Back At It

Hello all!

I know it's been a long time since I last made a post, and there have been a number of drastic life changes since then. What on earth am I talking about? Well...

In short, I have depression. I've had it since about November of last year, but it went untreated and undiagnosed until March of this year. Life has been incredibly hard, thanks to my constant spiraling out of control and my total lack of motivation. I'll probably talk more about this later. I attend therapy once a week and am on medication daily.
I began a new endeavor, a little something called The Desperation Project. It's a movement aimed at ending the silence about mental illness in our churches and Christian communities. If you check out the blog, you'll find a number of great blog posts from me and some of my dear friends on different issues, such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders, all with a focus on encouraging others and glorifying God.
I am also very close (just over a month away) to graduating high school. I'll be attending a college in town, and I am also in the process of looking for a job.
I've watched several new television series and have fallen into a couple new fandoms, most notably The Flash, The Raven Cycle, and Welcome To Night Vale.

So, my life is changing pretty rapidly and in some pretty scary ways. But I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to talk about writing.

Here's Where I Am

Well, let me go ahead and say that I have done very little work on my story these past few months. Mostly thanks to depression, probably also thanks to my own laziness. However, this is something I am striving hard to amend. If you read this blog, you know how I feel about lists. So, let's make one!

1) I have a completed rough draft from last year's Nanowrimo.

So, I have my draft from November. It's not very good, but no rough draft is. I've kept it in my Google Docs files, and there it has patiently waited for me to take it and make it something worth reading. It's had to wait for a long time, but a few weeks ago I finally got myself in gear and began the long, slow task of revising the maniac's prayer that is my book.

2) I made a skeleton outline.

*jazz music plays in the distance*

What, you might ask, is a skeleton outline? This is a very reasonable question, since (as far as I know) I am the only one to use the term.

You might recall that before Nano began I had an original outline that was thirty scenes long and about ten scenes two short? The end result of my rough draft resembled the original outline so little that I went through and actually read my rough draft.

Yes, dear reader, it was indeed as bad as it sounds.

I went through and read my draft, every scene jotting down 1) the basic point and action of the scene and 2) any notes for improvement. Most of my notes consist of varying numbers of question marks and me complaining about how cheesy my characters' dialogue is.
However, there were times when I was... very nearly impressed? I forgot much of what I wrote during the haze of November, so some of it was new to me. A few scenes I could barely believe I wrote, because they were actually good. It was a new feeling for me.
Of course, the overall draft was good only as fuel for a fire, but there were a few redeeming aspects.



3) Using the skeleton outline, I am working on a new outline for the second draft.

Same, Oliver. Same.

And I thought I was done with outlines.
I thought after the first one that I wouldn't need another, that I was finally free.

It seems that I cannot escape the dreaded outlines. I fear I will never be able to stop outlining things. When will it end? Will it ever end? Is this my fate?

Hysterics aside, the edit I'm doing now is a plot edit. It's taking what was broken from the plot in the rough draft and attempting to fix it. It involves changing many scenes from the first draft, closing up plot holes, and working on the pacing of the book as a whole. It's also involved in giving some of my charaters an arc, because in the first draft they were basically cardboard cutouts of themselves. 

They tell you not to worry too much about your rough draft because pretty much none of it will make it into your final draft, that most of it will end up scrapped somewhere along the way.

They're right.

I'm only in second draft stage and most of my first draft has already been rendered useless. I can't imagine what else I might cut as I carry on writing.

Currently I'm in the middle of writing the outline for Draft Two, which is going rather slowly. I'm worried about the length of my book and the scenes I probably need to add, but I'm doing my best to push through.

4) Next step: draft two

I'm actually excited for this next step. I've never reached second draft stage in a book before, and I feel like if I get there I'll have an easier time with all the drafts to come. I'm pretty optimistic about it, which is rather rare. 

So, there we are! This should about catch everyone up on where I am and what I'm working toward. Maybe soon I'll be able to give all of you a look into what this book is actually about. Maybe before too long, you'll be able to read it for yourself. 

At least, that's the goal.

The End of The Month

Hello readers!

November is officially over and done, the pumpkins and pumpkin spice everything being replace with white lights, cinnamon, and pine. The buzz and rush of novel writing has been replaced with the buzz and rush of finding the perfect presents for the people closest to me. Traffic is worse. Spirits are higher. The Twenty One Pilots cd in my car radio has been replaced by Let It Snow Baby, Let It Reindeer (Relient K's Christmas album). It's a wonderful time of year, made more wonderful by another successful year of NaNoWriMo.

I hit my goal and I am happy. My novel is not good. It's a rough draft, and rough drafts are not meant to be good. As Shannon Hale once said, “I'm writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” This, I have done. Now I begin on the castles.

The Next Steps

So, moving forward, I need to revise what I've written. It sounds pretty simple on paper, but I gaze over the mangled mess that is my work in progress, I feel a profound sense of lostness. Where do I even begin?

I find, when I'm not sure what I'm doing, making a list is a rather helpful thing to do.


1) Working on my series encyclopedia

This is what I am currently doing. A series encyclopedia (or series bible, depending on who you ask) is a documentation of every important character, place, and event in your novel. It's wonderfully helpful, especially when writing a series. I tend to forget little details like hair and eye color, or height, or location. It's nice to have a standard document to look back on and know for sure that yes, Lacy has hazel eyes, despite the instance on page 28 when I said they were dark brown.

2) Revising my outline

Ah, yes. Back to the old outline. My plan is to revise the outline before I actually revise the novel, so that as I am rewriting I have a guide to follow as I try and fix the major plot holes and add the major scenes I want added. I'm not looking forward to this, but it is a necessary evil.

3) Rewriting (again and again and again)

I plan to have very, very focused rewrite as I try to revise my novel. One time, I may edit for voice. One time, I may edit for setting and scenery. One time, I may edit for one character's dialogue. It's going to be a long, arduous process. I die a little on the inside each time I think about it, but again, necessary evil.

What it comes down to is this: do I believe my novel is worth more time and effort than I've given it already? Do I believe in the story? Do I believe in the characters? Will it be, in the end, worth it?

I can honestly say that I think so. I want this book to be something special; something beautiful. And with enough time, I can make it that way. I choose to believe in the story, and I choose to believe that I can accomplish this, as impossible as it seems.

So, congratulations to all who completed NaNoWriMo 2015, and congratulations to all who participated. Congratulations to all of you who write at all. You'd doing something incredibly hard, and you are incredibly brave.

Also, to all of you,

A NaNoWriMo Update

Hello, readers.
It's been a long few weeks, what with NaNoWriMo and various other life/family happenings, plus the inevitable busyness that comes with senior year. I haven't been blogging due to these various things, which is something I am hoping to rectify and make a new post at least weekly.

NaNo 2015: The Story So Far

NaNoWriMo this year has been a whirlwind of sleep deprivation, friend encouragement, and copious consumption of English Breakfast tea. I've laughed, I've cried, and I've punched things. Seriously.

I think the best way to explore my experience so far is to make a list. So, here we are.

1) I lost 14,000 words.

Yes, dear readers, it is a sad story but a true one. They say every relationship has its own system of give-and-take, and it's no different with distraction free writing programs. The give? A nice, simple, clean environment to write, with handy little things like timers and word count widgets to help you reach your goal. The take? No backups in-program.

My first disaster cost me only 2k (I say only because the second dwarfed the first). I was using a nifty little program called Quiet Writer that gives a gorgeous fullscreen space of creative freedom, but in a nasty design flaw the 'clear' button is just underneath the 'fullscreen'. I lost all my work, but had saved most of it to a Google Document and only lost about 2k, which I made up and did not put toward my final wordcount on the NaNo site.

Disaster No. 2 was a real week-ruiner. I was using my normal writing program, Pillarbox. It's a nice gray space with typewriter scrolling, a timer, and a word count goal widget. It has no fullscreen fuction, and no backup. It saves what you last wrote, like Quiet Writer, but nothing before the last time it saved. This time my errant fingers somehow tapped a few keys and viola, all my words had once again vanished. I had neglected to back up any more than I backed up last time, except for this time the loss was much greater.

I would be a liar if I said that there were no tears shed over the loss of my precious words. It was not a good day for me.

However, on day one, I made up 7k of the lost words and did count the new ones toward my NaNo progress (so the actual word count of my novel is well behind what it reads on the site). Eventually I got over the loss and moved on, angrily plugging away at my story.

2) I am now off my outline.

Ah, yes. I have a bad habit of starting my outline late and then putting it off and putting it off until lo and behold, it's the first of November and my outline is only thirty scenes long! However, I bravely plunged headfirst into my draft, thinking it'll be forever until I reach the end of this outline and I already know how this story is going to end, so I don't need an outline for the entire book. 

So, I kept going, my outline keeping me on track as I glided through my pre-planned, pre-plotted story, consulting it often to see what plot points I needed to hit and where I needed to address certain issues.

Then, one fine morn, I awaken and begin to prepare to write. I look at my outline and realize with a shock that there is no more. I chide my Past Self for her laziness and her insistence on finishing Merlin before November began. She's done nothing but create problems for me, and I am not favorably inclined towards her.

All this to say, I'm off script now and just making things up as I go along. I know where I'm headed, but things have a real tendency to fly out of control in the home stretch of my books. I wish I had finished my outline beforehand, and saved watching the last season of Merlin for the afternoons in November that, if I had an outline to keep me on track, I could have spent watching Netflix instead of worrying about how I would get my characters where they needed to be.

For shame, Past Self.

For shame.

3) I'm rather unhappy with my word count.

It looks really good on the NaNo website (almost 45k as we speak), but my novel is turning out to be really short (33k). I don't really like that, but I know some things I can do to make it longer in further edits. Plus I can probably stretch out the ending a little bit more, which I will endeavor to do as I enter the "home stretch" of NaNoWriMo 2015.

Overall, it's been a long few weeks filled with scheduling conflicts, tears, and emotional whining about all matter of things. However, I am pressing forward in the hope of hitting 50k on Saturday, and making it up to at least 40k in my rough draft.

Thanks for reading this update, and hopefully you'll be hearing more from me soon.

Also, to all my fellow Wrimos:

Outlining: Where are we going, again?

Hello all! So, tomorrow the NaNoWriMo site will reset and participants will be able to create their novels, officially. While waiting on the forums to be wiped, I decided I'd do a post on why you might should consider outlining your book.

But you're always complaining about outlining. You make it sound like a terrible idea!

That I do, dear reader. That I do.

Yes, on the list of things I complain about, "writing an outline" is probably at just about the same rank as "how much of a disservice the Les Miserables musical does to Cosette Fauchlevant's character".

Writing an outline is a pain. It's time consuming and irritating and overall I just hate it a lot. However, it's much better than the other option.

The Other Option

Allow me to tell you a short story.

Once upon a time, I start writing a book. I had (what I thought was) a complete plot, some (decently) strong characters, and a lot of inspiration.

So, I began to write.

I didn't write very consistently, but I averaged out to maybe 500 words a day at least three days a week. It was going (I thought) fairly well.

Then I realized something.

I was completely lost.

None of my plot points were lining up, none of my characters were where they needed to be, my pacing was shoddy at best, and that's only some of the problems.

When I heard about NaNoWriMo starting in November, I quickly wrapped up my efforts and ended up with a 30,000 word disaster of a story that I can't even go back and edit. 

It was a disaster.

However, it wasn't a total loss. That story taught me much about the process that goes into writing, outlining being an important step. It makes sure your book has at least some semblance of flow and consistency.

My goal in this post is to make a case for why all of you (yes, all of you) should at least consider the merits of using an outline to guide your novel writing this November, or whenever you actually write your book.

Here goes.

The Nature and Purpose of The Novel Outline

I'm a seventeen year old, which means I've been driving for a while. However, before I learned to drive, I payed absolutely no attention to where we were going in the car. Combining my complete cluelessness with my less-than-perfect sense of a direction means I get lost rather a lot.

However, I have an aid. My daddy gifted to me his old TomTomXL Global Positioning System. Most people now just use their iPhones, or they have a GPS built into the dashboard of their vehicle.

Everyone's familiar with a GPS. You plug in your destination and it will map a route for you to get there. If you make a wrong turn, it'll recalculate a new route. It is a truly lifesaving piece of technology that I imagine I would function very poorly without.

Hello darkness,
my old friend...

Your novel outline is basically the GPS for your book. Of course, you have to do the work yourself. You can't just plug in your beginning and the end and let the outline write itself, but hey, every illustration has its weakness.

Let's go back in time a bit, to the time of atlases. Ah, yes, the big yellow Rand McNally 2004 road trip atlas that mom and daddy would fuss over endlessly on those blessed family vacations. An outline is a lot like that. You choose your route and then you follow it.

An outline gives you the chance to get a bird's eye view of your plot, side plots, and character arcs. It gives you an overall look at what's going on in your book, without getting you bogged down in the details that so often consume us when we're first drafting. You get a nice little travel plan that you can change anytime, which really comes in handy during the editing stage. Is there a scene you don't like? Go change it in the outline. Then, when you're redrafting, you just rewrite it according to how your updated outline dictates.

Outlines keep your story interesting by giving you more direct control of the pacing of your book. Outlines keep you organized in writing, especially in the madness that is Nation Novel Writing Month. When you're out of inspiration and there's no caffeinated drinks to be had, it's much easier to be able to look at your outline and say, "Okay, here's what needs to happen in this scene," than to have to come up with something on the spot.

Overall, by outlining, you give yourself a better chance at actually finish your novel, and a better finished project. I know it's not for everyone, but I encourage you to at least give it a try.

Look for an upcoming post on the novel outline strategy I'm trying for this year's NaNo, and other posts as November the first draws ever nearer. Thanks for reading!

-Madison

Have you done an outline before? Does it work for you, or not? 

Scenes: The Bricks That Build

Well, everyone. Here we go again.

Setting out on yet another journey to yet another year of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Today officially starts the month of October, or for me, The Beginning of the Madness. Madness being NaNoWriMo prep month It's also the month where I promise that I will start blogging regularly, but we'll see how that goes.

Let's have a little of my history with this event. This October marks the end of my first full year as a WriMo, or NaNoer. I discovered it last year at about this time, and I believe my thoughts were, "what do I really have to lose."

I won NaNo 2014 with a final count of over 69,000 words, having reached the 50k goal a week before the end of the month. I also participated in April's Camp NaNo, reaching my goal of 40k words in the month.

All this to say, I've been fairly successful with NaNoWriMo, and I'm excited for another month of high word counts and high caffeine intake. 

However, first I must face the cantankerous beast that is the dreaded novel outline. Once upon a time, I was what they call a "panster" (derived from the age-old human art of 'flying by the seat of your pants'), but never again. Perhaps more on that in a later post. Anyway, ever since once disastrous attempt at "pantsing", I've been a die-hard plotter.

I've got my premise, I've got my characters, and I've got a lot of ways this story might go. However, as I sat down to my outline, I realized something.

I'd forgotten everything I knew about scenes.

So, here I sit, armed with a search engine, pen and paper, and my Broadway Spotify playlist. In this post, I hope to explain proper scene structure, while learning it myself.

Yes, let's!

What Is This "Scene" You Speak Of?

Before I began writing, I don't recall having a very good idea of what a scene even was, save from the 'scene selection' menu on DVDs. Now, I've got a better understanding of them.

Scenes are the individual occurrences in your novel.

If you have ever looked at a movie script, you'll see that it's divided into scenes. Let's look at the Original Trilogy Star Wars movies. Scenes there are very easy to pick out, because the transitions seem to be pulled straight from Windows Movie Maker.

Ah, yes. The wipe! A favorite, to be sure.

A scene is meant to give your protagonist something to overcome, to better develop a character, and generally bring your novel closer to the climax. It's a little step into getting the complete story you're after, a little hill on the way to the top of the mountain.

How To Write A Good One

I have to say, I'm a bit new to this. In my last rough drafts, I thought very little about individual scene structure, which means I have to think about it in subsequent drafts, which makes me sad. I decided it'd be better to give them a little more thought this time around.

So, I've been searching the world wide web for good ideas on how to construct a scene that actually works, and I've found a couple pretty interesting resources. However, I find the best way to learn something is to watch someone else do it.

We're going to analyze a scene from the Chronicles of Narnia and see how Lewis did it. The scene I have chosen is from Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the ninth chapter, The Island Of The Voices.

Lucy and the magician's book

If I were to outline this scene, here's sort of how it would look.

SCENE __

LOCATION: Island of the Magician

• The Dawn Treader sees the island in the distance and sails to it, landing there.
• It seems deserted, save the house in the distance.
• Lucy gets a rock in her shoe and has to stop to take it out.
• While stopped, she hears voices discussing trapping her friends.
• She waits for them to leave and then goes back to Caspian and the others, reporting what she has heard.
• The crew nears the house, but after hearing Lucy's story, makes the decision to go back to the ship.
• They know they will be stopped by the voices, since they are invisible.
• The voices surround them and threaten their lives if Lucy does not agree to go and undo the spell of invisibility they have cast on themselves.
• There is some disagreement among the Narnians over this, but in the end Lucy decides that she will go into the magician's home in the morning.
• The voices are pleased and invite the crew to supper, which is accepted.

Okay, so. If you break this scene down and look at the structure, it's much like novel structure, but on a smaller scale.

You've got

(1) Inciting incident. The story of this chapter really starts when Lucy gets a rock in her shoe and gets separated from the group. It happens early in the scene, to introduce us to the conflict.

(2) Conflict. If there is no conflict in your scene, it should not be in your book. Just like in your overall novel, your protagonist/focus character needs to have something to overcome. This will keep your story interesting, and prevent the dreaded sagging middle. In this scene, the conflict is between the Narnians and the voices (later revealed to be Dufflepuds, but we'll call them voices for now).

(3) Reaction. Your character(s) need(s) to react to the conflict or dilemma placed before them. Maybe the conflict in a chapter is that your brave hero has reached a very literal fork in the road and he does not know which way he should go. Perhaps your other characters are pressuring him one direction or the other. At the end of the scene, he needs to make his decision. In this example, Lucy decided that she should go and attempt to undo the spell. 

Then, the scene ends and we are given a new scene with a new inciting incident, new conflict, and new reaction. This is a loose pattern to follow, but it will give your rough draft structure and enough steam to keep your reader interested and excited all the way through.

Scenes can be rather tricky, but I find the best way to learn them is to analyze what other, successful authors have done and learn from their expertise.

I hope to be making another post soon as we all prep for NaNoWriMo, so keep an eye out!

-Madison

How do you plan your scenes? Any tips or techniques you use?

Welcome

Hello, all.
This is (obviously) the first post of my new blog, Running Hard For The Other Side.
For more information about this new venture, check the About page.

That's all for now, but I hope to be posting at least once every two weeks.
Thank you.

-Madison