]]> I’m about to confess to a horrible crime (at least in some people’s minds), but first let me say I’m doing a bit of a Dance of Joy because while driving to pick up bird and wildlife food, the theme of my NaNoWriMo project finally came to me today .

For me, theme is like my destination in a cross-country trip. If I don’t know my theme, I don’t know where I’m going. Now I know some of you are saying, “Carolyn, you ignorant slug! (to paraphrase SNL) You’re climax is where you’re going.”

Sure, my climax is my ultimate destination, but if I don’t know my theme, I don’t know my route. I don’t know How I’m going to get to my climax because I don’t know Why I’m taking this trip.

I’ve been to the Grand Canyon several times, alone and with different people. The Grand Canyon is the destination, but how we get there depends upon the reason for going. Is it a must-see stop on the way to a tech conference in Vegas? Or is it the first vacation getaway in 5 years? In the first situation, I’m plotting the fastest, shortest route that leaves as much of my limited time as possible to explore the Grand Canyon before heading on to the conference. In the second event, I’ve got time to meander through some of the other great side trips in the area.

Some folks like to make a beeline to the destination, others like to meander and explore options. I’ve tried both methods of novel plot development — and failed

I’ve come to realize after 3 NaNoWriMo efforts and several other novels-in-progress that if I don’t know my theme, I tend to get lost in the plot and wind up at a dead end. Or worse, I force the plot and wind up fighting dead characters until I accept that no Code Blue plot shock will revive them.

Which brings me to the other thing I need in my novel writing journey — character motivation. Character motivation is my guide to all the sights and side trips I will take.

Don’t you hate it when a character does something totally out of character just to advance the plot? If I’m not clear on my theme, my characters seem to mumble, “But, like, what’s my motivation in this scene?” The dialogue and action may be fine, but it just lies there with all the appeal of a celebutant’s acting debut.

Without understanding my theme, my character development is just a bunch of quirks and tricks that aren’t convincing. Depp’s Capt. Jack Sparrow worked perfectly in the first Pirates of the Caribbean because his character motivation was entirely clear — he’s wants his ship, the Black Pearl, back! But he’s not a total blackguard, so he tries to get it back without cold-bloodedly killing everyone who got in his way. Compare this to Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh character in No Country for Old Men. Both Sparrow and Chigurh are motivated by a single-minded pursuit of their goal, but the character development is entirely different because the theme of each story is entirely different.

My character development and motivation comes from knowing my theme.

Here’s Where I Confess My Crime

While conservative participants consider it a NaNoWriMo crime (if not a mortal sin) to write anything before November 1st, I’ve got about 16,000 words of dialogue & first draft on some scenes that I’ve been using to get a handle on my character development and plot. This year I’ve come to realize that I do this pre-NaNoWriMo writing to uncover the true theme to my story so I can establish stronger character development and motivation and build a stronger plot based on how each character will act — and react — in various situations.

Will I be using these 16,000 words when I start my NaNoWriMo project on Nov. 1?

Parts of it will definitely be worked into the project, especially some of the dialogue. Some folks can simply think about their NaNoWriMo project and work everything out in their heads. Others can talk it out with friends or family. I envy them. I, however, work it out on the page.

But I’m also determined to have the complete first draft of my novel done which will be more than 50,000 words and I know that I’ll be re-writing from scratch on Nov. 1. This time, however, I’ll know my destination, my fully-developed characters and their motivations and well-structured plot development because I know my purpose.

Throughout November, I will be posting how things are going, and I’ll be sharing some resources, exercises and tools I’m trying out this year.

The first one I’ve used is my Traditional Plot Development Storyboard which can be downloaded here.

I’d also like to bring your attention to a Kickstarter project that sounds like a wonderful investment for writers facing Writer’s Block here. 

Good-luck everyone!

And if you find any of this useful (or entertaining), please Comment below, Like it, Tweet it, share it — especially the downloads.

I’d tried The Dead Father by Bartheleme, but found it at the wrong time and had never tried Donald Bartheleme again. [...]]]>

Try writing Flash Fiction vignettes from different viewpoints and moments in the character's life

Writer and teach Margot Case offered a brilliant workshop at he Richard Hugo House Write-O-Rama workshop entitled Ordinary People. We read excerpts from “Robert Kennedy Saved from Drowning” by Donald Bartheleme, Sixty Stories.

I’d tried The Dead Father by Bartheleme, but found it at the wrong time and had never tried Donald Bartheleme again. What a mistake! I’m hot footing it to the book store to find more of his short stories.

Essentially, “Robert Kennedy Saved from Drowning” is written as a series of vignettes supposedly from Robert Kennedy’s life by various people’s viewpoints. It’s similar to a collection of Flash Fiction.

What happens when we put these disjointed things out there and let the reader’s mind create the meaning and the organization. “The instants are points which organize themselves into a line, but what is important is the instant, not the line.” The story presents the concept of “surprising” the reader by capturing the moment creatively.

Not only does it surprise the reader, but it gave me interesting ideas on creating characterization by viewing my characters through the eyes of others.

Exercise: Snapshots of a Character

Create  a series of vignettes, moments or Flash Fiction pieces about a single character; basically snapshots from moments in a person’s life from different perspectives. A exercise in exploring characterization that would be great for non-fiction as well as fiction writers.

For the first part of the exercise, we made a list of the times we really see people:

– offering a last bite
– in the voting booth
– @ church/temple
– watching CNN/the news/football
– home for the holidays
– unexpected generosity/kindness
– in conversation with mother
– with telemarketers
– new introduction
– on safari/tracking
– treating the cashier
– company picnic
– crying child
– fixing things/ broken things
– when someone asks for forgiveness
– reacting to something broken
– lost while driving
–reaction to success
– asking forgiveness
– eating
– performing
– stuck in traffic/driving
– response to someone’s misfortune
– being lost
– walking into the water at the ocean
– moments when they don’t know they are being observed
– what others might say

Part 2 of the exercise

Next we selected one of the photos of people scattered around the table and wrote our own Flash Fiction snapshots.

This was an interesting exercise and I think very useful to any writer wanting to find a fresh way to portray a character. Alas, the guys in the workshop were so predictable. The first one wrote about hookers and doing drugs with Putin. The second guy talked about  Daniel Craig “screwing” his girlfriend and  later his wife. The 3rd man did a long piece about a black singer sensuously caressing guitar. Thank goodness none of them broke out the cigars!

Here’s my efforts working with a black and white photo of an intelligent looking woman looking outside the frame as if paused in her rush to somewhere, something else:

An Unplanned Conference in the Hall
She gets stopped in the hall by a a group of co-workers. There’s a problem. Nothing major, but they can’t decide what to do. She stares at them intently. She understands the entire situation in 2 sentences, 5 seconds. Her face is still but you can tell she’s impatient. She knows the answer and is just waiting for the rest of them to catch up. One of the men finally, tentatively suggests the right solution. He surreptiously glances towards her. She says, “Yes. That’s right.” Then she walks on.

*****

Her Aunt’s Observations
“Oh, she was always good at school, but she got into trouble a lot because she was too impatient. She wasn’t very pretty when she was young. All angles and gawky and kind of klutzy. They all knew her in the emergency room because she was always getting stitched up or dislocated her shoulder or broke a bone. And when you’d ask her what happened, she’d be all wide-eyed with surprise and say she was walking along thinking about something and just fell into a ditch, or drove her bike into a parking meter or some such nonsense. And when you asked her what she was thinking she’d say something like she was thinking about some show she saw about the Conquistadors or wondering why Arthur didn’t just give Lancelot a quest that would take him fair away from Quinevere for several years and crazy things like that. It’s just too bad she doesn’t dress up more and do a little something with her hair. She could be really attractive if she just made a little effort.

*******
Ordering Coffee
“A decaf venti, triple shot, hazlenut, low-fat latte. Please.” She pauses. “And this CD. Thank you.” She pays and puts $1 and the change in the tip jar.
###

I’m definitely putting this in my writing arsenal. And giving Batheleme another go.

I did, however, get to work tangentially on writing. A friend asked me to be a beta reader on the first draft of her first novel. She’s [...]]]> The plan was to spend January completing the first draft of a memoir and then going back to work on the NaNoWriMo novel revisions. That was the plan.

I did, however, get to work tangentially on writing. A friend asked me to be a beta reader on the first draft of her first novel. She’s published some short things but this was her first complete, 90K word novel. I was honored.

Unfortunately, it’s in a genre I don’t often read outside of a small, narrow group of authors. So this required some research. I firmly believe that you have review things in context. Each genre or category has certain unique needs beyond the basics of good writing. Seriously, would you complain that “King Lear” didn’t have enough jokes? Or that there wasn’t enough romance in Carrie?

So in the course of a couple of weeks I re-read a half dozen titles that were successful financially and/or I considered some of the best of the genre as well as alternating between skimming and scanning about a dozen that were typical. I even plowed through as much as I could stand of the book that had sent me fleeing the fantasy aisle many years ago. (It didn’t get better with age — its or mine.)

I spent the better part of an hour randomly opening paperbacks from the rack at the grocery store. After the first six, I was about to write to my friend apologizing that I was totally unsuited to critique her book because I simply could not read more than a few paragraphs of the standard titles in her genre, when I picked up one last title, opened it at random — and found a delightful bit of good writing. I’m at the library right now, where I found the first of the author’s titles to check out and try. (Sorry, but unless a title or author is recommended by someone I completely trust or has multiple reviews that make it compelling, I always try new authors via the library first. This way I can keep affording to buy new releases, including hard copies, by the good authors.)

The point of all of this, is that I’ve spent the better part of the two months reading as a writer instead of a reader. When I read like a writer, I focus on things like the structure of the plot, how the characterization is handled, the development of tone and style. There are many times I’ve read something as a reader, completely lost in the story and characters, swept along by the pros; and then, I read the story again, this time as a writer noting how the author managed to capture me.

Some writers can write a plot that’s intrigues so completely, I ignore the less than perfect prose (My “potato chip” reads are mysteries). Others create characters that are such lively, fascinating companions, I myopically overlook plot holes — unless I fall in one. Then there are writers who voices are so witty and charming, I’m completely seduced. Often awaking to find a note on my beside table and my wallet emptied. And finally, there are the writers whose prose is so beautiful and graceful, I feel as if my own efforts resemble the first steps of a gawky teenager amongst the corps de ballet.

Periodically, when I feel I need a refresher course in how to read as a writer, I pull out my copy of Francine Prose’s Reading Like A Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want To Write Them. While Ms. Prose (Isn’t that a wonderful name for a writer? I wonder if it’s too late to have mine legally changed?) targets the future M.F.A. candidate and completely eschews anything so plebian as “genre” authors, she does teach me how to read, both my own work and others, critically. And by “critically,” I mean objectively with a discerning eye and ear.

Here’s how she opens her book:

Can creative writing be taught?
…I answer by recalling my own valuable experience, not as a teacher but as a student in one of the few fiction workshops I took… Its generous teacher showed me, among other things, how to line edit my work. For any writer, the ability to look at a sentence and see what’s superfluous, what can be altered, revised, expanded, and, especially, cut, is essential. It’s satisfying to see that sentence shrink, snap into place, and ultimately emerge in a more polished form: clear, economical and sharp.

Here’s an example from her chapter on “Narration”:

… this device enabled me to overcome one of the obstacles confronting the novice writer. This hurdle disguises itself as the question of voice and of who is telling the story (should the narrator be first or third person, close or omniscient?) when in fact the truly problematic question is: Who is listening? On what occasion is the story being told, and why? Is the protagonist projecting this heartfelt confession out into the ozone, and, if so, what is the proper tone to assume when the ozone is one’s audience?

I had always assumed that I was alone in having discerned that the identity of the listener was a more vexing problem than the voice of the storyteller until I heard a writer say that what enabled him to write a novel from the point of view of a rather complicated middle-aged woman was by pretending that she was telling her story to close male friend, and that he, the writer, was that friend.

Ms. Prose goes on to examine and dissect successful examples of narration ranging from Wuthering Heights to Anna Karenina, from Philip Carver to Isabel Walker to Mark Twain to Diane Johnson (Le Divorce, a book alas I didn’t finish because I was simply in the wrong mood. My mood is something else I have to keep in mind when critiquing my own or someone else’s work). I got more out of one trip through Reading Like A Writer than I did from an entire semester of writing class. If nothing else, I learned how a master writes a compound, complex sentence.

After a couple of months of reading like a writer, I’m ready to start writing for myself again. I’m encouraged by how badly some published authors write, humbled by how well some do and greatly inspired by the realization that I can improve my own initial drafts by applying some firm, disciplined manuscript critique.

To the keyboards! Tally Ho!