Thanks to Jeff for embracing and loving the task of rewriting.

Chances are, that word just send shivers down your spine. It’s painful and nobody likes doing it. Is it essential to great writing?

I know a few people who don’t like to rewrite a lot of their work. I know other people who will edit and tweak things as they’re handing it off to be made final. I fall closer to the second category than the first.

I think the process of creativity is iterative and constantly evolving. What’s great today may not look so good tomorrow. But you can always make things better. Eventually though, you do have to turn all things in or stop working on them.

Which is why you should plan to rewrite your work. If you expect that you’ll tweak, delete and add to your first draft, it’ll free your imagination up much more. You won’t be worried about getting it perfect, you’ll be worried about getting it out. After all, you’ve planned to go back through and change it from a good start to really good, later.

If you do this, you also won’t be scrambling when you finally do have to turn things in. All in all, hopefully you turn out better work because of it.

Novel Writing | 2 Comments »

I may or may not have mentioned before that my current work in progress is a novel.

Are you scared for me?

While I’ve been kicking ideas around for awhile now, I just got a few other projects out of the way and now I’m going to be focusing on this. Some of you might be wondering, “How do I even start a novel?”

Here’s what I’ve done.

I had the big idea while I was driving. I don’t know why, but that’s where all my ideas come to me. It was nothing really, just a shred of a thought. A “Hey, I could write a novel about this…” type of idea.

It sat for a little bit, and then I was out driving again. An idea for a character came to me. As I swerved around the road endangering small orphans and puppies with lung cancer, I scribbled down basic ideas for all my characters.

Then, I sat down and fleshed out those characters. (Don’t worry, I wasn’t behind the wheel.) When I create characters, I try to think of people that are ripe for change. For example, a couple that just had a baby, or a woman who is on probation at her job. These kinds of characters are good fodder for having an arc (starting somewhere and growing into something else.)

I can also throw these characters into an environment and let them interact. If all my main characters are ripe for change, it’s very easy to think of interesting plot points and journeys for them to take. I always try to create interesting characters and let the plot grow naturally.

Lastly, I made a rough outline of the plot with my characters. I applied my “Layer cake” theory to the outline and now I think I’m in a fairly good place. I’m going to go back through, add one more layer and then start writing, hopefully about mid-week.

I’m very excited to get started on this one.

Novel Writing | 1 Comment »

Today I’m going to explore my theory on novel development.

It begins with the idea that there are a finite number of story types that are able to be told. They’ve all been discovered already.

Before you lynch me, hear me out.

There is a set universe of extremely basic, but extremely effective story structures. Hero goes on a journey, boy meets, gets, loses, gets back girl are both good examples.

These structures work. No matter how much you disagree with me, they are being used everywhere as basic constructs in movies and novels.

Take Being John Malkovich. Nothing else had ever been done like it before. Or had there?

On a basic level, it follows a hero takes a journey structure. Hero has nothing, hero has success, hero lets success get to him, hero loses everything. Sound familiar?
So, no matter how much it pains me, I start with one of those structures. Now, I begin to add layers.

What are layers? They are aspects that add meaning and uniqueness to your basic story structure. Layers are what makes your novel interesting and different from every other boy meets girl story out there.

First I add my high concept layer. How am I going to use this structure to tell an interesting story? This is something like, “a man accidentally travels back in time and must get his parents to go on a date or he’ll never exist.”

Next, I add relationships between my main characters. How do my protagonists and antagonists relate to each other in a way that adds to my high concept?

You can see where this is going. Find elements in your story that were previously separate and random. Then find unique ways to connect them that also add to your high concept and structure.

How do main characters relate to secondary characters? How is the high concept reflected in the environment?

When someone experiences your story, they should “get it” on the most basic of levels. As they get deeper into the experience, they should discover all the layers of meaning you’ve added. It’ll give your story a power and profoundness that it didn’t have before.

Novel Writing | 1 Comment »