Good morning from The Cottage of Blog,
I decided to cool the writing for a little while. It's been such a stressful past two months that my head needs a chance to recover. Fortunately, I no longer feel at loose ends with my writing. I know (now) how to plot by sections, by plot changes, by outline, by long and short synopsis. Although, like everyone else, I don't like to write synopsis--it's hard, hard work. The first draft of my synopsis is as crude as the first draft of the whole novel.
Then, there's characterization. I can do that too. That too changes throughout the course of the story. In Arms of the Enemy, Maggie started out with green eyes, they shifted to blue and back to green. Detail piffle. but obviously important to my character or she wouldn't have changed so much. Can't even remember what color she ended up with. Doesn't matter much now. With Annie, she's got blue eyes. That color changes with the time of day and the lighting. And, I guess that's true with all of us. A detail we should observed about people. Everything about us changes throughout the day. In the sunlight, during a dark, grey day, at night, when the shadows fall and leave oddd patterns of dark and light.
And who do we characterize? Anyone that's important. Including the villain. Sometimes espescially the villain. He should have a reason to be the way he is. So, he needs a background.
Just think about him if he (heaven help us) should really be the hero. Look at "The Magic Flute." A much maligned queen of the night's daughter has been kidnapped. the hero is promised her hand if he rescues her. Durijng his journey he finds the Queen is no heroine after all. She's a villainess bent on the distruction of the forces of goodness and light. The princess has been kidnapped-for her own good. I won't even go into the implications of the Masonic rites of passage threaded throughout this story. For a 'spoof,' with dragons and birdmen running around making us laugh, it's a very deep story indeed. But I digress.
characters are a lot of work and a lot of fun to draw up. You can dress them. Gives us a great excuse to look in fashion magazines, give them jewelry, favorite pets, favorite drinks and food, great pet expressions, traits of all sizes, makes and model--one of mine lives to save the world, the other loves to knock the world on its heels, they can smoke, drink, carry on and discover what they're really misssing is their one true love, who they can't have because _______________________.
So, we have plot, characters. Oh yes, settings. I recommend building your own setting unless you're darned set on using a community you know pretty well. I tried Rlomania once. Never been there. Would love to go. But I have been in the mountains in Bavaria and experienced many of the same sensations I would have, had I been in Romania. Still, it didn't quite give me the self confidence I needed. No matter how many photos, travelogues and old Dracula movies. My last Arms of the Enemy, wasn't that far away and I still didn't realize that forest preserve is a term pertinant to Illinois. Michigan has state parks, Indiana has state parks (and lots of farm land) and upper Wisconsin, well--that's where the newest novel is taking place. A resort town on a lake. My resort town. My lake. My state park. My everything.
Okay, so say that takes a good month. Then there's the research. Because if you're going to have a cop in a small town, you'd darn well better know how they behave. Any questions on crime I recommend Crimewriters part of the Yahoo groups. Ask them anything. they have crime experts who will lead you in the right (write) direction.
Unfortunately, after all that has been accomplished, two months later, you still have to get back to the thing you've needed to do all along. Write the story.
Write the story. Write the story and write the story. Give yourself permission (I've heard this in a dozen places and it's still true) to write your shitty first draft. Can I still do this? Well, no. Not quite yet. Because, I happen to know after that shitty first draft, I have to layer it with the truth. And that truth is--gag--how good a writer am I? Do I have the polish, the editing skills, the storytelling and the ability to sweep you away from everything else you love, to want to get inside my little world for many hours and laugh with their joys, get furious at the injustices done to them and fear for their lives.
That, in my opinion, is what novel writing is really about. Getting them away from that blasted TV and into the world of your imagination.
Enough from the Cottage of Blog. It's Monday morning, and I have to get to school.
Pat
