Book Done Yet: WiP Thinking

Working on a new story means rediscovering how I do this. Every time, it’s a free fall, but there are certain things that I always rediscover. Like . . .

. . . writing whatever comes to mind no matter what order it’s in. It’s nice to have a start, but that almost always changes. So much better to have the scenes that demand to be written and figure out where to start the whole magilla later. The nice thing is that it’s fun rereading what I have. That’s important; when it’s a slog at this stage of the game, my heart really isn’t in it. When it’s fun, I’ll look at the TV and think, “You know, I’d rather be telling myself that story,” and go back to work.

. . . telling myself the story. At a certain point in the write-whatever-comes-to-mind phase, I have to stop and say, “Okay, what is this book about? This book is about Nita who . . .” and take it from there. A discovery draft is really about saying, “Oh, didn’t know that,” as you write something. Then you put together what you didn’t know and see what it means.

. . . picking a soundtrack by mood, not words. Well, the words of a song can be important, too, but it’s the sound that matters. I just pulled twenty plus songs out of my own music based on instinct, but I’ve also asked Lani and Krissie and Mollie for suggestions (demons, devil, hell, fire, change, etc. ), so I may get more from them. Not all of the songs are staying because the mood is all over the place, but the big surprise is that it’s not dark. Compiling a soundtrack (music to write to) is like making a collage, you don’t pull pictures that illustrate the story, you pull pictures that look like the story. Same for music, you pick things that sound like the story and the characters, and the stuff I’ve chosen so far is happy. Sprightly even. The songs will probably change but this list and the collages give me a feel for the story.

. . . figuring out the turning points and acts, just as a starting point. After watching so much PoI lately, I’m paying closer attention to reversals, too. Then I put the music where I thought it would go, and most of it fit in nicely.

BEGINNING

Spooky, (Heap)

ACT ONE

Not a Love Song (In Formation)

Demons (Chesney)

Have a Little Faith in Me (Hiatt)

Just My Imagination (Temptations)

THINGS GET WORSE

I Saw the Light (Alabama)

ACT TWO

God Help the Girl, (God Help the Girl)

Devil in Disguise (Presley)

You Can Do Magic (Seeley)

Lullaby (Mullins)

I Should Be So Lucky (Minogue)

POINT OF NO RETURN

Suddenly I See (Tunstall)

ACT THREE

Master of Disaster (Hiatt)

Human, (Pretenders)

Lady Magic (Taylor)

Such a Night (Presley)

It Hasn’t Happened Yet (Hiatt)

CRISIS

I Can’t Decide (Scissors Sisters)

ACT FOUR

The Light (Bareilles)

My Guy (Wells)

CLIMAX

RESOLUTION

What Love Can Do (Hiatt)

. . . writing food. I’ve always avoided fashion as much as possible, not interested in labels, but boy do I gravitate to food. These people eat and drink like every meal is their last. I think I know why, but still. I spent $200 bucks buying the food in the story today, so I’ll be cooking this week. I did not buy the doughnuts, however. I’m trying to be good, and doughnuts are very bad for me. But the rest of this stuff, I can eat, so I’ll be full for the rest of the month.

. . . writing the climax so I know where I’m heading, starting with Nick’s part so I can time it out. Hell’s time moves twenty times faster than earth’s, so a minute in Hell is twenty minutes on Earth. Since he’s sucked back into Hell for the climax, I have to write his fight in hell and time it out, putting in minute markers, and then do math to find out where Nita is on Earth. And then when they’re both written, splice them together. And then rewrite it again so it reads smoothly. It’s a PITA, but I think it’s worth it.

. . . making discovery collages (that’s Nita’s below, Nick has his own).

And that’s this week in “Book Done Yet?”

Note One: Anybody who does not want to watch all four seasons of Person of Interest but would like to check it out, the episode we’re doing on Monday, “Relevance” (second season, episode 16), would be a good one-off since it’s mostly told from the point of view of a new character played by Sarah Shahi (who is excellent), which means it’s basically a stand-alone, forty minute thriller with a strong, smart female protagonist.

Note Two: Did anybody catch the iZombie with Liv on stripper brain? I ask because (a) it was an outstanding episode that exploded about four different plots and subplots and (b) I just read the AV Club review, and in the comments I learned that the meals Liv fixes herself always have something to do with the episode. And in this one, Liv fries the slices of brain as strips of bacon in a club sandwich. Now I must rewatch all of iZombie to see all the other meal she made.)

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