How I plot a book -- Part 1 of 2
Since I'm about to start writing my fourth Raine Benares adventure (Bewitched & Betrayed), I thought it'd be a good time to tell you my process (such that it is). I've always been fascinated with how other writers work. For the writers out there, I'd love to hear about your process. Respond to this blog or email me if you'd like to share.
For me, plotting a book is just like writing one -- some parts are inspired and I can't write fast enough, other times I'm completely and utterly stuck, and I wonder if pounding my head against the nearest wall will shake loose some ideas. Tempting to try, but I'd better hold off on that one. I've had a concussion before. Not fun.
My ideas come to me in bits and pieces, parts of dialogue and chunks of chapters. Whenever this happens, I write it down (good old notepads), then transcribe it into my laptop. Important safety (and sanity) tip: ALWAYS, ALWAYS back up everything you've written EVERY DAY. I cannot stress the importance of that. I have a flash drive at my day job office, I keep one in my pocketbook, I have my laptop, and when I get a draft finished of a work, I back it up on Derek's computer too. So all of my work is stored in four different places, with one of those being outside of my house. Don't put all of your backups in one place; kinda defeats the purpose.
I'm digressing, back to plotting. I have bits, pieces and chunks of ideas, dialogue and scenes that I've accumulated for years. I know I'll use them eventually, so I just keep adding to the file, and throw absolutely nothing away. As a result, I have well over a hundred pages (single spaced) of stuff to browse through and choose from for Bewitched & Betrayed. I'll probably use about a third of those notes, the rest will continue to wait for the book they belong in.
When I'm starting a new book, I have the basic "big picture" in my head of what I want to do -- this always changes once I get into the actual writing. But to start, I sit down and read through The File. It's kinda like going shopping. I'm browsing and select the parts and pieces that appeal to me. I copy what I think I might use out of The File, I never cut. That way, I always have an intact master file of everything. I paste the bits & pieces into a new Word doc. That's my starting point.
Coming up tomorrow: Part 2 of "How I plot a book" -- what I do with the "bits & pieces"
Cyber Launch Book Party today for Linnea Sinclair's Shades of Dark. Kimber An over at Enduring Romance is hosting the party. It's an all-day event and there will be prizes. Pop over and join in the fun. I've been asked to bring sexy goblins per the Klingon ladies' request. ; )
Book release party tonight: My author friend, James Maxey will be signing and discussing Dragonforge, the sequel to the acclaimed Bitterwood tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at The Streets at Southpoint in Durham, NC. I'll be there to support James; so if you're in the area, please come by and you can talk to both of us. As an extra bribe, there'll be cake. ; )
UPDATE: James's party is going on as scheduled, but I can't be there. I've just gotten a migrane. Sorry! I'm headed home to go to bed.
I'll be doing a signing next month with James Maxey and Mark Van Name at the Cary, NC, Barnes & Noble (see my EVENTS page for details).
Some upcoming blog topics: The Saturday Fun Pic, analysis of my query letter for MLTF, book writing is hard work, writing momentum matters, how to schedule writing a novel, writing is a business, take it one chapter at a time, and if you want to be a writer you gotta grow a thick skin.
One more day and it's Friday!
Lisa
For me, plotting a book is just like writing one -- some parts are inspired and I can't write fast enough, other times I'm completely and utterly stuck, and I wonder if pounding my head against the nearest wall will shake loose some ideas. Tempting to try, but I'd better hold off on that one. I've had a concussion before. Not fun.
My ideas come to me in bits and pieces, parts of dialogue and chunks of chapters. Whenever this happens, I write it down (good old notepads), then transcribe it into my laptop. Important safety (and sanity) tip: ALWAYS, ALWAYS back up everything you've written EVERY DAY. I cannot stress the importance of that. I have a flash drive at my day job office, I keep one in my pocketbook, I have my laptop, and when I get a draft finished of a work, I back it up on Derek's computer too. So all of my work is stored in four different places, with one of those being outside of my house. Don't put all of your backups in one place; kinda defeats the purpose.
I'm digressing, back to plotting. I have bits, pieces and chunks of ideas, dialogue and scenes that I've accumulated for years. I know I'll use them eventually, so I just keep adding to the file, and throw absolutely nothing away. As a result, I have well over a hundred pages (single spaced) of stuff to browse through and choose from for Bewitched & Betrayed. I'll probably use about a third of those notes, the rest will continue to wait for the book they belong in.
When I'm starting a new book, I have the basic "big picture" in my head of what I want to do -- this always changes once I get into the actual writing. But to start, I sit down and read through The File. It's kinda like going shopping. I'm browsing and select the parts and pieces that appeal to me. I copy what I think I might use out of The File, I never cut. That way, I always have an intact master file of everything. I paste the bits & pieces into a new Word doc. That's my starting point.
Coming up tomorrow: Part 2 of "How I plot a book" -- what I do with the "bits & pieces"
Cyber Launch Book Party today for Linnea Sinclair's Shades of Dark. Kimber An over at Enduring Romance is hosting the party. It's an all-day event and there will be prizes. Pop over and join in the fun. I've been asked to bring sexy goblins per the Klingon ladies' request. ; )
Book release party tonight: My author friend, James Maxey will be signing and discussing Dragonforge, the sequel to the acclaimed Bitterwood tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at The Streets at Southpoint in Durham, NC. I'll be there to support James; so if you're in the area, please come by and you can talk to both of us. As an extra bribe, there'll be cake. ; )
UPDATE: James's party is going on as scheduled, but I can't be there. I've just gotten a migrane. Sorry! I'm headed home to go to bed.
I'll be doing a signing next month with James Maxey and Mark Van Name at the Cary, NC, Barnes & Noble (see my EVENTS page for details).
Some upcoming blog topics: The Saturday Fun Pic, analysis of my query letter for MLTF, book writing is hard work, writing momentum matters, how to schedule writing a novel, writing is a business, take it one chapter at a time, and if you want to be a writer you gotta grow a thick skin.
One more day and it's Friday!
Lisa
posted by Lisa Shearin at
7:50 AM
8 Comments:
Ooooh I hate coming up with plots. I always seem to end up with these awesome characters and then absolutely NOTHING for them to do. I was hoping you would do some blogs on plotting books :-)
On the topic of music from your blog yesterday, I listen to a lot of classical music. Vivaldi's Four Seasons is one of my favorites (but very short.) Any of the symphonies always work (Beethoven, Mozart, whoever), I just pick out movements depending on the mood. Or sometimes I listen to something like Led Zeppelin if a song (or its lyrics) fits a particular character's mood (I'll repeat it until I'm done with that scene.)
For the first book I wrote, I just wrote whatever I thought of that day, usually in 1000-2000 word chunks. At the end I had a huge wall with all my ideas written on cue cards which I placed into sequence. The book ended up completely lacking plot.
Book two I started from the beginning and just wrote a bit every day, hoping that something good would end up happening by the end. This worked better, but still, a lot of plot holes that were beyond repair for my tired mind.
Book three (current WIP) has an actual plot and character thought out. I know more or less what is going to happen, and how it's going to end. I'll let you know how this works out.
Otto, I might have blogged before on that topic. You can scan my archives and see if you can locate it. Though everyone plots differently -- and some authors don't write out a plot at all prior to starting a book.
Christina, I've done the same thing (written a book that turned out to be a bunch of scenes without a plot). I've blogged on this before, too. I think it's entitled "Finding the core of your book" or something like that. Check my archives for the past 2-3 months.
For me, plot is the structure that gets me writing. I need to know how things are going to go, and how they'll end. Not only is that how I work on my fiction, but it's also how I get my nonfiction completed. Example #1: I have a short story that I wanted to work on, but since I don't have an ending for, I lost motivation and went to another project.
Example #2: My new novel, "Lisa's Way," has been an off-and-on work for several years before it finally sold. I see now I was always able to go back and revise it because I had a first draft done. No matter what, I could take the story apart and rebuild it, making it a little bit better, until it sold.
Personally, I like plotting. It's not just what happens next, but coming up with a better idea for what happens next. Like I said, it's what keeps me at the keyboard day after day.
"Personally, I like plotting. It's not just what happens next, but coming up with a better idea for what happens next."
Robert, I couldn't have said it better myself. ; )
Someone (I can't remember who) once said that plotting was like driving a car at night-- they could see just to the end of their headlight beam-- enough to see a few yards down the road. A lot of times, plotting a novel's like that for me.
I usually begin with an (admittedly rough) outline of the premise, the character's problem and chapter by chapter outlines (though sometimes they say "something happens here", grin) But often when I start writing, that changes and I have to outline as I go. Events will happen that I had no clue were even in the mix (but they usually make the book better)
Revision for me is where smoothing the rough edges of the plot happens. My first draft is like a huge free write sometimes. (heck, most of the time)
Plotting? I have a vague idea what I want to happen, but as soon as I put fingers to keyboard it changes. This week, the characters' voices got so loud they made me bash one poor MC over the head, and threatened me with the same treatment if I didn't work out why they hit the MC fast enough. *whimpers*. I found a feasible solution. Can't argue with the characters....
Patti, we work EXACTLY the same way!
Yunkleska, my characters just refuse to talk to me until I get my crap together. ; )
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