Sometimes for me, writing a story is pretty much like the picture to your right: a frustrated parent trying to keep their kiddies under control. Or, in my case, trying to keep all of my brilliant plot points under control and on track.
The other day I wrote for an FB post, this following tidbit:
The beauty of a story expertly planned completely out from beginning to end is ugly upped in a mud bath of peat moss by the reality of actually having to write it.
In other words, going from point A to points B, C, D, etc. etc. etc. should be a linear concept, but sometimes it just ain't.
With my latest story, dubbed the Hot Mess, once I was able to get beyond the point of rewriting the previous 90+ pages and creating 13 chapters out of it, I was able to do two things right off the bat. One, I was able to come up with a very coherent plan of attack for the rest of the story. All the components were at my disposal to use, so creating the next three to four remaining scenes would be a piece of sugar-free cake.
Two, once I had finished the rewrites, I was able to really free myself with my writing. From years of observing writers I respected worked magic with their craft along with the smattering (overall, I'm usually a non-fiction ind of guy) of fiction read, I knew that what I needed to create was some old fashioned meaty goodness to add to my story, and not just some cheap low quality filler for padding purposes.
So, this is where the planned linear points started going slightly askew, like a shopping cart/trolley with a wheel bent just enough to annoy you for the entire time you're doing your shopping. In order to not make my stuff sound like the proverbial Mary Sue/Gary Stu, I needed to add some "oomph" to the mix. You know, realistic quirks/issues that cannot be easily solved, if at all. So we did.
A semi-language barrier here, a possible reappearance under another guise there, maybe a slow poisoning for thrills, chills and spills (note: Google is the wunderkind when it comes to researching random nouns to use in nefarious ways).
Oh but wait, we have a battle scene to write, which is key pivotal point number one in the story. Should I make a tension filled angst ridden battle, complete with a travel to, the arrival, and the withdrawal? Or, should I just muck it about and just cover the entire concept in one chapter?
Oh, but wait, there's more (to paraphrase the late great Billy Mays)!
We still have to write the chase after the tactical withdrawal. But will that run off the rails too? Or will we be namby-pamby about it that too? And then, while Jones didn't come along (pop music lyric from the 50's), but the final confrontation at the end needs to be written. Will we write that completely scattershot with enough twists and turns to make it like you're jumping a crooked river, only to land on the side you've started from?
A multitude of sub-plots that simply were not there originally, but cropped up when we started getting a bit deeper into the story. Finally, the very, very final non-eco friendly straw is this: will this entire story be contained to one novel, or will we split it into two smaller pieces?
Right now, we have 15 chapters totaling 53k+ words written, which is roughly somewhere between one-third and one-half of the book. I was always of the mind that my word cap shouldn't go any higher than 70k words for a novel, but I'm 110% sure I will blow by that word cap, hence the dilemma.
Do I write just one book, or do I write two? I don't know. I just don't know. I really just don't know. While inquiring minds don'r really want to know, except maybe mine, I do have to make a decision about that. Which, if I was a normal person instead of Abie Normal, I would choose to make it now. But as Abie Normal, I will choose at the very end, because like most Abie Normals, I need to have the proper info, aka final word count, at my disposal.
So with all of that being said, I think I'm gonna take a lovely peat moss mud bath to cleanse my palate, and leave you with a challenge for your Monday: how many pop culture snippets can you pick out of this blog post? Depending on your age, you might get a lot, you might get a few, but either way, it'll be a fun way to start your week.
I caught the Mary Sue and Billy Mays references, but that's it.
ReplyDeleteI have a few others. I referenced the old Coasters song "Along Came Jones" and some Monty Python and possible Mel Brooks.
DeleteI have a tendency to get obscure with pop culture references when I"m on a roll sometimes.
"Trump Derangement Syndrome" {snicker}
ReplyDelete