Going Full Throttle (For Once)
In general, I am a huge fan of peace and quiet. I don’t like noise, conflict, or chaos—unless it’s for the sake of doing or accomplishing something really interesting and/or exciting and/or arousing and/or fun. I hate rushing. For example, I prefer to wait until everyone else gets off the airplane, so that I can get up, gather my bags, and stroll off in a relaxed manner. It’s a great luxury, not being in a hurry.
And here’s the thing: all those people pushing and shoving and elbowing each other, snarling and grunting, they’re wasting their energy. We’re all going to wind up in a group together at the boarding platform for the terminal shuttle, and then we’re all going to wind up in another group together at baggage claim. Or in a slightly different group at the gate for our next flight leg. It’s all the same.
Same principle applies on the highway. Unless there is a good reason to do otherwise (such as an emergency), I drive at a nice, normal, safe speed. I watch these people speeding, tailgating, weaving in and out of traffic, and generally being impatient, aggressive, and reckless, and all I can do is sigh. I refuse to believe everybody is really in that much of a legitimate hurry. My suspicion is that in reality, most drivers are not going anywhere important, and aren’t going to do anything important when they get there, either. I think it’s just the primordial desire to go faster than other people. But guess what? No matter how fast you go, no matter how many people you pass, there will always be someone ahead of you. Everybody just chill the hell out!
My writing technique also follows this philosophy. I tend to take a highly methodical approach. I begin with a summary of the entire story, beginning to end. Then I create a chapter-by-chapter outline. I have always felt that good chapter should feel a bit like a complete story; it should have a starting point, a middle, and a satisfying stopping point, with some kind of arc holding it all together. Furthermore, my personal opinion is that a chapter should be summarizeable as a single sentence. If you don’t feel like you can summarize the chapter as a single sentence, it probably wants to be more than one chapter. (Again, just me.)
Once I have completed these steps, only then do I embark on the actual writing, which I usually do somewhat out of order. I write whatever scene happens to inspire me that day, based on random thoughts and ideas. During a walk, for example, I might think, “of course Sheila would make that comment to Reginald in chapter four! Or, “of course Darren would refuse to stay in the room after what Ludella told him about the old key in chapter seven!” This process is highly dependent upon me knowing the entire plot. I need to know where this is all going. I need to have the entire framework built. Then I add to it bit by bit, fleshing it out and fluffing it up, putting meat on the skeleton, putting ornaments on the Christmas tree. I take as much time as I need, letting the story rattle around in my brain, allowing the insights and revelations to come to me, trusting that as I life my life, have experiences, read other books etc., I will keep having these fresh flashes of creative inspiration, and I will be ready, because I will know exactly where each new piece fits into the puzzle.
With all this in mind, it might come as a mild surprise that I did NaNoWrimo in 2018. Most people who read writing blogs like this one probably know what National Novel Writing Month is, but if not, look it up. Basically, you commit to writing 50,000 words in 30 days, and when you sign up they provide robust graphical tools to track your progress. That might sound entirely antithetical to the process I just described—and it is—but it’s also a very interesting exercise and I highly recommend it to any author. The real point, obviously, is not to have a finished manuscript at the end of the month. Instead, the goal is to discipline yourself to set aside some time each day for writing. This means setting boundaries and holding yourself accountable. So you have to learn to say, “not right now, guys. I need to get another thousand words in. I’ll catch up with you later.” It means knowing when to shut the door, knowing when to turn off the phone, knowing when to close every window except Word and ignore your incoming notifications for a little while. It means writing something, anything, even when you don’t particularly feel like writing. There were days when everything seemed to be conspiring to keep me from getting any writing done. On a day like that, normally I would be inclined to say, “well, it’s just not going to happen today.” But during NaNoWriMo, you power through, you don’t make excuses, and you get it done.
At the end of November, I had about 51,000 words of what I’m sure will be about a 72,000-word, 300-page first draft soon—maybe in just a couple more weeks of work. NaNoWriMo gave me a significant boost in the right direction, a head start that encouraged me to keep pushing forward. It took me eight years to write the three novels in the Victoria da Vinci trilogy; with this story, I went from a chapter outline, a character list, and a bunch of sketchy notes to a what I felt was a strong and nearly complete preliminary draft in four weeks. Sure, it has some thin spots and a few gaps where I skimmed from one part to the next, but that’s how you make progress. If you get stuck, switch to a different paragraph or even a different chapter. Just add something. You can always fix it (or remove it) later.
I don’t advocate hurrying or forcing it as your standard authorial technique—unless it’s your full-time job and you’re working on a deadline, in which case, A. good for you, and B. quit reading this and get back to work! But I do urge everyone who is serious about finishing a project to challenge yourself to try something like NaNoWriMo at least once. You might surprise yourself.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
My author page:
www.AustinScottCollins.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Recent popular posts:
Crazy People in History #1
A Brief Guide to Writing Terrible Fiction
Martinus or Martino?
Worms Uncanned
And here’s the thing: all those people pushing and shoving and elbowing each other, snarling and grunting, they’re wasting their energy. We’re all going to wind up in a group together at the boarding platform for the terminal shuttle, and then we’re all going to wind up in another group together at baggage claim. Or in a slightly different group at the gate for our next flight leg. It’s all the same.
Same principle applies on the highway. Unless there is a good reason to do otherwise (such as an emergency), I drive at a nice, normal, safe speed. I watch these people speeding, tailgating, weaving in and out of traffic, and generally being impatient, aggressive, and reckless, and all I can do is sigh. I refuse to believe everybody is really in that much of a legitimate hurry. My suspicion is that in reality, most drivers are not going anywhere important, and aren’t going to do anything important when they get there, either. I think it’s just the primordial desire to go faster than other people. But guess what? No matter how fast you go, no matter how many people you pass, there will always be someone ahead of you. Everybody just chill the hell out!
My writing technique also follows this philosophy. I tend to take a highly methodical approach. I begin with a summary of the entire story, beginning to end. Then I create a chapter-by-chapter outline. I have always felt that good chapter should feel a bit like a complete story; it should have a starting point, a middle, and a satisfying stopping point, with some kind of arc holding it all together. Furthermore, my personal opinion is that a chapter should be summarizeable as a single sentence. If you don’t feel like you can summarize the chapter as a single sentence, it probably wants to be more than one chapter. (Again, just me.)
Once I have completed these steps, only then do I embark on the actual writing, which I usually do somewhat out of order. I write whatever scene happens to inspire me that day, based on random thoughts and ideas. During a walk, for example, I might think, “of course Sheila would make that comment to Reginald in chapter four! Or, “of course Darren would refuse to stay in the room after what Ludella told him about the old key in chapter seven!” This process is highly dependent upon me knowing the entire plot. I need to know where this is all going. I need to have the entire framework built. Then I add to it bit by bit, fleshing it out and fluffing it up, putting meat on the skeleton, putting ornaments on the Christmas tree. I take as much time as I need, letting the story rattle around in my brain, allowing the insights and revelations to come to me, trusting that as I life my life, have experiences, read other books etc., I will keep having these fresh flashes of creative inspiration, and I will be ready, because I will know exactly where each new piece fits into the puzzle.
With all this in mind, it might come as a mild surprise that I did NaNoWrimo in 2018. Most people who read writing blogs like this one probably know what National Novel Writing Month is, but if not, look it up. Basically, you commit to writing 50,000 words in 30 days, and when you sign up they provide robust graphical tools to track your progress. That might sound entirely antithetical to the process I just described—and it is—but it’s also a very interesting exercise and I highly recommend it to any author. The real point, obviously, is not to have a finished manuscript at the end of the month. Instead, the goal is to discipline yourself to set aside some time each day for writing. This means setting boundaries and holding yourself accountable. So you have to learn to say, “not right now, guys. I need to get another thousand words in. I’ll catch up with you later.” It means knowing when to shut the door, knowing when to turn off the phone, knowing when to close every window except Word and ignore your incoming notifications for a little while. It means writing something, anything, even when you don’t particularly feel like writing. There were days when everything seemed to be conspiring to keep me from getting any writing done. On a day like that, normally I would be inclined to say, “well, it’s just not going to happen today.” But during NaNoWriMo, you power through, you don’t make excuses, and you get it done.
At the end of November, I had about 51,000 words of what I’m sure will be about a 72,000-word, 300-page first draft soon—maybe in just a couple more weeks of work. NaNoWriMo gave me a significant boost in the right direction, a head start that encouraged me to keep pushing forward. It took me eight years to write the three novels in the Victoria da Vinci trilogy; with this story, I went from a chapter outline, a character list, and a bunch of sketchy notes to a what I felt was a strong and nearly complete preliminary draft in four weeks. Sure, it has some thin spots and a few gaps where I skimmed from one part to the next, but that’s how you make progress. If you get stuck, switch to a different paragraph or even a different chapter. Just add something. You can always fix it (or remove it) later.
I don’t advocate hurrying or forcing it as your standard authorial technique—unless it’s your full-time job and you’re working on a deadline, in which case, A. good for you, and B. quit reading this and get back to work! But I do urge everyone who is serious about finishing a project to challenge yourself to try something like NaNoWriMo at least once. You might surprise yourself.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
My author page:
www.AustinScottCollins.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Recent popular posts:
Crazy People in History #1
A Brief Guide to Writing Terrible Fiction
Martinus or Martino?
Worms Uncanned
No comments have been added yet.
Upside-down, Inside-out, and Backwards
My blog about books, writing, and the creative process.
- Austin Scott Collins's profile
- 28 followers
