The Techniques I Learn From Blognoveling
Another day and another 2,000 words have passed without much more morale on my part. I like what I wrote for Matthew Starwood's speech before the John Harper Society and it's very short and to the point so here it is as an excerpt:
'This is where the courage of those of our cause is called into question,' Starwood began. 'For decades we have endured such as this from the British. Control through legal and extralegal means. It is not enough for them to control the system, they must try to intimidate us as well. However, I need tell no one in this room that in all probability this attack had nothing to do with the cause in this room. As such, I expect no support from this organization except of the moral kind.'
'However compatriots,' he continued, 'there is reason to believe on reliable sources that it may very well have been some connection to extremist right-wing groups. I know some of you are sympathizers with their cause. Despite our differences in politics on the outside, we are all here united in one common goal. I thank Ian for the leeway to broach this ordinarily taboo subject. I do not ask those in this room who support these groups that I find reprehensible to reconsider their views – each man must make his own decisions and each man is accountable only to himself or a higher power for these views. However, there is something more at stake here as we all know. If it is in our power to bring the perpetrators to justice without any further involvement of the apparatus of power we should seize this opportunity. I implore anyone with connections to these groups to use this connections to get as much information leading to the arrest of the assailants.'
'With that I thank you and I yield the floor.'"
With those words and some more on the media coverage of the Starwood Campaign Headquarters Bombing (a major device in my story is the spectrum of four Detroit newspapers belonging to four of the five major parties and how they cover various events), I did get back some of my urge to write - not all of it, but some of it.
I hope people are enjoying the excepts and I apologize immensely for not posting the novel chapter by chapter as I go along. I feel I owe the people who actually want to read the novel an explanation. As I've stated before, I'm not one of those, "if I publish it as a blog, I can't publish it later."
Trust me, I'm at the point now where I know this novel is such a piece of crap that it's unpublishable anyway!
Right now, my writing inspiration is oscillating between just trying to get to 55,000 words or so (though this probably won't be enough to beat) and completing the story so I can blog it chapter-by-chapter.
I plan on doing so in December, taking one chapter a day and proof reading it (not editing it, mind you just proof reading it) and then posting it. So be patient the three or four readers that I have from last year. :)
But be warned, I'm not sure if I would want to read my own novel this year (and last year this wasn't the case) so I don't know if any one of you will want to finish it.
One thing that I have found positive and productive this year is using the "Prison Break Methodology." It's a term that I coined but I'm sure there's some official literary term for it.
Basically it refers to the fact that I'm writing without knowledge of the ending because I don't know if I'll get to tell the whole story so I'm making sure to drop little breadcrumbs that can be used later to make gingerbread houses (how's that for a mixed metaphor, should be find gingerbread houses based on the fable, right?) or they could just be bread crumbs.
I chose "Prison Break" the Monday night show on Fox (which, I think I've mentioned before, I love) because it's the best example of dropping subtle hints as scenery which may or may not be used later if the show is picked up. Though I understand "Lost" does an incredible job using the same sort of tool.
I swear that sometimes I get the impression with "Prison Break" that they add things as they go along - but always using things revealed in the past as asides - once they know there will be more episodes in the future. Perhaps when one views the entire season, they'll be able to catch how discombobulating it is but right now, episode by episode it just seems like "new revelations based on passing things."
The confirmed rumor is that the actors on the show only receive the scripts a couple of weeks in advance so they can't reveal any secrets. The rumor I want to spread is that the writers actually pen the scripts about a week ahead of that choosing to use what they want from past episodes. But it's not dropped storylines, per se, it's just random things that turn out to be meaningful in the end.
For example, the only thing that seems to be truly foreshadowed for the breakout was what Michael Scofield was wearing when he reported to prison. Sure he's got a lot of information in his tattoos but how much of it will actually be used (considering it appears they break out next episode). Right now it's just cool body art but the writers can use any of it to mean something.
In a way, a lot of the asides on history in my story are just cool body art. I like writing this part of the story immensely but some of it will be used later and some of it won't - though most gets used immediately so the reader will understand the chapter without the heavy handed tactic of having one character recite the history to another that doesn't have the same knowledge.
I hate that literary tool! It annoys me when I read it so I don't use it. I love Dan Brown but I want to punch him in the face when he has an archaeologist, historian, or whoever, explain to a layman or laywoman what a piece of art or architecture, or whatever means.
No, I'm just going to tell the reader straight out in the narrator voice why things are they way they are. If characters are all sharing a common history, what's the point of having them explain it to each other besides adding dialog words? Dialog is for conflict and character development not description.
The snakes, for example, started out as an aside on the bars on Woodward Avenue and have become a major part of the story. Had they not, it was just a cool lead-in to the Cane and Candle comparing and contrasting it to some of the seedier bars on Woodward.
One example of planting possible clues that might not turn out to be is the former kitchen in the Matthew Starwood Campaign Headquarters (it's a converted pizzaria). There's a gas pipe in there that used to lead to the ovens. Now I could use it to plant a police wire or it could just be part of the description of the room - I think it all depends on how the story is going. Either way the reader knows its there and I'm not just pulling things out of the air mid-story.
In the next few chapters, the credit card bill from the Boars Head Restaurant (where Liam took Mia and Emmie due to its secrecy) is going to arrive at the manor of Liam Hedley I (Liam's aristocrat father) outside of Birmingham, United Kingdom. I had no idea how Liam's father (who is mentioned quite a bit) actually gets involved in the story going in but a small thing like using a credit card to pay for a meal turned into a device to do so. What they ate (which by the way I didn't describe) is unimportant but had I described that I could use that too - if necessary.
The key is to not make these too obvious. They need to be blended in, much like the body art on Michael Scofield.
And this was a tool I picked up from blogging the novel. So anyone who refuses to blog, you're really missing out on that!
When you're blogging a novel, you can't go back and add things later to make the story make sense - people have already read that entry and they're never going back. It really does keep the rabbit trail tangents to a minimum since you can only use what you have in the past.
Well at least I know I'm renewed until 50,000 so now I'll go and write some more asides that could just be interesting prose (or terrible prose if it ends up like yesterday) or could mean something if the story is renewed to its full - I don't even know. Last year I estimated 75,000 and it ended up 95,000. So this could be a long run even after I start blogging it in December.
reliantfc3: 40,183 words
incendiarymind: 37,882 words
2004 NaNoWriMo: 37,913 words
2005 NaNoWriMo: 37,882 words
'This is where the courage of those of our cause is called into question,' Starwood began. 'For decades we have endured such as this from the British. Control through legal and extralegal means. It is not enough for them to control the system, they must try to intimidate us as well. However, I need tell no one in this room that in all probability this attack had nothing to do with the cause in this room. As such, I expect no support from this organization except of the moral kind.'
'However compatriots,' he continued, 'there is reason to believe on reliable sources that it may very well have been some connection to extremist right-wing groups. I know some of you are sympathizers with their cause. Despite our differences in politics on the outside, we are all here united in one common goal. I thank Ian for the leeway to broach this ordinarily taboo subject. I do not ask those in this room who support these groups that I find reprehensible to reconsider their views – each man must make his own decisions and each man is accountable only to himself or a higher power for these views. However, there is something more at stake here as we all know. If it is in our power to bring the perpetrators to justice without any further involvement of the apparatus of power we should seize this opportunity. I implore anyone with connections to these groups to use this connections to get as much information leading to the arrest of the assailants.'
'With that I thank you and I yield the floor.'"
With those words and some more on the media coverage of the Starwood Campaign Headquarters Bombing (a major device in my story is the spectrum of four Detroit newspapers belonging to four of the five major parties and how they cover various events), I did get back some of my urge to write - not all of it, but some of it.
|
I hope people are enjoying the excepts and I apologize immensely for not posting the novel chapter by chapter as I go along. I feel I owe the people who actually want to read the novel an explanation. As I've stated before, I'm not one of those, "if I publish it as a blog, I can't publish it later."
Trust me, I'm at the point now where I know this novel is such a piece of crap that it's unpublishable anyway!
Right now, my writing inspiration is oscillating between just trying to get to 55,000 words or so (though this probably won't be enough to beat
I plan on doing so in December, taking one chapter a day and proof reading it (not editing it, mind you just proof reading it) and then posting it. So be patient the three or four readers that I have from last year. :)
But be warned, I'm not sure if I would want to read my own novel this year (and last year this wasn't the case) so I don't know if any one of you will want to finish it.
One thing that I have found positive and productive this year is using the "Prison Break Methodology." It's a term that I coined but I'm sure there's some official literary term for it.
Basically it refers to the fact that I'm writing without knowledge of the ending because I don't know if I'll get to tell the whole story so I'm making sure to drop little breadcrumbs that can be used later to make gingerbread houses (how's that for a mixed metaphor, should be find gingerbread houses based on the fable, right?) or they could just be bread crumbs.
I chose "Prison Break" the Monday night show on Fox (which, I think I've mentioned before, I love) because it's the best example of dropping subtle hints as scenery which may or may not be used later if the show is picked up. Though I understand "Lost" does an incredible job using the same sort of tool.
I swear that sometimes I get the impression with "Prison Break" that they add things as they go along - but always using things revealed in the past as asides - once they know there will be more episodes in the future. Perhaps when one views the entire season, they'll be able to catch how discombobulating it is but right now, episode by episode it just seems like "new revelations based on passing things."
The confirmed rumor is that the actors on the show only receive the scripts a couple of weeks in advance so they can't reveal any secrets. The rumor I want to spread is that the writers actually pen the scripts about a week ahead of that choosing to use what they want from past episodes. But it's not dropped storylines, per se, it's just random things that turn out to be meaningful in the end.
For example, the only thing that seems to be truly foreshadowed for the breakout was what Michael Scofield was wearing when he reported to prison. Sure he's got a lot of information in his tattoos but how much of it will actually be used (considering it appears they break out next episode). Right now it's just cool body art but the writers can use any of it to mean something.
In a way, a lot of the asides on history in my story are just cool body art. I like writing this part of the story immensely but some of it will be used later and some of it won't - though most gets used immediately so the reader will understand the chapter without the heavy handed tactic of having one character recite the history to another that doesn't have the same knowledge.
I hate that literary tool! It annoys me when I read it so I don't use it. I love Dan Brown but I want to punch him in the face when he has an archaeologist, historian, or whoever, explain to a layman or laywoman what a piece of art or architecture, or whatever means.
No, I'm just going to tell the reader straight out in the narrator voice why things are they way they are. If characters are all sharing a common history, what's the point of having them explain it to each other besides adding dialog words? Dialog is for conflict and character development not description.
The snakes, for example, started out as an aside on the bars on Woodward Avenue and have become a major part of the story. Had they not, it was just a cool lead-in to the Cane and Candle comparing and contrasting it to some of the seedier bars on Woodward.
One example of planting possible clues that might not turn out to be is the former kitchen in the Matthew Starwood Campaign Headquarters (it's a converted pizzaria). There's a gas pipe in there that used to lead to the ovens. Now I could use it to plant a police wire or it could just be part of the description of the room - I think it all depends on how the story is going. Either way the reader knows its there and I'm not just pulling things out of the air mid-story.
In the next few chapters, the credit card bill from the Boars Head Restaurant (where Liam took Mia and Emmie due to its secrecy) is going to arrive at the manor of Liam Hedley I (Liam's aristocrat father) outside of Birmingham, United Kingdom. I had no idea how Liam's father (who is mentioned quite a bit) actually gets involved in the story going in but a small thing like using a credit card to pay for a meal turned into a device to do so. What they ate (which by the way I didn't describe) is unimportant but had I described that I could use that too - if necessary.
The key is to not make these too obvious. They need to be blended in, much like the body art on Michael Scofield.
And this was a tool I picked up from blogging the novel. So anyone who refuses to blog, you're really missing out on that!
When you're blogging a novel, you can't go back and add things later to make the story make sense - people have already read that entry and they're never going back. It really does keep the rabbit trail tangents to a minimum since you can only use what you have in the past.
Well at least I know I'm renewed until 50,000 so now I'll go and write some more asides that could just be interesting prose (or terrible prose if it ends up like yesterday) or could mean something if the story is renewed to its full - I don't even know. Last year I estimated 75,000 and it ended up 95,000. So this could be a long run even after I start blogging it in December.
reliantfc3: 40,183 words
incendiarymind: 37,882 words
2004 NaNoWriMo: 37,913 words
2005 NaNoWriMo: 37,882 words
posted by incendiarymind at 8:07 AM
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