to take notes. Extensive notes. When you add a detail, write it down. When you flesh out a plot point, write it down. This takes less time, but it is harder to do. Saying ``nawww, I`ll remember`` is easy as natural. It is also deadly. Resist that impulse.

Write down in point form what you add to your story. Then you can check your notes before you write a chapter or as you write. It will help with consistency. It will reduce the headaches of editing. It will make things smoother. And it will help to keep your musketeer from appearing before his story is done.

Net Issues

Ok, so for the next 12 days I am going to have some sporadic posts. I have lost my connectivity at home and only have parital access to internet outside of home. But I will endeavor to continue to post as daily as I can. This really messes with my post every day plan. I wonder if it would count if I wrote the posts anyway and just posted them as I had access?

Which Clues to Use?

Whether you write full blown mysteries or just like keeping your readers in suspense of what is going on, there is an element of mystery in all we do. After all, what good is it if we telegraph an ending? Why would they want to continue reading to the end if they figure out in Chapter Two just what is going to happen?

I have run what I call Online Storytelling Experiences in the past. What that is is a choose your own adventure kind of idea. I would write three chapters introducing the characters and the plot. The participants would then choose a character to "play". The question before them was "What do you (your character) want to do now"? Based on the types of things they wanted to do (eg. I want to go to the library and question the janitor to find out if anyone was in the building) I would compile a list and then write the next chapter. They would read it and decide what to do next and so on. It gave a fluid story that they helped to write without doing much work. And it was fun :)

At the end I went to compile it into a solid story. First I ran into the issue of serialization (will discuss that more tomorrow). But the second and harder problem was clues. I had written clues in to help guide them. They followed some. They ignored others. So what do I keep? Would it work without them? Would it give fresh readers too much to go on? Would it confuse them? It was hard.

In the end I kept some and re-wrote other passages to omit things. It changed the story a little, but not in a major way. I always keep this in mind as I edit a story. What am I giving away? Are the clues too obscure? Am I turning a story that isn't a mystery into one by showing too much of the behind-the-scenes action?

In the end it is a fine line to walk between what plot to reveal and what to keep hidden. The decision should be one of pace and story. If it helps the story, use it. If it breaks the pace, cut it. And vice versa.

Do You Keep It?

Not all that glitters is gold. Not all that shimmers is pretty. Not all that is wet is water. Not every scene should be kept. The decision to keep or lose a given scene can be a struggle.

I tend to read and write in cinematic 4-D colorscope in my head. I see things like a movie. It is veyr dynamic and real to me. As I sit and write, certain scenes will be particularly good to me. Sometimes I will write a piece based entirely on a scene that I came across while rummaging in my head. By the end of a given piece I have several scenes that I think are winners. However, that does not mean that they advance the plot, do proper justice to the characters, or keep with the pace. In short, they are not always needed.

Just like editors of a film, there are decisions to be made about what you are going to keep and what you are going to lose. Sometimes things just need to be tweeked. Sometimes they just need to go. A scene can be well written and still get on the chopping block.

Does it fit? Is the pace of your piece being jarred in this one place? Is it faster or slower?

Does it work? Are the characters different than in the rest of the piece? Is the tone out of place for the overall piece?

Do you need it? Is there anything in the scene that is important but can easily be imparted to the audience without the scene? Is there nothing of importance in the scene at all?

These are the types of questions to ask at every stage of your editing. There may not be anything you need to get rid of. But you might find a scene or a chunk of one that can just go. I never throw them out completely. Sometimes they become the basis of something else. Sometimes they don't. But whenever I remove something, I make sure that I tie up the ends where I sliced. You need to make sure that no one can tell you removed a piece. And if you can do that easily, then you were right to remove it. Vital scenes ruin a piece when they are removed. Superfluous scenes no one ever realizes were even meant to be there.

What's On Your Shelf?

You prune your garden by using clippers. You remove lint with a brush. You trim your pie crust with a knife. We use tools to get rid of that which we do not want. Editing is the same thing. We are rearranging words and phrases. We are removing unwanted or unneccessary material. There are tools we use to accomplish that.

Whether you rely on word processing or physical reference material, we all use tools. Spell check, thesaurus, or books on editing, we all use something. We keep them close at hand for easy reference. Sometimes we even wear them out. Without them our work would be less than what it could be. With them we can take it as far as we can alone. They are a neccessary part of our lives and our craft. Never underestimate them.

On my shelf I have: Strunk & White's The Elements of Style, The New American Dictionary, Webster's Thesaurus, a Synonym Dictionary, The Hobbit (a reminder of how good a tight self-enclosed story can be while still leaving possibilities for the future), and Self Editing for Writers.

What do you have on yours? Is there anything special or out of place? If so, why do you have it there?

Waves Up a Beach

There was a man once who was writing a book. He was writing longhand. What he did was start at the beginning and write until he hit an issue or something he wanted to change. Then he started at the beginning again and wrote until the next thing. That was how he edited. Kind of did it on the fly or on the run. He wrote a very large book that way (it was broken up into a trilogy by the publisher). Can you imagine how long that would take? That is patience. That is dedication to the story. A desire to make sure that it is right.

Luckily, I do not have to edit that way. Today we have computers. We can skim over a page or a chapter or whatnot and just slice and dice at will without having to redo everything. The only exception is when our edits change something drastic.

Editing is an arduous process. It does not have to be painful, but it is time consuming and we need to be careful. Sometimes the convenience of a computer can make us lazy. But we can't be. We need to take time and we need to be patient. And we need to be thankful we can do it without getting writer's cramp.

To Pieces to the Puzzle, But They Don't Fit

I am a retard, lol. Started the story from the beginning. Moving along well. Had a sudden inspiration as to where I wanted to end up. Began to trace backwards so that they could end up in the right place. However, they do not meet. Nor do they match. The character in the beginning is not the same as the character in the end. So I will end up rewriting the beginning to make sure that they match. Plus editing the ending because I am sure that there are going to be more changes when I am re-doing the beginning. Next time I think I will take more notes on character so that they match better.

It Is Approaching....

The beginning of the submission process is approaching. Fast. Only a few days away really. Ok, about a week. And it ends on the 6th of Feb. So I have only a short while left to finish my book. Not sure if I am going to make it. It feels a little rushed to me. The pace of the writing I mean. It just doesn't feel...right. Not yet anyway. We will see if I get it done. Today is a heavy writing day so I will see how it goes and report tomorrow. Wish me luck.
(to read a sample of the new book, see my writing on this site)