A.M. Jenkins's Blog, page 9

I'm to the point where I need to pull back a little and f...

I'm to the point where I need to pull back a little and figure out how to structure and pace an area of the book where a bunch of time is passing between scenes. Up till now, I've been thinking directly from scene to scene, with one leading straight into the next...then the next...then the next. Etc, etc. But now everybody needs a little time for relationships to develop and frustrations to ripen. And I'm not sure how to do that, because my head's in unrelenting-verge-of-death mode. Also because transitions are one of my weak spots as a writer.

My guess is that the third quarter of the book is going to be this way; basically, it's no longer going to be a question of which character-driven hook-y moment to cut on, but of which summarized info is strong enough to carry the burden of propelling the book forward--without losing the pace.

Then the last quarter will ramp up again to a bunch of scenes smashed together via rising action, one to the next.

Somehow, in this third quarter of the ms, I've got to hold the reader for every single chapter. Will have to think about it. I foresee lots of scribbled lists in my future. Otherwise...I'm not sure how to approach this. Maybe I need to write out some more of the encounters and conversations that take place in this part, even though I'm not sure which ones are necessary and which ones are dead ends, and which ones are interesting only to me and no one else. Hmm, hmm, hmm.

A very nice morning. First news of the day is a writer fr...

A very nice morning. First news of the day is a writer friend's breakthrough revelation--the kind where you're thinking about your ms and a big chunk of story suddenly slides into place in your head. The kind with a domino effect where, once you "get" that chunk, resulting encounters and situations also start falling into place and it all makes sense on every level.

Ahhhhh. It's good to bask in the glow.

Spent today moving pieces around to try and get a grip on...

Spent today moving pieces around to try and get a grip on the big picture as I move on into the book. Now I've got the story tentatively sketched out through chapter 13 or so, and my sense is that I'm probably at the midpoint of the story. If so, the book's about like I thought and will end up at 300+ pages. (My guess right now is 300-350. I have nothing to base that on. It's just the way the ms feels to me.)

Right now the sketched-out chapters include pieces I've had sitting around for ages, waiting to be used. These mostly consist of backstory, the stories the characters tell each other, and dialog.

And my head is already on full overload from doing all this, but I want to try to jot down a list/outline of these sketched-out scenes, to help firm them up in my mind. At the moment they're so piecemeal and choppy, it'll take me forever, next writing session, to work myself back around to understanding what this all is supposed to mean. Right now I have a vague sense of how these bits can fit together to form a coherent flow, but I can tell my grasp of the material is going to evaporate as soon as I walk away from the computer and start thinking about something else.

Hmm. I haven't been pleased with myself for continuing to...

Hmm. I haven't been pleased with myself for continuing to go over already-written scenes and chapters, smoothing and revising for flow. But this morning I was talking to some writer friends about scenes with action, and saying how my current theory is that to write those kinds of scenes properly, you (meaning I) have to go over them in layers. I've got to ground them, do the blocking, do the dialog, and go through the scenes (in my head) from the POVs of the MC and of each main secondary character. And every time I add a layer, it recasts all the previous layers, which means I've got to go back and redo them all over again, one by one. Repeat ad nauseum. But I'm starting to realize that if I don't do this, the scene is "off" and nothing coming after it will be right.

I said all this, then realized maybe that's why I can't let these recent chapters go, but keep gnawing on them like a dog with a bone. Maybe my gut senses a lack of direction right after these chapters, and is driving me to get a better grip on them. Maybe. Will have to see, I suppose.

Worked on chapters 9, 10, and on into 11. Around 11 I get...

Worked on chapters 9, 10, and on into 11. Around 11 I get confused because I've got the two main plotlines going pretty good, but just ended a couple of hook-type events, so I need to pick up the tension again here with one of the other hook-type events. Without losing track of either of the two main plotlines.

It's very hard to remember what the reader may not know, and what s/he may be wondering about.

Also, I think I may keep undercutting myself because I like the bad guy a whole lot and am focusing more on his character than on stringing out what the MC doesn't know about him. He could be a huge help to plot tension, if I use him properly.

I feel guilty saying that. I don't want to "use" you, Bad Guy! I love you, and you deserve better than to be used. I promise, if I do end up having to use you, I will do my best to get the reader to cry.

Yesterday I told myself I was going to write more new stu...

Yesterday I told myself I was going to write more new stuff for the middle, but I ended up working on chapters 6, 7, and 8, going over and over them for flow of ideas, feelings, and tension. Oh well.

Today I started writing a piece of backstory I need to understand, but apparently I got bored with it, since I'm writing this post. That means I need to hop to it and figure out what I really want to do, writing-wise, today.

And so to work.

Started smoothing out chapters 8, 9, and 10. However, the...

Started smoothing out chapters 8, 9, and 10. However, there isn't much time before the new school year kicks in, so this coming week I might be better off trying to get some more large pieces staked out in the ms' middle. When school kicks in, I won't be able to work more than a couple of hours at a time without being interrupted, and these nice large chunks of new story I've been writing seem to feed off marathon writing sessions.

Again, an excellent writing day. Most excellent; I pulled...

Again, an excellent writing day. Most excellent; I pulled a bunch of stuff together and suddenly have sketched my way up to chapter 10, well over a hundred pages in.

I will be interested to see how the upcoming tricky part--the development of my main secondary character--can be worked out without losing any of the tension or high-interest pacing I'm trying to maintain. I may sit down and list all the plot-hook types of scenes I know will happen in the middle of the book, so that I can wrap my mind around exactly how many there are, as well as what they are, exactly. Right now these plot-hooky things are mostly big generalities in my mind (with pieces, scenes, and conversations scribbled down in the ms as placeholders), but I think they'll necessarily need to be broken up because the ideas in them are too big for one scene or chapter. Instead, the plot-hooky things are probably more like little mini-arcs. If they are, they may be enough to intersperse with the character-development so that pacing stays sharp.

It sure would be nice if this book could live up to what my brain thinks it could be.

Another very productive day, 1300+ words. I wrote a new s...

Another very productive day, 1300+ words. I wrote a new scene, a knife fight, which--now that I think about it--is backstory. That led to another new scene, also backstory, which I loved writing and found very touching.

The reader's going to need both these backstory scenes, either as discrete flashbacks, as memories related by the MC in detail, as paraphrases, or as cut-up snippets scattered around. I have no idea which. All I know is, both scenes really happened, and the reader needs them in order to fully understand the story.

Since so much of the world-building and internal story of this ms relies on the characters' backstories, I'm wondering if I'm simply going to have to cut away every once in a while for a set-apart in-scene flashback. If I do, it's going to be very, very tricky. Extremely tricky. Potentially tension-killing.

It occurs to me that the swordfighting ms has the same problem. However, with this dystopian ms I understand what the deeper story is and how it plays out and rises to an end. So it should easier (relatively!) to figure out how to structure the dystopian. And if I can, that should help me with the other ms.

What do you do when the story begins in the right place, but a ton of stuff happened before the beginning that the reader needs to know?

Much to think about. Hmm.

Yesterday, very busy, but still got some work in--continu...

Yesterday, very busy, but still got some work in--continued freewriting from secondary character's pov. Today was very productive; more freewriting led to a real scene. This scene marks the first solid foray into the middle of the book.

I also went ahead and moved some of my freewriting into the actual ms because that new scene would naturally lead to an explanation of the secondary character's backstory. I'm considering leaving the freewriting as is; in other words the ms would suddenly switch pov, tense and voice for this big chunk of backstory. Right now that seems less draggy than the lengthy in-scene conversation that'd be required to get in this same info. However, I'm probably wrong, and also it may turn out that the info needs to be chopped up and scattered around the ms. Will have to see.

I also had the thought that one of the pieces from chapter six would do a stronger story job later in the ms, but I'm not moving it yet.

Again, 2000+ words today, even with doctor visits and family stuff going on. Took a notepad and scribbled some word lists and other thoughts while in the waiting room.