Throwing Out the Things You Love

There comes a time in life when you know that all the junk you’ve horded just has to go, and I’m there. Today I hit my 150,000 word limit on Book II of the series I’m working on. That means it’s time for me to stop writing, even though there are gaps all through the manuscript. I find that if I try to fill in all those gaps the store will be stale and I’ll grow bored and frustrated with it, as well as compound any continuity errors I’ve made. It would also be a waste of time, because several bits I’ve written no longer fit within the overall story.

So what to do now?

My next goal is to read what I’ve written – all of it, from beginning to end. As I go, I intend to write both a chapter synopsis, and a character synopsis for each PoV character. There are 9 of those, which may seem to some like a ridiculously large number of PoV characters. There’s two major ones, two semi-major ones, and the rest are minor characters. I’m wondering if some of them will have to go, because that many PoV characters is generally considered  a lot.

The character synopses will be to ensure that every PoV character has a full story; each needs their goals and motivations, their journeys and resolutions. By writing a summary of what happens to each character throughout the book, I’ll be able to see if there are holes in their stories. The chapter synopsis will ensure that those individual stories tie in together.

I’ve let Book I sit for about 5 months after finishing it, so I’m going to begin this process on that and let Book II sit before I begin revising it. Here’re a few things I know I need to change in Book I.

Non-existent characters: In the very beginning of the book,  the main character mentions two friends, who then disappear for the rest of the book. I had great plans for those characters, but as the story unfolded they just didn’t evolve. I loved the idea of those characters, but they didn’t have a place in my novel. I’ll save those characters for something else, as I will scenes I’ve written that no longer fit the story.

Over-used  and under-effective words:  I don’t know how many times I say ‘he sighed’ or ‘she sighed’ or ‘she let out a long sigh.’ I know I’ve used ‘sigh’ far, far, far, far too much and I’m sure there are others words I’ve utilised too often. Use a word enough times, and it fails to have meaning. It’s the same with common words. A thesaurus will come in handy here.

Bad writing: I think this is more a case of one constantly improving with experience, and certainly one of rewriting as opposed to cutting. I thought my writing was great when I began Book I, but now I look at a lot of the earlier stuff and just cringe. My writing has improved that much that I recognise how atrocious my prose and dialogue and just about everything used to be. I think I could revise once, and the same thing would happen; in the time it takes to go through the story, I’d improve further and again I’d see the flaws. So I’m going to revise once, and then I’m sending it out.

Plot holes: Pretty sure I don’t have any, but that might change once I read through it fully for the first time. I will attempt to read the book as someone who has no knowledge of it. Admittedly this will be difficult, so perhaps I should find a draft reader or two.

Show, don’t tell: Sometimes I’ve done this really well, and sometimes my writing comes across as a brief list of events. This was due in part to just not being a great writer. At other times, it was due to me feeling that if I tried to find the right words, it would take me forever and the story would never be finished. So I forced myself to ignore the bad writing and just get it out. You can’t edit or improve something you haven’t written.

My plan is to go through the story in hard copy. I’m kind of thrilled to be able to print and hold something I created! But I’ve also heard revision is more effective on paper. I think that, without the computerised ability to instantly edit, the process will be more focused and I’ll be able to complete it more efficiently.

If anyone has any advice, leave a comment for the benefit of others!

My next few posts will focus on the editing process and its inevitable deviation from my plan!

The Dreaded Cliche

I thought it was about time I started posting on some more technical elements of writing. This post will deal with the feared cliché – some of my own opinion on that as well as what I’ve heard from writers, some of them published.        
                A story needs to start with an idea, whether it be a character, a single scene, a theme, or a plot line. Since this is the starting point of a novel, I thought it would be appropriate for this to be one of the first topics I posted on.         
                We all know what clichés are – knowing how to avoid them is the problem. But are clichés necessarily a problem? Clichés are clichés because people like them (or have in the past). But, I suppose that it’s inevitable for anything popular to grow out of fashion as people become bored with the same old. I’ve got clichés in my book – I think it’s impossible to write anything entirely original (if you can point me in the direction of something that is, great!). Whether it’s a clichéd storyline (there are only 36 according to Polti) or a clichéd character or plot element, I think the important thing is to put your own spin on it, and that’s pretty standard advice.      
                Take, for example, good versus evil – a cliché, certainly. To be avoided? Certainly not! Point me in the direction of a novel (fantasy, crime or otherwise) that doesn’t deal with that in some way shape or form. Probably general fiction might be the best chance of escape from that particular cliché, but you’d be hard-put finding a book from one of the other genres that doesn’t. My book certainly deals with Good versus Evil and I’m not about to go changing that just because it’s a typical fantasy theme.  
                The ‘Orphan with a mysterious past’ is another common fantasy theme. I happen to like this one, and the main character of my book just happens to be one. So long as I can put my own spin on it, then the fact that it’s been used a hundred times before shouldn’t matter. J.K. Rowling used it and look where it got her! It just goes to show that it’s the story you weave around these common themes that makes it interesting.
                I really like the idea of writing a book with a prophecy, but these are getting ridiculously common, in my opinion. It seems like every second book you read has a prophecy in it. I’ve still really liked the books I read, but there was just something like ‘not another prophecy’ every time I read the blurb and that word was mentioned.  I think prophecies really need to work hard to make themselves something special, but then, so does any other clichéd element.            
                How many fantasy books have you read where the hero wields some kind of sword? How often does that sword have some magical attribute? These can get pretty old, but recently I read Brandon Sanderson’s Way of Kings and yes, he had swords and yes, the swords have some kind of magic, but it all tied into the story. It wasn’t just there for the sake of it and it was something I’d never read about before, which was refreshing.
                Dark Lords, quests, elves, dwarves, swords, magic daggers, ninjas, castles, the ‘Chosen One’, the wise old stranger who seems to know everything, names with apostrophes – some of these I hate and some I don’t mind. Either way, I think the most important thing is how they are used in a story.            
                I’ve heard some people say that clichés should be avoided at all costs and any book with a cliché should be scrapped immediately – if someone said that to me, I’d ignore it. Primarily, I think we should all write because we enjoy it and that means writing about what interests us. I guess if you’re looking to be published then it pays to be original, but I still don’t agree that this is synonymous with no clichés.

Writing Software

Last post, I mentioned Mind Mapping and the free-to-download program FreeMind. This post is inspired by that. There are a range of writing programs out there – here are a few.

I won’t go into too much detail about Microsoft Word. I’m sure most of us are familiar with it. Word has all the basics required to properly format a manuscript for publication as well as handy tools for navigating a document. It’s fast, easy, and it’s what I use – most of the time.  Once, I tried something different: yWriter.

yWriter  is a program that was developed by talented science-fiction author Simon Hayes who gave us the wonderful Hal Spacejock series. What I like about that is that it’s a writing program for writers, by a writer – he knows what writers need and he’s given it to us in a very useful little package.  I tried yWriter when I was beginning an earlier novel and quite liked it. It divides your story up into individual scenes, which you can then put in the order you wish. You can also view what the story looks like in book format, which I got a kick out of. However, I found it a bit too compartmentalised, but that can be attributed to the fact that when I write it is in a very non-linear fashion.  Because I like to skip around quite erratically, typing a few words here and a few words there, the constant clicking between scenes got a bit frustrating. Now that I’ve got more of my story done, I’m thinking about going back to it, because I think it would help me sort out my chapters. I reckon a planner would find this software great from the get go and I recommend giving it a try – it’s free to download, so what is there to lose? Check out Simon’s books while you’re there!     

Scrivener: I’ve heard good reports about this, but haven’t tried it out myself.  I have had a read over the features though, and this program looks really good. If I wasn’t a poor uni student, I’d seriously consider buying it. Not that it’s expensive – check out their website for the current price (looks very reasonable).  Scrivener’s features include (to be very brief) a corkboard and outliner as well as text editing and an equation editor for those interested in non-fiction works requiring formulae. Those who prefer the Mac over the PC might like Scrivener, though I believe there is a Windows Beta version currently available. Scrivener let’s you compile your work in a very nice range of formats and file types including .ePub (ePub eBook format) and .mobi file (Kindle format). You can download a free trial from their website, too, so no need to buy before you try. Awesome name, too, Scrivener.

Snowflake Pro: I haven’t tried this software, so I can’t comment on it personally. It also comes with a price tag. It’s from the same guy who created the ‘Snowflake Method.’

Be warned: these writing software packages might look fancy, but don’t let yourself get caught up in learning how to use the software – you liable to spend hours that should have been spent writing trying to figure out how to change fonts and do this, that and the other.

I’m sure there is more writing software out there, so if you know of any others, feel free to share it with us, or let us know of your experience with any of the ones mentioned here (I’m particularly interested in the ones I haven’t tried).

Mind Mapping

Hi all! I’m bashing out posts at a pretty rapid rate at the moment, and will for a while – if only so people have something to actually read when they visit the blog. Today’s post is all about Mind Mapping.             
                MindMapping is a great brainstorming method. Done properly, it can significantly increase your creativity and cut down on planning time – it also changes the way you think.
                I tried this out once for my novel and found that the mind map just got way too convoluted to be useful. It also caused me to spend (an overly long) time planning rather than actually writing. When I got to about 70,000 words, my manuscript stalled and I decided to try mind mapping again. At that point, I didn’t have any chapters, and by mind mapping the events, I was able to work out what areas of the novel needed a bit more work, what my chapters were and I also got an idea of pacing. This helped me get back on track with my novel and I’m steaming ahead once more. 
                Mind Maps are great when done on a huge piece of butcher’s paper in colourful textas (apparently colours help us retain information better, and mind maps are better than linear lists). I quite often do mind maps on paper when I’m planning up an essay, but for my novel, I went with a great little program called FreeMind. FreeMind is one of those wonderful, open source programs created by people with programming talent and a love of sharing. This tool is a free download and is simple and easy to use – I highly recommend it.              
                While MindMapping can be used as a free flowing brainstorm tool, it can also be used for mapping information you already know. This is what I did. The central node was simply the title of my novel, and then the nodes coming off of that were labelled Main Characters, Minor Characters, Bit Players, Locations, and Chapters. Each of these nodes then branches off into as many branches as are required.          
                ‘What are nodes?’ you ask. Some fancy term for little dots connected by lines – download the software and try it out for yourself. It’s really quick to download and, I promise, you need about two minutes to get the hang of the basics. Here’s an example of what you can do using FreeMind (or good old pen and paper):

 

To keep with the current theme, my next post will cover a few different software programs geared towards writers.