In June, everyone asks teachers, "So what are you doing this summer?" My friends know me well enough to be more specific. They usually ask, "So where are you traveling this summer?" and "What projects are you doing this summer?" and "What are you writing this summer?"
I knew I'd be traveling to Wisconsin, Leech Lake, Winona, Montana, and NYC. I also knew that my house was getting reshingled. Done, done, done, done, done, and done.
But my writing plan was this:
1. Write every day.
2. Finish the first draft.
3. Read the draft end to end to find gaps.
4. Fill gaps.
5. Read the draft end to end while revising, checking specifically for POV focus and style consistency.
6. Send query letters to agents.
Yeah, the writing plan was a fail. Not an epic fail, as I wrote a lot and know where I'm going with the story. But I didn't write every day or finish the draft.
And so, a change of plan.
It turns out that this novel wants to be part of a larger story. That story starts about six months before my characters show up at Castle Aco. It also might continue after the events of Castle Aco, about five months later. It wants to be a trilogy.
The good news: Publishers (and readers) seem to like series.
The bad news: Most series are told chronologically. That means I have to finish this story and write the previous one before I share or pitch it. Unless readers would be willing to read out-of-order. I kind of like that idea. But it's unconventional.
More bad news: Readers prefer series that are told. They no longer seem to have the patience to wait for the final installment. Consider the Game of Thrones and Kingkiller Chronicles series. Comments toward Martin and Rothfuss can get nasty.
Let's call the summer of 2016 successful, as I did make progress. But I need to make new goals.
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Friday, August 26, 2016
Professor Sorkin, Part 2
I loved Aaron Sorkin's Master Class.
But Ann, that's a class for screenwriters.
Yes, it is.
Let me tell you a story.
In movies, there seems to be a cliche of the English teacher who really wanted to be a novelist and decided to teach as a day job or a back up plan. That isn't me. I've never been a person who wanted to write "The Great American Novel." I became a teacher for more intentional reasons, reasons that this blogpost need not delve into, but none of them were remotely "back-up plan" related. Teaching was, and continues to be, "the plan."
I chose specifically to teach ENGLISH for one main reason. To be a good teacher (who doesn't get bored after the first year), I needed to teach something I was passionate about, and I love stories. I love to consume them, in any form.*
It turns out that teaching Language Arts means teaching the creation of stories as well as their consumption, and so I've been teaching writing since day one of my career. Over the years I modeled good writing techniques for students, which means I wrote sentences, paragraphs, scenes...
When I decided to try writing more than that, just for fun, I couldn't. Not a single sentence I wrote rang true. I was daunted by great literature from amazing writers and didn't know how to write like them. The worst part was writing description. Prose narration was torture. All my words seemed dumb.
And so I turned to screenplay.
I read a few books on how to set up a film plot and format a screenplay. It was perfect. No description. Just set up the scene with a log line (as succinct as possible), figure out the main thing that had to happen in the next few minutes, and let the characters talk to each other. Or force them to.
I wrote a silly romantic comedy. It was a modern version of "The Snow Queen" that would fit right in during Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas. It was a fun challenge, and although the script is embarrassingly hokey, I'm glad I wrote it. Being forced to limit description, focus on characters' immediate goals, and structure an overarching plot is great training for an aspiring novelist. Because I wrote a screenplay, I got past my prose roadblock.
So now, in the throes of novel number four, I am circling back to screenplay. Listening to Sorkin describe the essentials of a scene has been inspiring. I made great progress a few weeks ago. But then I hit another roadblock. Okay, I admit, I took a trip to NYC and reveled in Lin Manuel Miranda's Hamilton.
I lost a week to the trip and can't seem to get back into writing now that I'm home. Doesn't help that I have snatches of songs from all the musicals we saw running through my head all day long...
Back to the Masterclass.
Before the NYC trip, I had paused at Lesson 11: Writing Habits. I expected Sorkin to say he woke up at the exact same time every day, worked out, and wrote for 3-4 hours. I've heard many writers with this logical and steady schedule. Instead, he talked about taking months and months to think about his ideas. Then, when he starts writing, the words flow. If the words don't flow, if progress is slow and painful, he's not ready to write yet. He thinks more. Sometimes while driving around.
THAT'S ME!
He perfectly described how I started L&L a year and a half ago, how I traveled to England last summer to see castles first hand, how I read dozens of books on medieval culture for ideas, and how I have and continue to come up with so many lightbulb ideas while driving. Most important, he affirmed that if the words aren't coming, the ideas aren't ready.
Okay, so I'm rationalizing. But mostly, I feel relieved.
* Except Twitter. It's too Memento for me.
But Ann, that's a class for screenwriters.
Yes, it is.
Let me tell you a story.
In movies, there seems to be a cliche of the English teacher who really wanted to be a novelist and decided to teach as a day job or a back up plan. That isn't me. I've never been a person who wanted to write "The Great American Novel." I became a teacher for more intentional reasons, reasons that this blogpost need not delve into, but none of them were remotely "back-up plan" related. Teaching was, and continues to be, "the plan."
I chose specifically to teach ENGLISH for one main reason. To be a good teacher (who doesn't get bored after the first year), I needed to teach something I was passionate about, and I love stories. I love to consume them, in any form.*
It turns out that teaching Language Arts means teaching the creation of stories as well as their consumption, and so I've been teaching writing since day one of my career. Over the years I modeled good writing techniques for students, which means I wrote sentences, paragraphs, scenes...
When I decided to try writing more than that, just for fun, I couldn't. Not a single sentence I wrote rang true. I was daunted by great literature from amazing writers and didn't know how to write like them. The worst part was writing description. Prose narration was torture. All my words seemed dumb.
And so I turned to screenplay.
I read a few books on how to set up a film plot and format a screenplay. It was perfect. No description. Just set up the scene with a log line (as succinct as possible), figure out the main thing that had to happen in the next few minutes, and let the characters talk to each other. Or force them to.
I wrote a silly romantic comedy. It was a modern version of "The Snow Queen" that would fit right in during Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas. It was a fun challenge, and although the script is embarrassingly hokey, I'm glad I wrote it. Being forced to limit description, focus on characters' immediate goals, and structure an overarching plot is great training for an aspiring novelist. Because I wrote a screenplay, I got past my prose roadblock.
So now, in the throes of novel number four, I am circling back to screenplay. Listening to Sorkin describe the essentials of a scene has been inspiring. I made great progress a few weeks ago. But then I hit another roadblock. Okay, I admit, I took a trip to NYC and reveled in Lin Manuel Miranda's Hamilton.
I lost a week to the trip and can't seem to get back into writing now that I'm home. Doesn't help that I have snatches of songs from all the musicals we saw running through my head all day long...
Back to the Masterclass.
Before the NYC trip, I had paused at Lesson 11: Writing Habits. I expected Sorkin to say he woke up at the exact same time every day, worked out, and wrote for 3-4 hours. I've heard many writers with this logical and steady schedule. Instead, he talked about taking months and months to think about his ideas. Then, when he starts writing, the words flow. If the words don't flow, if progress is slow and painful, he's not ready to write yet. He thinks more. Sometimes while driving around.
THAT'S ME!
He perfectly described how I started L&L a year and a half ago, how I traveled to England last summer to see castles first hand, how I read dozens of books on medieval culture for ideas, and how I have and continue to come up with so many lightbulb ideas while driving. Most important, he affirmed that if the words aren't coming, the ideas aren't ready.
Okay, so I'm rationalizing. But mostly, I feel relieved.
* Except Twitter. It's too Memento for me.
Monday, August 22, 2016
Professor Sorkin, Part 1
So this showed up on Facebook a few weeks ago...
I had literally just typed the words "Sorkin is a writing genius" in this blog.
And I was struggling with motivation as I transitioned to Act 3 of Lio and Lamb.
The ad seemed fortuitous.
After consulting the board (i.e. running the idea of taking Sorkin's class past my mother), I decided to sign up.
I'm so glad that I did. It's like a light turned on in my head as I listened to the first few lessons. Was he sharing anything that I didn't know? Not really. Did I need to hear it? Yes.
So the foundation of Sorkin's approach is to focus each scene on intention and obstacle. What does the character want? What stands in his or her way? Duh. Aha!
It's like someone has pointed out that the sky is blue. Duh. And then you start to really look at the sky, and you see all the vibrant and varied shades of blue. Aha!
Now those two questions are forefront in my mind. I've been watching television and movies differently. I've been reading novels differently. And I've approached the composition of each new scene/chapter in Lio and Lamb differently.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Chapter Titles Overview
Because I'm using shifting third person limited POV in my new novel, I've just been titling each chapter with the name of the respective chapter's central character.
My intention was to alternate chapters between the perspectives of the main characters (Lio or Lamb) and various minor characters who have some sort of direct contact with one or both of the twins. I work better with restrictions, so this has been a useful challenge. As a bonus, it has forced me to bring the "bad guys" into contact with the "heroes" more often, leading to more conflict and danger.
Meanwhile...
I realized a short while ago that a few key plot points needed to be more clear early on. I also needed to introduce a location that would be important later and dramatize a moment that would be referenced later. Rather than adding to previously written chapters, which have decent pace, I decided to insert a few new chapters.
The question was where to fit them in.
To find my answer, I made a list of the chapters so far.
It's an interesting list. I'm not quite sure what to make of it.
Here are a few thoughts:
* I have 76 chapters. Wow. I mean, they are short (on purpose), but that seems like a lot. And I'm only 2/3 done with the draft.
* I initially wrote only Lio's part of the story. Let's call it Act 1. Then I created Lamb's story for the same time period and wove them together with respect to the plot's timeline. Because of this, I often have two minor character chapters in a row or Lio and Lamb chapters back to back. I had no idea this was happening. I don't dislike it, and I don't intend to change any of it until I've had the chance to read the full draft. Overall, this is the biggest surprise of the overview.
* The back and forth evens out a bit when Lio and Lamb are physically together in Act 2, probably because I wrote those chapters in order.
* I've been stuck for a few weeks as I try to work out the plot of Act 3. Looking at the chapters from a distance helped me realize that because I'm separating the characters, I should write an entire plot line (i.e. all of Lio's scenes first, all of Lamb's scenes second) and weave them together afterwards. It worked before. It can work again. Writer's block demolished. Well, lessened.
* There are three distinct series of chapters where either Lio or Lamb "disappears." Two of them are intentional. The other may present an opportunity. We'll see.
My intention was to alternate chapters between the perspectives of the main characters (Lio or Lamb) and various minor characters who have some sort of direct contact with one or both of the twins. I work better with restrictions, so this has been a useful challenge. As a bonus, it has forced me to bring the "bad guys" into contact with the "heroes" more often, leading to more conflict and danger.
Meanwhile...
I realized a short while ago that a few key plot points needed to be more clear early on. I also needed to introduce a location that would be important later and dramatize a moment that would be referenced later. Rather than adding to previously written chapters, which have decent pace, I decided to insert a few new chapters.
The question was where to fit them in.
To find my answer, I made a list of the chapters so far.
It's an interesting list. I'm not quite sure what to make of it.
Here are a few thoughts:
* I have 76 chapters. Wow. I mean, they are short (on purpose), but that seems like a lot. And I'm only 2/3 done with the draft.
* I initially wrote only Lio's part of the story. Let's call it Act 1. Then I created Lamb's story for the same time period and wove them together with respect to the plot's timeline. Because of this, I often have two minor character chapters in a row or Lio and Lamb chapters back to back. I had no idea this was happening. I don't dislike it, and I don't intend to change any of it until I've had the chance to read the full draft. Overall, this is the biggest surprise of the overview.
* The back and forth evens out a bit when Lio and Lamb are physically together in Act 2, probably because I wrote those chapters in order.
* I've been stuck for a few weeks as I try to work out the plot of Act 3. Looking at the chapters from a distance helped me realize that because I'm separating the characters, I should write an entire plot line (i.e. all of Lio's scenes first, all of Lamb's scenes second) and weave them together afterwards. It worked before. It can work again. Writer's block demolished. Well, lessened.
* There are three distinct series of chapters where either Lio or Lamb "disappears." Two of them are intentional. The other may present an opportunity. We'll see.
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