Calculated Spontaneity

We are all familiar with the two styles of writing: Outlining and discovery writing.  Outlining is really any organized manner of plotting and writing a story.  Discovery, on the other hand, is simply writing at its most visceral and creative.  These are polar opposites, as are the writers who promote them.

Writers rarely fall under one or the other category, however.  It is less outlining vs. discovery and more outlining-discovery.  A sort of continuum, as Brandon Sanderson puts it.  Each writer fits somewhere up and down that scale.  Some part outlining, some part discovery.  It is the rare writer who is a purist.  Most of us are hybrids.

Oddly though, the ways of mixing discovery and outlining are not discussed very often.  So, how does a writer blend these polar opposites?  How does a writer dynamically switch from one mode to the other?

A purist outliner will quite nearly detail every last nod and sigh.  With footnotes.  But we’re going to take a step back from that.  Create a scene-by-scene breakdown.  Answer things like: Where is the scene?  Who is in the scene?  What are the scene’s aimpoints or goals, if any?  Purists would go much, much farther.  But we’re going to stop right here.  That’s it.  Write the scene.  Keep your aimpoints in mind.  Keep your plot and character details in mind.  If you've done research, keep those facts in check.  Then just write the scene.  Let it flow naturally.  Visualize it and write it.  If you are visualizing faster than you can write, do not pause.  If you get hung up on a piece of the scene, push past it.  Leave a little note in brackets to remind you of the part left unfinished.  Keep going.

Once you reach the end of the scene, check how you did.  Did you meet your aimpoints or goals?  Did you keep your facts in check?  Did the scene “progress” in the right direction?  As the saying goes, the joy is in the journey.  How you achieve a scene’s objectives is more important than the objectives themselves.  This journey is the part you can discovery write.

Discovery writers might be feeling a serious buzz kill, right now.  But you don't have to do scene-by-scene.  Simply create the over-arching aimpoints for the entire story.  Where do your characters start?  Where do your characters end?  What was their journey?  Where does it take place?  What is the conflict?  What is the resolution?  How did it affect your characters?  Then let loose.  You are free to dream.  Unleash all your creativity upon the story, unrestrained and unbound.  Yet, directed.  Occasionally, stop and examine your work.  Make sure you are on track.  See that your story is aimed properly.  Don't focus on any particular scene.  The general direction of the story is what's important.

It is all about visualizing the story.  If you need more structure to visualize, do more outlining, research and character detailing.  If these get in your way, junk them.  Some of us need preparation and guidance.  Some of us only need a blank page and a dream.

Let's talk about dreams next time in: Dreaming of Elsewhere

Why Soooo Serious?

Being a writer is complicated.  Sometimes we have a tendency to boil it down to technique or even just opportunity.  I think the most important aspect of being a writer is knowing yourself.  Like the characters in your story, you need to know your emotions, your attitudes, your weaknesses, your sensibilities, your vulnerabilities and your aspirations.

Like with characters, knowing yourself isn't about answering profile questions.  You have to examine yourself long and hard.  You have to see yourself with total honesty.  Why do you write?  Is it passion?  Is it fame?  Is it respect?  Is it money?*  Are you driven, almost compelled, to write?  What kind of writing are you attempting?  Is it right for you?  What is your sense of aesthetics?  Do you write dark thrillers full of violence and betrayal?  Do you write light romances with only the simplest plot twists?  Or do you write epic science fiction with huge space battles and galactic intrigues?  Why do you write this way?

Finally, ask yourself do you write literary fiction or popular fiction?  Do you write so people will take your work seriously?  Or do you write so that people will find your work entertaining?**  These are incredibly important distinctions.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll just put it out there: I am not a fan of literary fiction.  Obsessive navel gazing, meandering through the mundane and groveling in the dark emotions isn't my thing.  I am an entertainer.  I write stories that, first and foremost, I think are entertaining.  I write stories I hope other people find entertaining.

Are you the same?  Or do you have a passion for deeply emotional dramas?  There's no right way, here.  Writing is about passion.  Love Star Wars?  Try writing a space opera.  Love Gone With the Wind?  Try writing a historical romance.  Love you some Lovecraft?  Try writing of dark eldritch horrors.  Regardless of whether it is literary or popular, it has value because of your passion.  Readers sniff out frauds pretty quick.  Be real.  Be you.  Your passion matters.

Your plot matters, too.  Next time, let's look at a hybrid method for creating plots in: Calculated Spontaneity.

*     If you are writing for money, stop right now and step away from the keyboard.  You are in the wrong profession.

**   I'm not exactly saying these are mutually exclusive but they are usually exclusive.

I Am the Hero of My Own Story, Right?

Got a good plot?  Done.

Got an even better story?  Done.

Got a cast of great characters?  Um, well ...

We have all been there.  Sometimes a character comes together easily, with virtually no effort at all.  But, most of the time, it is difficult.*  The characters come out feeling shallow and bland.  You can see the jaggies where you cut their cardboard outline.

There are a whole host of tools and techniques out there meant to help writers craft better characters.  They are generally well-intended but they often focus just on character outlines.  These involve answering lots of questions.  They sound a lot like a dating website: What do you do for work?  What are your dreams?  Where’d you go to school?  How tall are you?  What’s your favorite thing to do?  Favorite movie?  Favorite food?

These questions and their answers are pretty much useless in building a great character.

After all, does liking beaches at sunset determine someone’s personality?  Does eye color actually influence temperament?  And liking anchovies on pizza means what, exactly?  None of this has anything to do with character.  Yet, this is how many clinics on character creation often go.

Stories are jumbles of meaningless details without the glue of good characters.  Similarly, characters are jumbles of meaningless details without the glue of great souls.  You, the creator, have to breathe life into your people.  Yes, this is as difficult as it sounds.**  I have found one good way to achieve this, though.

It is essentially a story prompt.  Take the character and think about their actual personality, not their eHarmony profile.  Then write a scene in first person where the character reacts to a situation.  Nothing action-packed or plot heavy.  Something simple.  A schoolyard scene.  A family reunion.  A job interview.  A red-eye flight.

Don’t just walk them through the scenario.  Elaborate on their thoughts.  Go way, way farther into their thoughts than any good story would.  Every person they meet, detail their internal reactions.  Their emotions.  Their attitudes.  Their weaknesses.  Their sensibilities.  Their vulnerabilities.  Their aspirations.  These things are important.  They are the blocks that build a great character.  Take someone with a perfectly boring profile.  Fill their thoughts with sarcastic commentary on everyone they meet and suddenly that person is quite interesting.

Once you've entered their mind (sorry, that came out weird), your characters will become more unique, more real and far more tangible.  You will cease to think of them as some regimented archetype.  They have real motivations, emotions, vulnerabilities and aspirations.  They become the hero of their own story.  Once you have achieved this, you can set aside the writing prompt.  It has served its purpose.

Next time, we'll discuss how we see ourselves as writers, in: Why Soooo Serious?

*  Character creation.  Very.  Hard.  Well, for most of us.  Some authors create great characters with such ease, it is morally justifiable to hate them.  I think.
**  Unless, again, it isn't.  In which case, I hate you.

Tell Me You Didn't Just Read the End*

You know that part in your book where things slow down?  What should you do with those scenes?  Some editors would tell you to cut them, altogether.  Get rid of the tedious stuff because your readers will start skimming.  They will start thinking about reading the end of the book.  And we don't want that now, do we?

Is cutting the slow a good idea?

Pacing is very important, don’t get me wrong.  But this does not mean you eliminate every slow piece of writing.  There is the good slow.  There is bad fast.  There is no single "right" pace for a story.  In fact, there is no single pace for a story.  Next time you read your most favoritest book, observe.  It shifts gears constantly.  It is not about being fast.  Or being slow.

What is important is that the story and the readers are in sync.

How can a writer pull this off?  It is all about expectations.  You don’t simply adjust the velocity of the story.  You adjust the reader’s expectations.  You establish a rhythm to the story.  Not formulaic, per se, but rather by telegraphing intentions.  The reader is able to pick up on these patterns and adjust.  Every time the pacing is about to change, tweak the reader's expectations.  Let them know.  Communicate.

We've all heard of foreshadowing, right?  The word kind of explains itself.  Here's the gist: Clue the reader in about what’s coming.  It can be as subtle as you want it.  Or it can be like a slap to the head.  Foreshadowing is normally used for plot twists and details.  It can also be used for pacing.  The reader can enjoy your burnt-rubber car chase and neatly adjust to the following chapter of straight dialogue, if you set it up properly.  Truth is, you can have readers licking their chops for a seemingly inevitable piece of dialogue.

I love all kinds of action-y stuff but I also love great characters.  As we all know, bullets and explosions does not great characters make.  And most stories are dead on arrival without good characters.  You have to slow down the roller coaster.  You have to adjust the pacing.

Next time, we’ll tackle character development in: I Am the Hero of My Own Story, Right?

*  Tell me you didn't just read this without reading the whole post.  Ha, I totally foreshadowed that.  I am a cat and you are just my plaything.

The Greatest Story Never Told

What story should you write?  Are you asking that question right now?  If so, it means I caught you on the cusp of a really big decision.  Naturally, you want to write a good story.  But what constitutes “good”?  This can be really difficult to ascertain when you haven’t written anything, yet.  Let's focus on what we know.  Let's find what we are passionate about.

Everyone has a different passion.  Hopefully, you have a long list of passions.  Because you cannot write a story without it.  At least, you cannot do it well.  You need enthusiasm to energize your story.  What do you desire most in a book?  Is the world you created deeply fascinating to you?  Does your story reflect your passions?

If your unwritten story doesn’t really flip your switch, it only gets worse from here.  You will be immersed in this world for a long time.  Don’t invest your time and effort on something you are meh about.  Don't write a story because you think it is "serious" or literary.  On the other hand, don't write a story just because you think it will sell.  Find the intersection between your passions and your talent.

Here's a good place to begin:

Write the story you have always wanted someone else to write but they never did.

Not talking about fan fiction, here.  We all want to see Captain Kirk and Wonder Woman take on the zombie apocalypse but . . . not really.  Pick the one genre you love above all others and find that story.  You know the story you read and then spend countless hours rewriting it in your head?  It likely turned into something altogether different.  After all, it may be only a small piece of the story that inspired you in the first place.

Reimagine and repurpose the story concepts you loved most.  Take the twists and turns that nobody else seems to make.  Not simply because they don't but because you wish they did.  Take your passion and put it in your story.  Only passion will energize the reader.  Be enthused about your story and just maybe everyone else will be too.

Not enthused about filler dialogue and build-up scenes in your book?  Should you get rid of it?  We'll tackle this in: Tell Me You Didn’t Just Read the End

The Three Monkeys of World Building

You have a blank page in front of you.  This is either the point when: You can freeze up and try to think of something you’d rather be doing, like binge watching House or “researching” every anime article ever published on Wikipedia.  Or you can begin documenting an entire universe, created completely out of the fertile imagination of your all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing mind.  Are you still prevaricating?  Read no further and here's a link you should totally check out.  Ready to create?  Read on.

Sky Moles!

If you’re writing fantasy or science fiction, there is literally a universe waiting to be created.  You will spend countless hours carefully crafting every detail.  Races?  Magic systems?  Technology?  Political intrigues?  Character backstories?  World history?  Oh, yea, you've got it down to the last whisker on that weird sky mole you invented.  Now, this beautiful world is just waiting to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world.  You begin writing your novel, weaving every possible detail and revealing every little tidbit.  Right down to the last whisker ...

Or not.

Going granular with the details might feel satisfying at the time.  Launching into long info-dump monologues might answer a lot of really interesting questions.  But the reader is going to hate you for it.  The secret to awesome world building is not in what you tell, it is in how you tell it.  Moderation is key.  Answering who, what, where and why is absolutely critical for every author.  You, the writer, have to know.  Your readers don't.  The trick for world building within a story is in what not to reveal.

Here are three ideas I've called the Three Monkeys of World Building:

See no ...  Focus the reader.  Clap those hairy monkey hands over their eyes.  Only give small glimpses of your world.  You choose when, where and how the reader sees it.  Never explain the whole world.  Maintain the mystery, the mystique.  There is something incredibly powerful about the secret, the hidden and the unknown.  Know but don't show.  Your knowledge of your own world informs your storytelling.  And the reader only needs the story.

Hear no ...  Muffle the monologues.  Readers.  Do.  Not.  Want.  To.  Listen.  To.  That.  Much.  Info.  Enough said.

Speak no ...  Gag the preacher.  Some authors try to control the reader's responses to their story.  They try to tell the reader what they should be thinking and feeling.  Allegory is essentially the "control freak" version of this.  As Tolkien famously stated: "I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."  Are you using a dystopian future to preach about NSA wiretaps?  Are you using steampunk to preach about racial intolerance?  Are you using your supernatural monsters to push back at gun control?  Just remember, people don't like being preached at.  Even when they completely agree with you.

So, you've created a world.  You've answered all the big questions.  Now, gently and cleverly reveal your world to, well, the world.  Just remember to tell a story.  A really, really good story.  Speaking of which, what makes a story "good"?  Let's look at this next in: The Greatest Story Never Told

One Rule To...Rule Them All?

Ask about writing and rules and you'll likely get the same answer.  Namely, there are none.  The only rule is that there are no rules.  If you listen to lectures on writing technique, you'll hear this over and over.  Writing methods or systems will often be given a caveat: These are not rules but tools.  Results may vary.  They may or may not work for you.  The motto could be stated, preferably in an Aussie accent: "No rules, just right."

Not to set a pattern here but, well, here I am setting a pattern: They are partly right but mostly wrong.

Every author, whether in fiction or non-fiction, regardless of their genre, must follow one rule.  There are no exceptions.  There is no way around it.  Few people talk about it.  Many ignore it.  It isn't a complicated rule.  In fact, it sounds deceptively simple.  Almost banal.  Just eight simple words:

Writers must communicate their stories to their audiences.

Three critical components make the rule.  Communication, story and audience.

Communication is the most vital of the three.  This is a deep subject that I could never hope to cover in a single post.  Briefly put, it is the process of putting the story that exists only in your imagination into the limited confines of mere words.  To say this is difficult is putting it mildly.  Most writers spend decades honing and refining their abilities as wordsmiths to become accomplished communicators.  Even then, words sometimes just cannot capture what is in our imaginations, which can cause all kinds of pain.  Still, we try.  How we communicate, though, is not set in stone.  In this regard, "no rules, just right" is partly correct.

This is where story and audience come in.  Because both affect the way an author communicates.

Story and audience are inextricably linked.  A story without a target audience is like an e-mail without an address.  When an author discovers a story, it is vitally important to also discover its audience.  A story about a young orphan boy who lives in a closet under the stairs will be treated very differently in the hands of different authors.  We all know what J.K. Rowling did with it.  What if it had been written by Donna Tartt?  What about Brandon Sanderson?  Nora Roberts?  Or, perish forbid, George R. R. Martin?*  If you are like me, your mind is probably popping with the possibilities.  Each author would craft a story aimed at their particular audiences.  The differences would be of cosmic proportions.

Here's where it gets back to communication.  Not interested in writing about an orphan living in a closet under the stairs?  You want to write a story about a ring and a dark lord?  You want to write for the epic fantasy crowd?  It is safe to say your epic fantasy won't be a 200-page quickie without a lick of world building.

Besides, if you want to write epic fantasy, why would you want to skip world building?  That's the best part.  We'll examine what not to reveal about your universe next in: The Three Monkeys Of World Building

*  In this version, only Ron lives in the end, albeit driven insane by all the death, misery and haunting whispers coming from an undestroyed Horcrux ...