Lily Neon Vagabond's Blog, page 19
March 3, 2012
Plot Bunny versus Developed Story Plot
I probably should have written about this sooner, it's something I've been wanting share for awhile. The difference between a plot bunny and an actual developed story plot.
I've long since learned that the initial seed of an idea, or a plot bunny as many will call it, is in fact, almost useless. It can be good for inspiration, but that's as far as it goes.
My last thriller is based on a very simple plot bunny. It had no plot, no chosen genre, and in essence, there was only one scene I had in mind which helped to drive me to finish a whole novel based on the plot bunny. I ran so far with that initial idea, that I can barely recognize it anymore. But I do remember and made it a point to never forget.
Human beings have an imagination by nature. One of the things that distinguishes us as humans is the ability to take that imagination and craft it into something real. A book, a song, a computer game, or even a retail business. This is what makes us human.
But guess what? Just having an imagination, doesn't mean anything. Great! You have an idea! Yeah, you and everybody else on the face of the planet.
What can make an idea special is when you take the time and hard work to develop the idea into a reality.
I'm the kind of person who gets a lot of ideas at once. I tend to get one big idea, it explodes into a million ideas, then I'm left scrambling around trying to organize all the mini-ideas, and hope it all actually makes sense by the end to someone else beside me. This is the main reason I've worked hard on constant practice to keep all my multitude of thoughts organized, as best as I can.
It's fantastic to be a human with a good imagination, but there are downfalls. Having a good imagination can seem powerful, when it isn't everything.
A plot bunny is just an idea, a seed, nothing more. A developed story plot is the whole garden, with many different plants and an entire ecosystem. It takes a lot of work to maintain a garden, every writer should accept that fact right at the beginning.
I can see why many aspiring writers tend to get beguiled by their plot bunnies, and I freely admit I'm guilty of doing that, too. It's easy. Too easy. Plot bunnies are so much fun. Just come up with ideas, no work involved. Good times.
Yet the point where some writers, myself included, fail, is when there's an expectation for the plot bunny to do everything.
I once encountered an aspiring writer who had an amazing imagination, to the point even I was blown away by how imaginative they were. Sadly, I couldn't get them to understand, to save my life, that having an imagination is about 1% of the work. They really believed just by having an idea, that will be enough to write a whole book. Nope, never works that way. There are no shortcuts in life. A shame, really. All that imagination went to waste.
Plot bunnies are a very necessary 1%, of course. After all, it's impossible to write a whole book based on no ideas. Yet, whenever I hear someone claim, "I have the best idea," that tells me they're not doing any actual work. If I hear, "I'm working on a novel," I can take that a bit more seriously. If I hear, "I'm writing a book based on the best idea and it's so easy," then I know they're full of sh*t. The latter makes me sad more than anything else.
Cherish your plot bunnies, they are worth something, but never expect them to be a substitute for skill, hard work and a developed story plot.
I've long since learned that the initial seed of an idea, or a plot bunny as many will call it, is in fact, almost useless. It can be good for inspiration, but that's as far as it goes.
My last thriller is based on a very simple plot bunny. It had no plot, no chosen genre, and in essence, there was only one scene I had in mind which helped to drive me to finish a whole novel based on the plot bunny. I ran so far with that initial idea, that I can barely recognize it anymore. But I do remember and made it a point to never forget.
Human beings have an imagination by nature. One of the things that distinguishes us as humans is the ability to take that imagination and craft it into something real. A book, a song, a computer game, or even a retail business. This is what makes us human.
But guess what? Just having an imagination, doesn't mean anything. Great! You have an idea! Yeah, you and everybody else on the face of the planet.
What can make an idea special is when you take the time and hard work to develop the idea into a reality.
I'm the kind of person who gets a lot of ideas at once. I tend to get one big idea, it explodes into a million ideas, then I'm left scrambling around trying to organize all the mini-ideas, and hope it all actually makes sense by the end to someone else beside me. This is the main reason I've worked hard on constant practice to keep all my multitude of thoughts organized, as best as I can.
It's fantastic to be a human with a good imagination, but there are downfalls. Having a good imagination can seem powerful, when it isn't everything.
A plot bunny is just an idea, a seed, nothing more. A developed story plot is the whole garden, with many different plants and an entire ecosystem. It takes a lot of work to maintain a garden, every writer should accept that fact right at the beginning.
I can see why many aspiring writers tend to get beguiled by their plot bunnies, and I freely admit I'm guilty of doing that, too. It's easy. Too easy. Plot bunnies are so much fun. Just come up with ideas, no work involved. Good times.
Yet the point where some writers, myself included, fail, is when there's an expectation for the plot bunny to do everything.
I once encountered an aspiring writer who had an amazing imagination, to the point even I was blown away by how imaginative they were. Sadly, I couldn't get them to understand, to save my life, that having an imagination is about 1% of the work. They really believed just by having an idea, that will be enough to write a whole book. Nope, never works that way. There are no shortcuts in life. A shame, really. All that imagination went to waste.
Plot bunnies are a very necessary 1%, of course. After all, it's impossible to write a whole book based on no ideas. Yet, whenever I hear someone claim, "I have the best idea," that tells me they're not doing any actual work. If I hear, "I'm working on a novel," I can take that a bit more seriously. If I hear, "I'm writing a book based on the best idea and it's so easy," then I know they're full of sh*t. The latter makes me sad more than anything else.
Cherish your plot bunnies, they are worth something, but never expect them to be a substitute for skill, hard work and a developed story plot.
March 2, 2012
Occupation versus Purpose
Any author can tell you that part of the real work is character development. I would even say it's the majority of the hard work. I find it very difficult to even think abut writing any story before my main character, at the very least, is fully developed.
Trust me, I've already tried. It really doesn't work. It's like trying to buy a house without knowing what city you want to live in. Damn near impossible.
With my last thriller, I got lucky. Very lucky. That book will probably be a once in a lifetime experience. Many things came naturally to me, including both the occupation and the purpose of the main character, at the same time. I just... knew.
In some ways, I was a bit spoiled by that good luck.
With my current thriller, I find I have to pace myself more and break things down. Although I've already learned this lesson, it is interesting to me how I broke this lesson down for my current project.
Occupation and Purpose are two different things. Often related, but still different.
Give me a moment to explain.
The Purpose of a character, especially main characters, has to do with the overall theme of a story. Hamlet is a depressing fool, but he lives in the world of a Shakespearean tragedy, so that's his purpose. His occupation is prince of Denmark.
It's much easier to come up with a Purpose, I find, than an Occupation. Okay, fine, main character is an anti-hero or a hero or some guy out for revenge, but... what does he do?
Well, the answer is up to me. That's my job as the author.
An Occupation could be anything, just like everyday life. Banker, waitress, telemarketer, zoo keeper, Star Wars Storm Trooper without a name so you know this character is going to die, etc. The Occupation isn't as important as the Purpose, it just has to make sense within the context of the story. Hamlet couldn't be a merchant in Venice, that wouldn't make sense.
So, I was stalled with my current project. It took more effort to develop and get to know my main character than with my last thriller. I despaired for a little while that maybe I hadn't learned my lessons, maybe it's never going to get easier for me, and maybe, oh my god, I suck as a writer and life has no meaning!
Yeah, I have my Hamlet moments, too. Then I get over it.
Yesterday I had a burst of inspiration. The Occupation for my main character finally came to me! I knew his purpose, his name, back story, everything else but his elusive occupation.
Now that he's finally developed enough, and that did take a good two months of thinking about him, on and off, the writing is flowing beautifully again. I'm getting back that same feeling I had with my last book. That feeling of, I can just sit down and write whenever I want, like flexing a muscle. It's a wonderful feeling.
The irony of all of this is, his occupation is a hustler. Go figure.
And now... I'm working on page 20...
Trust me, I've already tried. It really doesn't work. It's like trying to buy a house without knowing what city you want to live in. Damn near impossible.
With my last thriller, I got lucky. Very lucky. That book will probably be a once in a lifetime experience. Many things came naturally to me, including both the occupation and the purpose of the main character, at the same time. I just... knew.
In some ways, I was a bit spoiled by that good luck.
With my current thriller, I find I have to pace myself more and break things down. Although I've already learned this lesson, it is interesting to me how I broke this lesson down for my current project.
Occupation and Purpose are two different things. Often related, but still different.
Give me a moment to explain.
The Purpose of a character, especially main characters, has to do with the overall theme of a story. Hamlet is a depressing fool, but he lives in the world of a Shakespearean tragedy, so that's his purpose. His occupation is prince of Denmark.
It's much easier to come up with a Purpose, I find, than an Occupation. Okay, fine, main character is an anti-hero or a hero or some guy out for revenge, but... what does he do?
Well, the answer is up to me. That's my job as the author.
An Occupation could be anything, just like everyday life. Banker, waitress, telemarketer, zoo keeper, Star Wars Storm Trooper without a name so you know this character is going to die, etc. The Occupation isn't as important as the Purpose, it just has to make sense within the context of the story. Hamlet couldn't be a merchant in Venice, that wouldn't make sense.
So, I was stalled with my current project. It took more effort to develop and get to know my main character than with my last thriller. I despaired for a little while that maybe I hadn't learned my lessons, maybe it's never going to get easier for me, and maybe, oh my god, I suck as a writer and life has no meaning!
Yeah, I have my Hamlet moments, too. Then I get over it.
Yesterday I had a burst of inspiration. The Occupation for my main character finally came to me! I knew his purpose, his name, back story, everything else but his elusive occupation.
Now that he's finally developed enough, and that did take a good two months of thinking about him, on and off, the writing is flowing beautifully again. I'm getting back that same feeling I had with my last book. That feeling of, I can just sit down and write whenever I want, like flexing a muscle. It's a wonderful feeling.
The irony of all of this is, his occupation is a hustler. Go figure.
And now... I'm working on page 20...
February 17, 2012
The Art of Chapter Outlines
Okay, the title of this post isn't completely true. I'm still learning how to write chapter outlines, and they tend to be very rough. Numbered chapters followed by a rough paragraph of "And then this happened..." Yeah, it's a bit amateur, but I'm getting better at it, slowly but surely.
In my last post, I talked about how to write chapters, as short stories without endings to keep things going. It's a trick which works very well for me. But this trick also presented a problem.
If chapters don't have endings, how the hell am I supposed to know where to end a chapter?!
This is where chapter outlines come in handy. Overall, I find if a chapter summary is longer than a paragraph, it's too much for one chapter, break, start new chapter. It's quite useful.
I also find that chapter outlines are the most unstable and will change all the time as I'm writing and the story evolves. With my latest finished thriller, there were many moments I found certain events worked better in other chapters and I was constantly switching things around. I began seeing the summaries of each chapter like puzzle pieces. Some pieces just fit better in other spots.
And there would be no way for me to tell until I had written up to that point.
It can be frustrating to feel like I have to go back ten steps and switch things around. Yet that's the hard work aspect of crafting fiction, and it can also be very fulfilling once a puzzle piece fits perfectly in place.
Maybe I'll refine the process of chapter outlines as I write more books. After all, I do plan on writing books for a long time.
In my last post, I talked about how to write chapters, as short stories without endings to keep things going. It's a trick which works very well for me. But this trick also presented a problem.
If chapters don't have endings, how the hell am I supposed to know where to end a chapter?!
This is where chapter outlines come in handy. Overall, I find if a chapter summary is longer than a paragraph, it's too much for one chapter, break, start new chapter. It's quite useful.
I also find that chapter outlines are the most unstable and will change all the time as I'm writing and the story evolves. With my latest finished thriller, there were many moments I found certain events worked better in other chapters and I was constantly switching things around. I began seeing the summaries of each chapter like puzzle pieces. Some pieces just fit better in other spots.
And there would be no way for me to tell until I had written up to that point.
It can be frustrating to feel like I have to go back ten steps and switch things around. Yet that's the hard work aspect of crafting fiction, and it can also be very fulfilling once a puzzle piece fits perfectly in place.
Maybe I'll refine the process of chapter outlines as I write more books. After all, I do plan on writing books for a long time.
February 13, 2012
How to Write Chapters and Building Suspense
I started my next thriller, but it felt like a false start. I started worrying I'll have to go back to the drawing board.
Then I remembered a valuable lesson I learned while writing my other thriller. How to write chapters. This was a brand new lesson for me. It's also the nitty gritty part of crafting fiction. I learned a rather neat trick that works well for me.
Now, I have no idea if this trick works for other writers, or if it's an age-old trick and I'm late in the game. Either way, it's a good lesson and I planned to share it on this blog.
Here's the trick:
Write each chapter like a short story without an ending.
For myself, I find it too easy to get bogged down with the whole story, that writing each chapter can seem impossible, and I end up rewriting. This is a bad habit. With my other thriller, one thing that helped a lot to keep going and finish a whole book, was to approach each chapter like a short story.
It's all the same, you see. It's still crafting fiction.
Surprisingly, not writing a definitive ending to each chapter not only helped to keep going, but also built suspense. The story became a page-turner. After all, there's only one ending in the last chapter. I realized that giving an ending to each chapter was a block. I was finishing with the story before I got started :(
I ended up writing constantly because I wanted to get to the ending. It was a form of beautiful torture, like holding a carrot at the end of a stick. So I kept going.
Since a lot of lessons I learned from writing and completing a thriller novel are still relatively new to me, I had to remind myself. Already, with my current project, I put in blocks.
But! Now that I've remembered, I know I don't need to go back to the drawing board. I have a two page outline, a one paragraph synopsis, a one page chapter outline. The drawing board is already full.
It's time for the nitty gritty. One chapter at a time. And no endings.
Then I remembered a valuable lesson I learned while writing my other thriller. How to write chapters. This was a brand new lesson for me. It's also the nitty gritty part of crafting fiction. I learned a rather neat trick that works well for me.
Now, I have no idea if this trick works for other writers, or if it's an age-old trick and I'm late in the game. Either way, it's a good lesson and I planned to share it on this blog.
Here's the trick:
Write each chapter like a short story without an ending.
For myself, I find it too easy to get bogged down with the whole story, that writing each chapter can seem impossible, and I end up rewriting. This is a bad habit. With my other thriller, one thing that helped a lot to keep going and finish a whole book, was to approach each chapter like a short story.
It's all the same, you see. It's still crafting fiction.
Surprisingly, not writing a definitive ending to each chapter not only helped to keep going, but also built suspense. The story became a page-turner. After all, there's only one ending in the last chapter. I realized that giving an ending to each chapter was a block. I was finishing with the story before I got started :(
I ended up writing constantly because I wanted to get to the ending. It was a form of beautiful torture, like holding a carrot at the end of a stick. So I kept going.
Since a lot of lessons I learned from writing and completing a thriller novel are still relatively new to me, I had to remind myself. Already, with my current project, I put in blocks.
But! Now that I've remembered, I know I don't need to go back to the drawing board. I have a two page outline, a one paragraph synopsis, a one page chapter outline. The drawing board is already full.
It's time for the nitty gritty. One chapter at a time. And no endings.
February 7, 2012
Spam or Not Spam?
I just wanted to let everyone know, although I disabled a lot of comment filters for this blog to allow free commenting, the spam filter is still on.
I received a comment tonight that's in the spam folder, the only one I got, and it's in there because it contains a link to a possible spam website.
So, fair warning, now you know.
Comments, but not spam :)
I received a comment tonight that's in the spam folder, the only one I got, and it's in there because it contains a link to a possible spam website.
So, fair warning, now you know.
Comments, but not spam :)
February 5, 2012
Shop Prices Reduced
Prices reduced in the shop. All buttons, stickers, magnets and patches are now under 10$ CDN, each.
http://www.cafepress.com/neonvagabond/8480949
http://www.cafepress.com/neonvagabond/8480949
January 30, 2012
New Psychological Thriller by Tweets
I started my next psychological thriller last night and I've opened a Twitter account. You can now watch me go through the creative process of building a novel, in real-time!
The Twitter is now in the right sidebar ------------------------>
Or, click this button and follow me :)
Follow @neonvagabond
The Twitter is now in the right sidebar ------------------------>
Or, click this button and follow me :)
Follow @neonvagabond
January 28, 2012
Adverbs and Word Count
For any writer, especially those who are always reading internet articles about the craft of fiction (guilty as charged), we're all familiar with the age-old banes – adverbs and word count.
First and foremost, here's the only right answer for the appropriate word count for a novel.
It depends on the story and the genre.
Sorry, no secrets, no protocols, no right one answer.
My psychological thriller is 54,000 words. That's an ideal word count for a fast-paced mystery, and appropriate as a manuscript submission.
Let's pretend the story is the romance genre. 54,000 words would define it as a novella, an automatic rejection if submitted as a novel, and the story wouldn't have a snowball chance in hell.
It just depends.
For those who are writing the kind of story that calls for a higher word count, Sci-fi is a good example as it tends to have very high word counts, the common complaint is, how do I boost my word count?
This is where the other bane comes into play – adverbs.
I've seen many times from a variety of people (writers, editors, publishers) that you should avoid adverbs. For quite some time I wondered... why? Adverbs are easy. It's grammatically correct. What's the problem?
I understood early on that from a reader's perspective, sounding out "ly" every second word in their heads gets annoying rather fast. Also, too many adverbs looks unprofessional.
So, I concentrated on avoiding that "ly" factor, but I only understood it on a superficial level. Editors and publishers frown upon an abundance of adverbs, so don't do it. Right. But it took me awhile to realize that by not using adverbs, it boosted my word count without even being aware of the word count.
Here's what I've learned. Adverbs have the potential of replacing at least one whole sentence. Rather than using adverbs, I concentrated on describing things in detail. Adverbs are greedy little bastards that with eat up word count.
Random example:
Adverbs
He plainly saw there was clearly no way across the room, obviously. (Word count = 12)
No Adverbs
He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, but his vision was still blurred. After putting one foot down on the clean floor, the left shoe slipped forward and his shoulder crashed against the wall. He decided it was a bad day, turned around, and went back to bed. (Word count = 49)
As you can see from my rough example, I replaced a sentence with a paragraph just by not using any adverbs.
Weird, isn't it? Back when I first started writing, I really thought using a lot of adverbs would boost my word count, and now I see it's the opposite.
My final word on adverbs is that there's nothing wrong with them as long as it's the right use of grammar and they're not used as a substitute for crafting fictions. So, use adverbs sparingly.
First and foremost, here's the only right answer for the appropriate word count for a novel.
It depends on the story and the genre.
Sorry, no secrets, no protocols, no right one answer.
My psychological thriller is 54,000 words. That's an ideal word count for a fast-paced mystery, and appropriate as a manuscript submission.
Let's pretend the story is the romance genre. 54,000 words would define it as a novella, an automatic rejection if submitted as a novel, and the story wouldn't have a snowball chance in hell.
It just depends.
For those who are writing the kind of story that calls for a higher word count, Sci-fi is a good example as it tends to have very high word counts, the common complaint is, how do I boost my word count?
This is where the other bane comes into play – adverbs.
I've seen many times from a variety of people (writers, editors, publishers) that you should avoid adverbs. For quite some time I wondered... why? Adverbs are easy. It's grammatically correct. What's the problem?
I understood early on that from a reader's perspective, sounding out "ly" every second word in their heads gets annoying rather fast. Also, too many adverbs looks unprofessional.
So, I concentrated on avoiding that "ly" factor, but I only understood it on a superficial level. Editors and publishers frown upon an abundance of adverbs, so don't do it. Right. But it took me awhile to realize that by not using adverbs, it boosted my word count without even being aware of the word count.
Here's what I've learned. Adverbs have the potential of replacing at least one whole sentence. Rather than using adverbs, I concentrated on describing things in detail. Adverbs are greedy little bastards that with eat up word count.
Random example:
Adverbs
He plainly saw there was clearly no way across the room, obviously. (Word count = 12)
No Adverbs
He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, but his vision was still blurred. After putting one foot down on the clean floor, the left shoe slipped forward and his shoulder crashed against the wall. He decided it was a bad day, turned around, and went back to bed. (Word count = 49)
As you can see from my rough example, I replaced a sentence with a paragraph just by not using any adverbs.
Weird, isn't it? Back when I first started writing, I really thought using a lot of adverbs would boost my word count, and now I see it's the opposite.
My final word on adverbs is that there's nothing wrong with them as long as it's the right use of grammar and they're not used as a substitute for crafting fictions. So, use adverbs sparingly.
January 24, 2012
Villains and I how I learned to love them
I had gotten a good grip on character development for a protagonist, hero, anti-hero, side characters, sidekicks... just about everything except villains.
My understanding of villains, I'm not proud to admit, was superficial. I had a lesson to learn and any villain I tried to create ended up coming across as yet another random bad guy. And I honestly didn't know why.
I made my villains as evil as possible, I didn't hold back with anything graphic, violent, etc, so what was the problem? I couldn't put my finger on it for the longest time until my latest book.
Every villain needs to have a flaw, which I already knew, it was my choices of flaws that was the problem.
Villain happens to be serial killer? So what? That within itself isn't a flaw, as I've learned. It's a purpose, an occupation, but not a flaw.
Then it dawned on me. Flaws and character development for antagonists are exactly the same as they are for protagonist. It's just the other side, the mirror image, if you will. Two opposite sides of the same coin.
Once I understood that, I understood the right choices for flaws.
Laziness, sloth, greed, selfishness, the list goes on. This opened up a lot for me and help make the story much more well-rounded. It can be any flaws, and there can be more than one, but it has to be a flaw that people (the readers) can relate to. If I really wanted to be creative about it, I could give a villain a flaw that would be positive under any other circumstances. Yearnings for love, fame, riches. A lot of possibilities.
I truly believed if I made a villain more human, give them a flaw, then they wouldn't be villains anymore. I was pleasantly surprised to see I was wrong. Giving the villain a flaw that's easily understood, made the character more of a villain. It twisted around my thinking. I was shocked by how well it worked.
I learned to love the villain. I could feel his pain. Sounds cheesy, I know, but it's true. I could sympathize with him.
I think this is why I held myself back with character development for a villain for so long.
I didn't want to relate to the f*ckers.
But it's too late to go back now. I'm here, I've learned, I'm moving onward and forward.
My understanding of villains, I'm not proud to admit, was superficial. I had a lesson to learn and any villain I tried to create ended up coming across as yet another random bad guy. And I honestly didn't know why.
I made my villains as evil as possible, I didn't hold back with anything graphic, violent, etc, so what was the problem? I couldn't put my finger on it for the longest time until my latest book.
Every villain needs to have a flaw, which I already knew, it was my choices of flaws that was the problem.
Villain happens to be serial killer? So what? That within itself isn't a flaw, as I've learned. It's a purpose, an occupation, but not a flaw.
Then it dawned on me. Flaws and character development for antagonists are exactly the same as they are for protagonist. It's just the other side, the mirror image, if you will. Two opposite sides of the same coin.
Once I understood that, I understood the right choices for flaws.
Laziness, sloth, greed, selfishness, the list goes on. This opened up a lot for me and help make the story much more well-rounded. It can be any flaws, and there can be more than one, but it has to be a flaw that people (the readers) can relate to. If I really wanted to be creative about it, I could give a villain a flaw that would be positive under any other circumstances. Yearnings for love, fame, riches. A lot of possibilities.
I truly believed if I made a villain more human, give them a flaw, then they wouldn't be villains anymore. I was pleasantly surprised to see I was wrong. Giving the villain a flaw that's easily understood, made the character more of a villain. It twisted around my thinking. I was shocked by how well it worked.
I learned to love the villain. I could feel his pain. Sounds cheesy, I know, but it's true. I could sympathize with him.
I think this is why I held myself back with character development for a villain for so long.
I didn't want to relate to the f*ckers.
But it's too late to go back now. I'm here, I've learned, I'm moving onward and forward.
January 23, 2012
Layer Writing
One thing I've never agreed with is the claim from any aspiring author, that they're a "layer writer."
It's complete BS. No such thing, doesn't exist, buy hey, nice try.
The thing is about layer writing, and this is something I learned repeatedly with my latest book, is that it comes naturally. Fleshing out the story during and after is a natural process of crafting fiction.
It just happens.
Spending all focus on writing the skeleton of a story only and saying, "Oh, I'll add layers later," is lazy. It's a very bad habit. And more often than not, a sole focus on layer writing will prevent an author from finishing a story. No author, aspiring or published, will enjoy being blocked. So, you know, just don't.
Also, chances are, if you wait until later, you'll lose that initial inspiration and wonder... what was I thinking again?
Crafting fiction takes a lot of brain work. It's never easy, but for me, it's worth every word and braincell.
I'm very glad I got the hang of outline writing for my latest book. If something slipped my mind, I could just read through my outlines and my brain would get restarted instantly.
There were several points in the story where I found I needed to stop, think about things a bit, apply yet another layer, then keep going with the story. I found by adding layers as I went along, when needed, the story became more real to me and made it that much easier to get to the end.
What I found to be an interesting experience for me, and a brand new one, was realizing not only did I need to add another layer to keep going, I needed more inspiration. And a funny thing about inspiration, it can come out of nowhere.
There were three moments specifically where I felt I had been stopped cold. Three separate inspirations helped me to keep going. (Bookmark this blog post. When the book is published and you reread this post, you'll find this hysterical). The first was outlaw country. The second, ghosts. The third, a dead squirrel I found on the sidewalk near my house. Yes, sometimes inspiration really does fall out of the sky. Weird but true.
These three inspirations inspired me to add layers that I wouldn't have thought of beforehand, and definitely not once I finished the story. I couldn't be more grateful I added the layers as I went along. It's definitely the way to go.
It can seem tedious to stop, go back through what's already written, just to add this other layer, but I didn't find it tedious. I found it satisfying to watch the story come alive. And I wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world.
It's complete BS. No such thing, doesn't exist, buy hey, nice try.
The thing is about layer writing, and this is something I learned repeatedly with my latest book, is that it comes naturally. Fleshing out the story during and after is a natural process of crafting fiction.
It just happens.
Spending all focus on writing the skeleton of a story only and saying, "Oh, I'll add layers later," is lazy. It's a very bad habit. And more often than not, a sole focus on layer writing will prevent an author from finishing a story. No author, aspiring or published, will enjoy being blocked. So, you know, just don't.
Also, chances are, if you wait until later, you'll lose that initial inspiration and wonder... what was I thinking again?
Crafting fiction takes a lot of brain work. It's never easy, but for me, it's worth every word and braincell.
I'm very glad I got the hang of outline writing for my latest book. If something slipped my mind, I could just read through my outlines and my brain would get restarted instantly.
There were several points in the story where I found I needed to stop, think about things a bit, apply yet another layer, then keep going with the story. I found by adding layers as I went along, when needed, the story became more real to me and made it that much easier to get to the end.
What I found to be an interesting experience for me, and a brand new one, was realizing not only did I need to add another layer to keep going, I needed more inspiration. And a funny thing about inspiration, it can come out of nowhere.
There were three moments specifically where I felt I had been stopped cold. Three separate inspirations helped me to keep going. (Bookmark this blog post. When the book is published and you reread this post, you'll find this hysterical). The first was outlaw country. The second, ghosts. The third, a dead squirrel I found on the sidewalk near my house. Yes, sometimes inspiration really does fall out of the sky. Weird but true.
These three inspirations inspired me to add layers that I wouldn't have thought of beforehand, and definitely not once I finished the story. I couldn't be more grateful I added the layers as I went along. It's definitely the way to go.
It can seem tedious to stop, go back through what's already written, just to add this other layer, but I didn't find it tedious. I found it satisfying to watch the story come alive. And I wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world.
