Post # 219 June 29 2020

“Logistics of the Writing Life: From Idea to Story”

Many first-time writers blanch at the work involved in moving their great idea to a finished story.  That’s normal and it can be a lot of work.  But if you develop a process to follow, you’ll find the effort much more manageable.  The following is a detailed description, a peek behind the curtains, of my process for taking an idea to finished story.  I’ll be using my upcoming alternate-history novel The Eureka Gambit as an example.

For starters, here is the basic premise, in other words…the original idea: Adolf Hitler approves a plot to abduct Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill as they arrive and assemble for the Teheran Conference in Nov 1943. Hitler wants to prevent an invasion of western Europe.  The plot involves ransoming off the lives of the Big Three for a cessation of hostilities in Europe and recognition by the Allies of current borders and military gains by the Third Reich.  Recognizing a new order in Europe. 

What’s next?  I let this idea percolate for some months in the back of my mind before I felt ready to commit much more to paper. Once I had convinced myself that this idea was worth pursuing, my next step was to write a straight-forward description of what happens in this story, sort of a scene by scene sequence of events.  I didn’t do anything but straight write out what I envisioned happening, what is done, when and by whom and where.  I called this my Story Outline.

The next step for me was to break this outline down into what looked like logical chapters and scenes.   To extend this part of the process further, I created a Table of Plot Lines.  In this table, I devoted each column to separate plot lines (as I saw them at this point) and wrote down in the cells what was supposed to be happening.  This allowed me to see all that would be happening with each plot line from the beginning to the end of the story.  I might not include every ‘happening’ in the story, but I would at least know what was going on.  Of course, by this time, I would also know who many of the major characters were and their roles in the story.

To assist this part of the process, I created a List of Major Players and highlighted which ones were really major and would need some kind of bio done on them.  More on this later.    

Now it was time to take my early outlines and tables and flesh everything out.  To do this, I make a ‘final’ decision on what scenes go in what chapters, shifting back and forth from one plot line to another.  From this, I wrote my Chapter and Scene Details, which describes what happens in each and every scene in the story, who’s in it, the time and settings, all the details.  For The Eureka Gambit, this file was a Word document of some 41 pages and 15 chapters.  This document becomes my working outline, the outline I actually write the story from.

I mentioned a List of Major Players.  With the key characters decided on, I then proceed to do a fairly detailed bio on each key person.  These bios always have the same format: a physical description, a chronology of major life events and a short personality sketch.  By fairly detailed, I should add that this sometimes comes to 1 page, sometimes to 10-15 pages, depending on what develops.  But the end result is that I really ‘know’ this person pretty well when I start the story.  And I refer back to this background in the story, sometimes even cutting and pasting text from the bio right into the story.

Now it’s time to deal with details of settings.  In The Eureka Gambit, the setting spans multiple places over several months: Tehran, Turkey, London, Washington, a remote mountain valley in the West Virginia, mountain roads in southern Austria and the port of Venice.  I need to collect some details on all this, since the story is set in late 1943. 

To accomplish this, I set up separate folders of Setting Details with titles like ‘England Details’, ‘OSS and US Details’, and ‘SS and Germany Details.’  In these folders, I place all kind of geographic, historical, cultural and other details, especially maps and floor plans.  My ‘OSS and US Details’ folder contains info on VP Henry Wallace, Hostage Rescue Tactics, Notes and Diaries of FDR during this time, etc.  Anything related to setting that might be useful as a reference goes into these folders. 

For this project, I have also created a list called Research Needs.  On this page, I list everything I feel I need to know to complete preparations for starting the first draft.   As I accomplish them, I check them off.

At the very end of my preparation period, which could take several months and is usually an ongoing effort, I create a list called Next Steps.  In this list, I list the things I have to do to create a finished story.  This is my list for The Eureka Gambit:

NEXT STEPS:

1. Complete all Research Needs
2. Review (Read) all relevant background materials
3. Write character bios (marked ***) WIP
4. Operation Titan tactical plan
5. Make a schematic of Soviet embassy layout
6. Expand outline to Chapter and Scene Details DONE
7. Projected start date:
8. Finish first draft:
9. Projected upload date:
10. Review and edit final
11. Spellcheck
12. Book descriptions
13. Tag lines
14. Word 97 version
15. Verify cover format USE JPEG!
     
    This is my process for taking an idea to finished story.  The actual writing of a first draft for a story like this might take 6 months.  Add to that 3-4 months of prep and editing and re-writing at the end and you can see a project like this might take a year or so.  Every writer is different.
     
    I have found this methodical process works very well for me.  Your own process will be different.  But almost every writer I know has some kind of process they follow.  And when you’re done and you’ve got a finished manuscript to send out or upload, it’s always a great feeling of accomplishment.
     
    The next post to The Word Shed comes on July 13.  There will be a one-week hiatus to observe the Fourth of July holiday.  Have a great holiday and we’ll see you then.
     
    Phil B.

 

 

 

Post #218  June 22 2020

“To Outline or Not to Outline, That is the Question”

In my second post to The Word Shed, I said this about outlines:

My outline drives everything, including the people (what I used to call characters), even details of the setting.  From the few sentences I’ve already written, if this idea continues to hang around and doesn’t go away, I begin a process of elaborating and structuring that takes anywhere from a few days to a few months. 

I’m a big outliner.  I can’t write a story without having some idea of where the story is supposed to go.  Other writers try to ‘wing it’, and let the story evolve organically.  More power to ‘em.  I need the structure of an outline.

Having said that, though, doesn’t mean I don’t deviate from the outline.  You deviate when the story pulls you in another direction.  When an idea crops up.  When a character just won’t do what you want.  When there’s a new idea or emotion or conflict you want to explore and dramatize.  There’s nothing wrong with this at all.  But I still write it down.

Reasons to Have an Outline

1. Consistency.  It’s like framing for a house.  It holds the story together, gives it a skeleton to hang scenes on.  A strong plotline is vital to keep moving the story forward, to give the players believability and to keep the reader interested (probably the most important of all).  It’s possible to draw characters who are so compelling that they’re interesting in and of themselves.  But it’s better to give them something to do.  Some critics say plotline is nothing but character in action.  I agree.
2. Keeping Order.  Novels often have multiple plotlines.  John’s story.  Mary’s story.  The trip to London.  The abduction by aliens.  An outline allows you to maintain continuity from one scene to another, so that in Scene 1, John has red hair and in Scene 12 he still has read hair and now two heads.  Novels have lots of details.  Readers notice details.  Outlines help you keep some order among the details so that mistakes and obvious inconsistencies don’t creep in (as much).
3. Keeping the End in Sight.  With an outline, you know where you’re going.  The scenes and conflicts necessary to get there are already established, in theory.  If the ultimate resolution of all the action is firmly set up ahead of time, you’ll find you can write scenes that work toward that resolution, perhaps from different angles and with plenty of complications, but always knowing where you want to end up.  I once watched my dog demonstrate just how powerful his sense of smell really was.  He veered to one side of the street, then another, then back, in ever-tightening arcs until he finally homed in on the target of his interest.  Following an outline to a previously established resolution is kind of like that.  And sometimes the target turns out to be the same thing my dog was after…and I won’t go into any more detail on that.
    
   Reasons to Deviate from an Outline or Have No Outline
    

1. You think up a new plot complication.   Every writer is a crockpot of bubbling ideas.  Sometimes, an idea surfaces that just won’t go away.  Ask yourself: is it believable the character could run into this or experience this?  Does it advance the plot or reveal a side of the character that otherwise wouldn’t be shown?  Would it be neat and kinda fun to have this happen?  If the answer to any of these is yes, go for it!  Just make sure it doesn’t lead you down an off-ramp to some dismal swamp of storyland you can’t write your way out of.  In other words, think it through.
2. The outline is no good.  Ah, now we come to the great Berlin Wall of all writers.  Everything I’ve done so far is mush.  I need to start over.  Well…maybe…maybe not.  Perhaps, you didn’t work out the story details properly in the beginning.  You start to get the feeling that the words in front of you are just words going nowhere.  You’re sure nobody will believe what you’re writing.  You don’t believe it yourself.  Well, don’t despair.  This is why Microsoft Word has an Undo button…or a Delete button.  Trust your instincts.  Where does the story want to go?  Go there.  You might want to jot down a few notes, just in case, just to keep this new plotline on track.  Probably, the original problem is a poorly-conceived outline from the start.  Only you can decide whether it’s worth re-outlining or just winging it. 
3. I need elbow room to grow the story.  Outlines cramp my style.   This is okay, as I said before. Let’s face it: our writerly muses work differently, from writer to writer.  Many writers value the spontaneity that comes from winging it.  They like to be surprised when they sit down to type.  They’ve done enough research and so internalized their characters’ motivations and backgrounds, that they can type away, inside the virtual world of the story, and be confidant that what comes out will be readable, believable and fresh.  There are times when writing works this way for me too.  But for me, it comes from when I’ve done a lot of preliminary work. 
    
   Let’s face, every writer lives for that artistic moment when the story just flows and you can’t type fast enough to get it all down.  That’s when writing is a joy.  But a pro needs to be able to put words on paper (or on screen) when the words don’t flow and still have it all hang together.  That’s why I outline.
    
   The next post to The Word Shed comes on June 29.  In this post, I want to explore the physical logistics of writing daily.
    
   See you then.
    
   Phil B.
    
    

 

 

 

Post #217 June 15 2020

“Where Do You Get Those Crazy Ideas?”

In answer to the question above, I have a one-word answer: everywhere.  Ideas are the lifeblood of any storyteller and memorable ideas are particularly valuable.  Even a cursory look at the mechanics of storytelling should convince you that the basics haven’t changed since Og and Grog grunted at each other across a campfire in 1 million BC.  Have a memorable hero, give him a problem or put him in danger, twist the screws so that the danger gets worse, then our hero either overcomes the problem with heroic efforts or fails magnificently.  That hasn’t changed since humans became humans and started talking to each other.

What has changed are the ideas, the subject matter and some tweaks to technique.  Oh, and the media have changed as well, what with printing, radio, movies, TV, Facebook, Twitter, the coming of the ebook, etc.  But the basics of good storytelling really haven’t changed.  Why?  ‘Cause people haven’t changed that much.  Culture and technology change.  People…not so much.

I gave the title question some thought recently and came up with these answers to where do I get my crazy ideas.

1. Ideas come from life.  By this, I mean life as it is experienced or lived.  Say, you develop a close relationship with the bag guy at the grocery store.  You know he wants to get into the Army and you both have a great interest in military history.  Pretty soon, some of his life becomes material for a story.  Or he becomes a character in a story.  It’s happened to me.  All you need to gather ideas and material for a story from life is something that anyone has: curiosity and the ability to ask questions.  More specifically, you need the ability to look at a situation or a person and see the story possibilities in it.  Not every incident has story potential but many do and some can be expanded into a story.  I know someone in my Sunday school class who was born in Prague at the start of WWII and whose first memory as a child was being snatched off the cobblestone streets of Prague right in front of a Nazi tank.  Tell me there’s no story possibilities in that.  Be alert, be curious, and ask questions. 
2. Ideas come from other writers and their stories.   How many stories have the Star Trek and Star Wars universes spawned? Probably beyond count.  It’s okay to read another writer’s story, and see additional story possibilities in it.  Most writers don’t mind that, though some may be a little protective of their fictional universes.   Two years ago, I had a game designer in California contact me about collaborating on a gamified version of my series Quantum Troopers.  I don’t believe anything will actually come of this but it is interesting. Often, you read a story you like and it gives you inspiration to take an off-ramp from that story to a world the writer left unexplored.  Other stories can often spark your imagination into flights of fancy, asking what if this happened?  What if so and so did this instead of that?  What if Roosevelt and Churchill had been kidnapped by aliens collaborating with Nazis…I actually considered that as a story once…fortunately, not for long.  Which leads me to…
3. Ideas can come from systematic imagination…extrapolation.  This is a further case of asking what if?  A good example is my series The Farpool Stories.  Way back in the early 1980s. I wrote a story called The Shores of Seome.  It had an oceanic world with a marine civilization of intelligent fish-like beings.  I was never able to place it so it was shelved for several decades.  But I was always intrigued with the setting and the question: how would intelligent fish live and what would their culture and technology be like?  Then I asked what if: what if far-flung descendants of humanity operating a military weapon on this ocean world created a whirlpool deep enough to be a sort of wormhole?  What if the fish people could use it to travel back and forth to Earth?  What if two teenagers saw this whirlpool off the coast of Florida and wound up being sucked into it and catapulted across six thousand light years to this ocean world?  What would happen? How would they react?  Thus: The Farpool.  And it ultimately evolved into five novels set in the same universe.  Three more novels in this universe are coming over the next few years.
    
   That little two-word question what if? can be a powerful motivator for your imagination, if you pursue it far enough. 
    
   The next post to The Word Shed comes on June 22, 2020.  In this post, we’ll look at outlining a story and getting ready to write.
    
   See you then.
    
   Phil B.

Post # 216 June 8 2020

“I’ll Get Around To It.”  Writing and Motivation

Every writer needs motivation from time to time.  Even me.  And every writer is different in how they are motivated to put pen to paper…or cursor to screen.  The important point to remember is know yourself and do what works for you.

I’ve been polling my writer friends in recent weeks on this subject and from that, I’ve come up with some 11 different tricks, tips and techniques for motivating yourself as a writer.  Herewith….

1. Set up a deadline.  It doesn’t have to be a real deadline, like for news reporters.  Sometimes, nothing concentrates your mind better than knowing you can’t procrastinate any longer…you have to get the job done or there will be consequences.  Of course, for some writers, deadlines are quite real, which is even better.
2. One writer I know literally sets a timer, for maybe an hour or thirty minutes.  In that time, she forces herself to get some words down, any words, on anything, even what you are seeing out your window. 
3. A technique that motivates me and others that I know is to print what you have written, even if only a first draft, and enjoy watching the pages stack up, day by day.  The notion that you can and are actually writing a story or a book then becomes quite real and tangible.  Seeing the stack pile up makes me want to write more so I can see the stack pile up even higher. 
4. Provide yourself a set time and a set goal.  “In the hour from 8am to 9am, I will write one page, on anything that comes to mind.”  Just forcing your addled brain to focus and concentrate on putting words down regularly can become a useful habit.
5. Write a journal or diary entry first.  Same as above, the act of selecting and writing words to form coherent sentences is a habit that can be formed and exercised regularly.  It really doesn’t matter, in this scenario, what you write as the very act can stimulate the old juices quite well.
6. Similar to #4 above, commit yourself to a daily goal.  I do this.  Every day, I wake up telling myself I will write 3-5 good pages, no matter how long it takes.  It usually takes me about two hours, because I always have a detailed outline to work from. 
7. Write something down.  Write a grocery list.  Or a thank you note.  Or a editorial criticizing your city’s lack of road repair.  Just write something.  See #5 above for an explanation.
8. Re-read what you wrote yesterday.  I do this.  If you’re writing a story, it helps to get you back in the story.  I often go to bed with the last words I wrote in my mind.  Overnight, I chew on those and by the time I get up, I often have the next sentence or paragraph clearly in mind.  Another trick is to stop your day’s writing right in the middle of a  sentence.  Getting started the next day is then a matter of completing that sentence…usually not too hard.
9. Go for a walk.  Or a work-out.  I swim and ride bikes.  Often, during either time, whole snatches of sentences and text will come to me unbidden.  This is your subconscious working.  It helps to prepare your mind beforehand.
10. Read a story.  Very often, the act of reading a favorite story will unblock a mind and trigger ideas and words to come.  This may even give you ideas of your own for a later story.  I do this and I especially like to re-read things I’ve written before that are well-written.
11. Change your schedule.  This does not work for me, as I am the proverbial creature of habit, like my dog.  But it’s something to consider.  Changing your schedule around may force you to concentrate more on things that in the past you did by rote and that new-found concentration can then be transferred to the need for words.
     
     
    There are undoubtedly as many ways to motivate a writer as there are writers.  Doing this properly really means understanding yourself well enough to devise a trick or a strategy that will work.  It may the same as what motivates you to work out or do your taxes or pay bills.  If you don’t write words today, there will, for sure, be consequences: the world will have to wait a day longer for your great work to be available.
     
    Cheesy?  Maybe.  But it may just be true.
     
    The next post to The Word Shed comes on June 15, 2020.  In this post, I want to go back to the idea of inspiration…where do those crazy ideas come from?  
     
    See you then.
     
    Phil B.