Jan

25

Zero Draft or First Draft?

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When you start to write something for the first time, how do you do it? I talked a bit about different writing styles a couple of days ago, but I’m thinking more about the actual product. Do you write a complete story, or do you write as you can, and leave notes to yourself about what needs to happen?

I ascribe to the latter. Why? Because I’m a recovering perfectionist. I want to get everything just right, and if I can’t do it, I get bogged down. I find myself unable to move forward until I finish the scene. If I stop because of that, I find it hard to get going again. That’s why I write what I call my Zero Draft. No, it’s not a term I made up myself. Another author used it, and since she’s a published author, I decided it’s okay for me to use the term too. :)

So, here’s how my Zero Draft works. I write, chugging along happily until I get to a snag, something that I need to write but it’s not coming easily. I work at the problem for about fifteen minutes or so. If I can’t come up with an answer, I type notes to myself in the manuscript, color the text green, and then move on. Why green? Because I send these Zero Draft pages out to my writing group for their first impressions and comments, and they tend to use red or blue for them comments. Green is a nice gentle color, and reminds me that these words aren’t comments, but notes for stuff I have to work on when I do the revisions.

Why don’t I go back and write the stuff I left notes for before I send stuff to my writing group? I want accountability. It’s a mark of achievement. If it’s up and posted at the group, then I’ve “won”, I’ve finished the chapter. I can cross it off my to do list and move on. Even if I don’t get any feedback on it for a couple of weeks, I don’t care. It’s up, it’s done, and I move on.

So that’s my Zero Draft. The first run through of the story, with placeholders. Once I’ve completed that first run through, I’ll go back and fill in those holes - and make changes based on the first set of comments I’ve gotten. After that’s done, I’ll call that my official First Draft. Then it’ll go for another round of comments, maybe another, based on what my writing group says, then I will have to find myself a beta reader. Once that is done, the super scary part starts - getting a submission package together and starting to submit to agents.

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Jan

23

And so it goes.

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I succeeded in writing a whole 40 words for Chapter 11 before the end of the day yesterday. Nowhere near as much as I would have liked, but yesterday was rather busy. Did some major house cleaning (getting rid of clutter and putting things away), four loads of laundry, and I critted a four chapter chunk of a WIP (work in progress, if you’re not familiar with writers’ lingo) for my writing group. It was actually a five chapter file, but I’d already gone over the first chapter so I skipped it this time.

While only getting 40 words of Chapter 11 done would generally be disappointing, it wasn’t really. I was having a hard time figuring out what Alex’s reaction would be to the revelations that ended Chapter 10. I think I got it right, but I’m sure my group members will let me know if I haven’t. They’re good with that. :) I hope to get a bunch more written today, so I can be finished the chapter by Friday.

Work on the super secret project continues slowly, mainly because I’m having a crisis. I’m now wondering if I’ve chosen the right direction, and whether or not I should change things before I get too much further. Decisions or decisions.

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Jan

22

Writing Styles: Chunk or Linear?

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I’ve been reading the Fangs, Fur & Fey LiveJournal community for a while. One of my writing goals is to become a member of that community. :)

Currently, they’re doing a writing meme. One of the questions is about writings styles/methods: does the author write in a linear fashion, or do they write in chunks and piece it all together. So far, the majority of the people who have participated in the meme are linear writers. To be honest, I’m not all that surprised. When you think about a story, it’s in three parts: beginning, middle and end. You know where the story starts, and you pretty much have an idea of where it’s going to end. You just fill in the blank spots in between, and half the fun of writing the novel is the journey that gets you there. Of course, I’m now reminded of Ardeth Bey’s line in The Mummy Returns “only the journey is written, not the destination”. Don’t ask me why I thought of that. probably because I watch those movies way too often. :)

So, am I chunk or linear? Well, I’m a linear writer but a chunk planner. What does this mean?

When I’m working on the outline for something, be it a novel or an adventure for a role playing game, scenes pop into my head. I write notes for that scene down onto an index card and set it aside. Once I’ve finished writing down all the scenes I’ve thought of, I take a look at all my cards. I move them around, trying to figure out the flow of the novel, the basic order of the scenes. Once I’ve done that, I create scenes to fill in the blanks, to get the characters from one scene to another. Then I number the cards so if I drop them (or someone or something else gets into them and messes them up) I can get them back into the proper order again. After that’s done, I pull card number one off the pile and start to write.

The writing continues in order, one card to the next, until I reach the last card. (I put a line through the writing on each card when I’ve finished with it, so I know at a glance if I’ve used the card.) Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t take any side trips. Chapter 10 of TMA was a perfect example.

The second half of Chapter 9 had Alex going to the hospital to check on her brother (well, brother by choice and circumstance, not blood or marriage - it’s explained in the book of course :)). That wasn’t in my original notes. I was going to skip over the visit, only have it mentioned in passing. However, when I got to the point where I was going to gloss over it, I realized it was going to be an excellent opportunity to explore some of Alex’s past and weave in a thread of a subplot.

I couldn’t pass that up, so I write the hospital scene. Alex ended up getting very angry, and she decided she was going to take off to - and that’s where things got interesting. Where was she going to go? Alex ended up taking another little side trip in the plot that resulted in something I hadn’t planned, but I think it really worked out. It has upped the stakes, and has resulted in Alex learning more about herself (including an important plot point, and the answer to an important question) before I had originally planned. But hey, that’s fine. It’s the natural evolution of the thing. Certainly, it means some things will need to be changed in subsequent scenes, and I may have to go back and add in some more clues to previous chapters, but that’s what revisions are for.

So. Are you a chunk or linear writer? Do you use a bit of both? Leave a comment and let me know!

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Jan

21

Second Update For Monday

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Well would you look at the word count meter. It’s up to 28,129 words. That means I finally finished Chapter 10 of TMA. Hooray!

Of course, this has just presented my with a challenge: the second half of Chapter 9, and all of Chapter 10, have brought me in a direction I really did not anticipate. To put it kindly, I’m stumped as to where things are going to go next. Should I just roll with it, or should I try to get things back on track? I don’t know. I’m going to worry about that later. Tomorrow, rather than writing my own stuff, I’m going to take some time to catch up on the crits I owe. Maybe while I’m pondering other peoples’ work, an answer will come to me.

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Jan

21

How to Deal With Mondays.

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It’s Monday again, but not a normal Monday. It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which means the kids are home all day. There goes my schedule, for the most part. Trying to write when the kids are home is a real challenge. My morning was completely shot, though I did get some stuff done - went to Borders with Donovan and bought a couple of books and some music CD’s. I wanted to get some mood music to write by. Crouching Tiger has worked so far, but I don’t want to become dependent on it. I find orchestral - or at least music that has no lyrics - works best for me. I can listen to the music and not get distracted by the words (unless it’s a language I don’t understand, then I ignore the words). To that end, I picked up the soundtracks for Beowulf and for LotR: The Two Towers. In fact, I’m listening to the Two Towers right now.

What were the books I bought? Blood Rights, by Jim Butler and The Everything Kids’ Pirates Puzzle and Activity Book by Beth L. Blaie and Jennifer A Ericsson. I never really got a chance to watch the Dresden Files when it was on tv - it was on at a bad time, and we don’t have a Tivo. (No, we’re not Luddites; we just think we’re paying enough to our cable company.) The activity book was a spur of the moment purchase out of the bargain bins. The kids love pirates, and I thought it would be something fun for them to do.

So, what’s on the schedule for today? I’m going to finish writing this blog entry, of course. :) Then I’m going to try and finish up Chapter 10 of TMA. I’m almost done. Yeah, I know, I’ve said that before, but I think I’ve got the kinks worked out of the scene I’m in and can move things forward from there. After that, I’m going to spend some time on a project I don’t want to talk about yet. I don’t want to jinx it. :) Tonight, after the kids have gone to bed, I’m going to work my way through How to Find Your Writing Discipline. (Full Disclosure: I’m a Holly Lisle shop affiliate. However, I only talk about products of hers that I’ve liked and used - or are trying out.)

And hello to the people who’ve added me as a friend at LiveJournal in the past couple of days. I just wanted to say thanks, and to let you know that if I don’t add you as a friend, it’s not because I’m being a snob. I already have so many things to read, it’s hard for me to keep up and not get completely side tracked. I am not, however, ignoring your journals.

On that note, it’s time for me to stop writing this blog entry and get to work on something else. Have a good day, everyone!

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