I mentioned before about how writing a book is a daunting objective and that the only way to conquer it is by breaking it into chunks.
Yesterday, I came face to face with that proposition and balked.
As I said yesterday in this blog, I’m connecting the bones of Book 2 with scene sinew right now. I made it through the opening scenes and was ready to move into the scenes that would take my characters from their starting positions to the Inciting Incident. And then I choked on the prospect.
See, Book 1, when compared to Book 2, was a simple animal (this is NOT an objective statement!). There was one throughline and everything else revolved around that, even my second entire throughline. In Book 2, there are 2 1/2 throughlines (in that a third sprouts out of one of the other two at the Midpoint) and they exist in near-isolation from each other. So as I sat down to work out how to bring my characters to one of the big moments of convergence, I started thinking about the competing storylines and how they needed to develop and how this moment needed to affect that down the road and, oh yeah, don’t forget to seed this thing…
My mind spun out of control.
Once I realized that I was frothing at my First Draft, I closed my eyes and calmed down. I’ve done this once. I’ve brought an idea to completion. AND I’ve mapped out where everyone is going in this book. So go back to your notes.
In case you haven’t noticed by now, I’m planted firmly in the Planner camp in the debate between Planner vs. Pantser. I have a few Pantser qualities, but I like to figure things out with the fewest words involved as is possible to save time and to open up my exploration of ideas. That part is done now so I have the freedom, within the framework I built, to let the words flow because by the time I get to that point, bones and sinew are in place and I’m just putting on muscle, skin, clothes, makeup, and perfume (it sounds like a lot, but for me, not so much; those are just drafting steps :)).
So with my frenzy quelled, I went back to my plan. Now, in yWriter, the Plan looks like this:
The major storylines are broken out by character. That means that the simultaneous actions that need to be slotted into All the Scenes (which is just a repository for EVERYTHING before I start moving the scenes into chapters) are broken out in five different places. So what did I do? I made a notecard (which I will NOT be showing you; Top Secret stuff and all). I put each character’s name down and the things they were doing as part of their Normal World. With all of that in one place, I can look at how to weave character actions together in a motif that resembles real life until I set off a bomb in their lives to kick them into their next adventure.
I took the mountain of information I’ve created and broke it into a smaller chunk: a molehill. And molehills are easy to step onto or over.
So with that in hand, I’m ready to attack the next phase of drafting. And anyone who thinks that an outline isn’t a First Draft is fooling themselves. The only real difference I’ve seen between Planners and Pantsers is that a Planner’s First Draft is an Outline and a Pantser’s First Draft is a mess of verbal exploration as they steam through ideas on the page, many of which will not work out. The same happens in an Outline, it’s just faster (in my humble opinion). They should really be called Panzers for the way they barrel through words.
I’m starting to get off track so I’ll leave you here until tomorrow.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG