Wordsmith Wednesday–Moving the Plot Forward

During the early stages of writing “Winter is Past,” my first novel, I often got this critique from my writing buddies: “Your writing is beautiful but it doesn’t move your story forward.” You see, I’m in love with words and descriptions–a poet at heart, I guess–sprouting from a space of intuition rather than analysis (the old right brain versus left brain analogy). I came up with a simple solution to this problem.

For that novel, I didn’t work from an outline, rather, the story evolved from the characters. When I finally accepted the fact that it was important to go somewhere in each scene, I began to outline using italics to identify the “purpose” of each chapter/scene. When it came time to rewrite the entire manuscript, that simple device made it easier for me to eliminate scenes that did nothing to advance the plot.

As an aside, for “The Sin of His Father,”  I began with an outline that included detailed character and scene development. That’s not to say I followed it to a tee, but it’s not a bad thing to work on developing the opposite side of the brain, is it?

Wordsmith Wednesday–Brainstorming

Sometimes you hit a deadend. The story line comes to a screeching halt and you have no idea how to get from point A to point B. Or in the revision process you have a glaring gap between scenes and you’re stuck for something to help in the transition. That’s happened to me often enough–just this week, in fact.

There are a couple of lifelines I rely on to help me move forward. One is “call a friend.” I find it essential to have a writing buddy or critique group that I can bounce ideas off of. Sit down together and brainstorm. Take a pencil and notebook and let the ideas flow. Maybe you won’t have an eye-opening experience during that session, but I guarantee you that 95% of the time, a golden nugget will emerge that will save you from creative bankruptcy.

Another technique you can use to help you brainstorm is to get out into nature or into a milieu that can transport you to another place. Let your senses take in whatever is happening around you. Listen to sounds and conversations, browse garage sales or bookstores, camp out at Starbucks, or just take a long walk. Give free rein to your mind and wait for the creative Spirit to take over.

And finally, just sleep on it. At bedtime, read a few pages surrounding or preceding  the black hole in your manuscript. Pray–ask to receive ideas that will inspire you to continue then see what happens in the morning. We are not alone in the writing process.

Wordsmith Wednesday (On Tuesday)–Editing/Revising

In writing “Winter is Past,” I spent much more time on editing than on writing–but that’s part of the package, isn’t it? Now that I’m zeroing in on the completion of the first draft of “The Sin of His Father,” I’m getting geared up for revisiting what I’ve written. While editing can be somewhat tedious, there are bursts of creative bliss that make the task exciting.

I approached novel #2–“The Sin of His Father”–from a totally different direction than my first novel. I wrote “Winter is Past” without an outline and without a clue as to what would happen next. The plot did unfold eventually but I got lost many times, left story lines incomplete and found numerous contradictions in the process of rewriting. Because of this, I had to rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. I can’t count how many drafts I dumped into the recycle bin.

My approach to “The Sin of His Father” has been the opposite. A few years ago I wakened with the story and pulled myself out of bed at 3 AM to outline in bold strokes. A couple of months later, I came to the desert and completed a detailed outline along with character, setting and scene descriptions. The actual writing hasn’t been enslaved to the road map, though. I’m amazed at how the characters continue to take me to unexpected places; twists and turns surprise me along the way. But with the outline I have an idea of where to go next. The scenic routes I follow find their way back to the main highway sooner or later.

My almost-daily writing routine has included a quick edit of the previous session’s work. Other than that, I have not allowed myself to look back over the entire manuscript. This has hastened the completion of the first draft, but who knows what awaits me when I set about revising.

Now I can see that this post has led me to a place I didn’t expect to go and I will defer talking about some of the specifics of editing. I’ll return later this week and get down and dirty with details, okay?

Wordsmith Wednesday–Moving the Plot Forward

During the early stages of my writing I often got this critique: “Your writing is beautiful but it doesn’t move your story forward.”

You see, I’m in love with words and descriptions–a poet at heart, I guess–sprouting from a space of intuition rather than analysis (the old right brain versus left brain analogy). I came up with a simple solution to this problem.

For my first novel, “Winter is Past,” I didn’t work from an outline. The story evolved from the characters. When I finally accepted the fact that it was important to go somewhere in each scene, I began to outline using italics to identify the “purpose” of each chapter/scene. When it came time to rewrite the entire manuscript, that simple device made it easier for me to eliminate scenes that did nothing to advance the plot.

As an aside, for novel #2, I began with an outline that included detailed character and scene development. That’s not to say I’m following it to a tee, but it’s not a bad thing to work on developing the opposite side of the brain, is it?

“Winter is Past” A Novel

I’ve created a page to introduce you to the theme of my novel, “Winter is Past.” The story deals with kidney transplantation, fear, loss, hope, friendship and love. I began writing it in Spring of 2003. While there are autobiographical elements to the narrative (I have received a kidney transplant from a friend who was a living donor) it is essentially fictional…a “what if” sort of novel in which I asked myself the question “What if something happened to Paula, my donor.” The plot evolved from the characters. The telling has undergone so many rewrites that I lost count. I invite you to take a look at the page for “Winter is Past” and read a very short excerpt from chapter one.