Drawing from the Well
We’re well into scene mapping now. I’ve got five arcs to map out and one’s done. I’m up to sixty scenes and am starting to pick up momentum. Obviously, not a word of the manuscript is written yet, but I’m at a lower level of complexity so we’re getting closer. My motivation is rising on this daunting project of a book. I’m excited to keep going on it.
Filling the Well
I’m still ahead of pace and going strong. I’ve chewed through a decent number of books this last month. The one I enjoyed the most was The Cyborg Tinkerer. That was outstanding. It was only one of two 5-star books in last month’s list and…sixteenth 5-star of the year? How about that. It is, however, in the running for Six Star Book of the Year. I am excited about some other books coming out this year so we’ll see what happens. In fact, Witchshadow by Susan Dennard comes out next week and I am STOKED for that. Here’s where the last month stood:
41. Frostborn: The Eightfold Knife – Jonathon Moeller
42. Frostborn: The Undying Wizard – Jonathon Moeller
43. Frostborn: The Master Thief – Jonathon Moeller
44. Frostborn Omnibus 1 – Jonathon Moeller
45. The Cyborg Tinkerer – Meg LaTorre
46. Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
47. Graveminder – Melissa Marr
48. Waves – Cameron Dayton
49. Boomerang – Michael Clayton
50. House of Shattered Wings – Aliette de Bodard
51. The Warded Man – Peter V. Brett
51/100 toward #ProjectBookworm2021
Well Chat
Yeah, it’s been a minute since I posted. Thanks for joining me.
In my last post, I talked about how to get into flow and maximize your production there. Today’s post is an extension of that: an updated explanation of my writing process. I will do my best to be brief.
Pre-Drafting Phase
In this phase I come up with lots of ideas for names, places, personalities, nations, magic, and so on. Most of my planned stories are still in this state. In my discussion about Shiny Object Syndrome, I talked about how I get ideas out of my head for use later. My pre-drafting phase starts there and encompasses everything that leads up to the first (garbage) draft of the manuscript.
Phase 1: World Building
Here, I get into specifics about the given world I’m working on. Not only nation names but their capitals, economies, government and social structures, geography, and brief histories. Not only magic but the rules of the system and its limitations. Not specific characters but key characters in the world’s history, events that would shape the world’s history. This takes lots of different forms from Notepad MS Word and Excel to Access or online utilities and even physical notebooks.
Phase 2: Outlining
Here is where things get more serious. I determine the characters in the story, their personalities and magic, their arcs for the story. I figure out the high points for the story and what I intend for the story, especially the message I want to send. This is often written in a dated, stream of consciousness style in MS Word.
Phase 2a: Brain Dump
This is the first part of the outline where I just dump out all the ideas I have for the book. A lot of it doesn’t make it into the book but I give myself the freedom here to create. I start with everything I KNOW I want in the book and then spread out from there. As I ideate, I start connecting where I can, letting more ideas fill in the interstitial spaces.
Phase 2b: Arranging Arcs
As the connective tissue concentrates the stories, I start arranging the high points for the character arcs that form the backbone of the story itself. Once all the requisite arcs (assuming multiple POVs as is my preference) are formed in a satisfactory manner (for now), I move away from MS Word for the time being and into yWriter.
Phase 3: Mapping
More detail filters into the process at this point as the “cellular” structure of the story is formed.
Phase 3a: Chapter Mapping
I translate the high points of the story into proto-chapters to impart the initial structure into yWriter. I revisit this after Phase 3b again to break everything into the properly paced segments for the story.
Phase 3b: Scene Mapping
This is the “cellular” structure I mentioned above. Action and Reaction scenes are paired, based on the character goals and motivations that move the story from scene to scene, chapter to chapter, high point to high point throughout the arc. A lot of changes happen here as I focus on Goal-Conflict-Disaster-Reaction-Dilemma-Decision. My laser focus allows my subconscious mind feel the story. It isn’t unusual for me to make significant, though not seismic, changes in plot points.
What’s the difference between significant and seismic, you’re probably asking. Seismic is a key plot point is replaced with a new idea, often changing at least one high point, though likely more, to either side of the one I change. Significant is tweaking a plot point beyond minor details but the rest of the arc stays effectively the same. I guess tat means the latest update WAS seismic. Not to worry. It’s better now because of it. =)
Drafting (Phase 4)
After all of the preparation of the first three phases, it’s time to create the manuscript. With all the scenes laid out, I don’t have to think through what’s going to happen next so I’m free to slide into flow and write. I use a pomodoro method based in 25-minute increments to help me focus. When I really get going, I can pound out 1000 words in 25 minutes. Now, that is not to say that’s what you should expect from your writing. You could write more, you could write less. The important thing is persistence and consistency.
Post-Drafting
This is everything between the first and final drafts. There’s as much work here as there was in all the phases prior but it shifts from creation to refinement.
Phase 5: Editing
This is a multi-stage process where I focus on various parts of the manuscript and tighten them up. Plot, pacing, tone, tension, setting, descriptions, and even sentence flow are under the microscope. I print the first draft and read through it, marking it up with my initial thoughts. Then I go revision by revision in Word until I get to the most-polished version of the manuscript. After that, it’s off to a professional edit for final revisions and polish.
Phase 6: Querying (technically optional)
This optional phase is only necessary if going the traditional publishing route. When I did this before, I researched agents on the web, bought a book listing agents by genre, and utilized QueryTracker and MS Excel to keep track of my progress. I won’t go into detail here about writing a query letter as that’s a whole topic on its own. I will say that, when querying, it is vital to do your research and follow the submission guidelines put forth by the agent.
Phase 7: Publication
This phase is still a future state for me. I have a plan, but I don’t want to go into detail about it until after the fact since a lot can change in the action. Obviously, if you go the traditional route, much of this is handled by your agent and the publishing company. I’ll tell you about my self-publishing journey once it’s complete.
I know this has been a long one but I’ve refined my process a lot over the last couple of years. Thanks for coming on this ride with me. I promise the next post will be shorter.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG