 |
| IWSG |
Today, in the midst of the frenzied chaos that is the 2019 A-Z Challenge (for those of you who are partaking of such, today is the letter "C"), we bring you our writing related post.
Because this is the 2019 A-Z Challenge, I thought it would be a nice throwback gesture on my part to link to my "C" post when I had performed my one-and-done A-Z Challenge. And I thought it would be a good idea on my part to use the letter "C" for today's post.
For today's IWSG post, "C" stands for "Consistency".
For me, consistency means that I stay on the tried and true course that is my writing and that the only deviation that happens on that tried and true course, is whenever I happened to write like everyone else by semi-following the rules. To clarify, I don't mean the common sense grammar/sentence/paragraph rules that we all strive to perform, with only slight changes made in order to fulfill our creative needs.
No, I mean the tried and true conventions that we all do with our writing in order for it to make logical sense.
Let's use writing a book series as an example. If you ask 10 writers about how they would go about writing a series, 9 of them will tell you things like: they write them in some kind of chronological order; they introduce characters in chronological order; the plots slowly unfold in a linear fashion, etc. etc. etc. In other words, their consistency is based on the tried and true method of writing a series.
Now, let's pretend I'm the 10th writer answering your reasonable question. Here's how I would answer it.
"Well, I started off writing my current trilogy by rewriting a previously published chapbook. About forty pages/four chapters in, I remembered a completed slushie prequel that I wrote some years prior to the chapbook. After digging it out and re-reading, I proceeded to write a novel using the main plot as an outline. After I had finished, I decided that I really needed another novel to set up the novel that I had just finished. So I wrote the prequel to what I what I thought was a prequel to the chapbook that I was working on. In short, I wrote book #2 first, wrote book #1 second (which I published) and now in the process of re-re-writing book #3."
So as you can see, consistency for me is staying unconventional with my writing. If you give it some thought, how many people do you know started off writing a book series by initially writing the last book first and the first book last?
Consistency. No matter what genre(s) you choose to write in, always be consistent in how you execute your tasks. If you do it conventional (i.e. outlines, plotting, staging) be consistent. If you do it just a little bit outside the box, be consistent about that as well. Your readers will thank you for it.
{c} 2019 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved
Your way works just as well. That's why so many authors go back and write a short prequel to a series. The first book really wasn't the first book. (Even I wrote a short story that was a prequel to my series.)
ReplyDeleteIt was just so surreal doing it this way. I am, by nature, a very linear kind of writer, but when I started rewriting that chapbook, I brought in an element for the secondary plot that simply cried out for a back story. One epiphany later, this weirdly constructed trilogy was the end result. And yes, I had to pitch the 40+ pages that I'd already written in order to make it fit with the first two.
DeleteMaybe knowing how the story ends is the easy part! I have started a few that went to nowhere before. Very frustrating!
ReplyDeleteThat was definitely the easy part, as when I'd really got into writing this story, I wanted to keep the original ending that I had to begin with.
DeleteThis amuses me because I had the ending of my book series written before I had the opening of the first book. Sadly, I've since rewritten the opening of the first book, so it will never come full-circle. And the only people who will ever "get" what I was doing are three beta readers and maybe some people who found old cut scenes on my blog. Oh, and a few agents, but I'm sure they've long forgotten the horrible query letters I sent long before I knew better.
ReplyDeleteGreat post.
Thanks.
DeleteI'm not sure that I have another book series in my. I'm the kind of writer who enjoys doing one and done challenges in genres that are way out of my comfort zone. But if I do another series, more likely than not, I'll probably do it in a linear fashion. Less aggravation and less headaches.
Consistency is more than showing up to write on a regular basis. It's also based on the tried and true method that works for the individual writer. A wonderful perspective.
ReplyDeleteThanks. It's always good to offer a skewered outlook to writing every now and then.
DeleteConsistency. No matter what genre(s) you choose to write in, always be consistent in how you execute your tasks.
ReplyDeleteThat's solid advice, right there.
Thanks.
DeleteI always try to practice what I preach.