The Joy of a good Idea

Umm... I fell behind again in the A-Z. Woops. Another combined post for I and J.

We writers need ideas. Well, I guess we don't, we could write about nothing, but it probably wouldn't be very fun, or JOYFUL (there you go J, you've had your say).

I've got a fair few writer friends, and one thing that I know for sure is that every writer's method, from conception to completion, is different. Some people get their ideas from dreams, others from experiences, observations or brilliant flashes of inspiration. A lot of people swear standing in the shower or doing the dishes works a treat.

My ideas seem to come from ... nowhere. I don't have a flash of inspiration and sit down to write that one idea, I just write. I have no knowledge of my world, characters, plot, conflict or anything before I start. The words come and the story, the IDEA, grows. And with the act of spilling an idea out on the page, before I even know what it is, comes joy.

How do you get your ideas? Have you ever written before the idea is formed? Or do you take inspiration from the outside world?

In the beginning...

Back in March I did some very unscientific research on first pages, which you can see here:
        A very unscientific look at first pages (with charts!) - part one
        A very unscientific look at first pages - part two

I decided a successful first page needs the magic three: Character, Setting and Intrigue. Of those three it seemed Intrigue was the most important. I didn't look beyond the first page in my very unscientific study, but it was a start.

Now, as I revise, I realise how much work my beginning really needs. Not just the first page - the whole beginning. I've already rewritten it from scratch once. Apparently once is not enough. My beginning is still in need of a lot of work. A lot of 'rewrite from scratch again' type work. The question is, where?

Where does my story start?

Something I've discovered, which is going to sound completely obvious to all of you, is that to answer this question you need to know what your story is. Since Blood Legacy was written with no planning whatsoever, I'm still learning about my story. My characters are always telling me I got it wrong, and my list of things to do in revisions gets longer and longer. For now I'm trying to put a big black line through 'get the beginning right'.

There's a lot of advice out there on how to answer the question on beginnings. The most helpful advice I've seen is start at the point of change.

Don't start with action for action's sake. Don't start with conflict for conflict's sake. Same with character. Same with setting. Avoid back story like the plague (also cliches). Start with change.

What changes in your story that triggers the snowball effect in the rest of the plot? What is the inciting incident? This doesn't have to be a huge event. Explosions aren't necessary. It could be very subtle, but it is the moment your story starts.

Think about it like this: your story, the story you want to tell, is only a small part of a much larger story. Your characters and world existed (in the land of make-believe -- let's not get too carried away) long before the events of your story began and long after it ends. Your characters had lives. Your world had history. But you're not telling the story of previous historical events, or how your characters came to be where they are now. You're telling the story of where they're going.

If the story before is a wide river flowing along a straight path, then your beginning is the the event that diverts that river -- the moment of change -- and the story you tell is the rapids and waterfalls and constricting gorges the river has to flow through before it can return to a new calm path.

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder, starts with the main character Yelena being taken from a cell where she's spent the last year, to what she believes is her execution. She's then given a choice -- die or become the Commander's new poison taster.

The story doesn't start with what she did to get into the cell. It doesn't start with the events leading to her taking such an action. It starts with the moment of change. The reason the rest of the story happens. Up until that point her path was leading to death, and it was diverted with a choice. What happens after ... well I'll let you read it to find out.

Not all stories have the moment of change so soon, but the best ones often start as close to that point as possible. Anything else is set-up. Anything else can lose a reader.


Do you find beginnings difficult? Do you know when your story starts, or are you still trying to figure that out, like me? Do you agree with starting with the point of change, or do you have another take on beginnings?

I'm a make-believer

I love this song. I'm not sure what Timo Maas was thinking about when he wrote this, but to me, it's about being a writer.

I'm a make-believer.

I don't just think up strange new worlds and characters and stories when I'm writing; I'm also a daydreamer. When I daydream, I see the world in my head, like a scene from a movie. There's no awkward dialogue, no gushy character descriptions, no ME intruding in the story. Perhaps this is my muse at her best.

When I write, I don't see the scene in my mind's eye, I just write. I'm not visualising the way a scene gets played out, that step seems to get missed between the process of thinking about what I will write and actually writing it. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm missing a critical step.

I know I'm becoming a better writer with practise. If I wasn't I would be worried. But my writing is still not as fluid as a daydream. I think the time it takes me to get a scene down is hindering the flow, and I've begun to wonder if I just took a step back, paused before I began typing, and tried to visualise the scene as a whole, see it before writing it, maybe it would be a better scene.

I'm revising a scene at the moment which has given me a few problems. My main character has just entered a strange world with an even stranger companion and she has a lot of questions. I want those questions to come out in a logical order without the answers sounding like info-dump, and my characters staying true to themselves. I've started trying to visualise this scene.

So far I've struggled to get the whole way through (it becomes a long scene in my head!) but it's helping me to know my characters better, and to know what they each would say in this situation. Once I've get that, I'll write it, and hopefully the disconnect between brain and fingers will be cured, and I'll have a smoother, more realistic scene.

Do you see your scenes when you write them? Or do you just write? And please tell me I'm not the only daydreamer around here! :)

In which I start a Sekrit Projekt, and Welcome!

First off, I wanted to say hello and welcome to all my new followers. It's so good to have you here. I know many of you have popped over from the crusade or from the dojo and I'm looking forward to crusading and kicking writing butt with you all.

In other news, I have started writing a Sekrit Projekt. In the past I've been a one project at a time kinda girl, but lately I've been trying out all sorts of new techniques to see how they work for me, and this is one of them. It's a YA paranormal (yes with vamps, the non sparkly kind) and so far I'm loving writing it.

As you know, I'm working on developing a writing habit, and since my other WIP is now in the revision stages I wanted something else to get daily words on. So far so good.

For those of you joining me with building a writing habit, how's it going? What goals and triggers did you set for yourself, and are you managing to stick to them?

PS. I made a little 'Writing Habit' button for the blog. If you're doing it with me, feel free to grab it.

Make writing your habitual fix

Writers write because we love it. That may be a slight generalisation, but it applies to most of the writers I know. We love our characters, we love our worlds, we love our stories*. But sometimes writing can start to feel like a chore. I'm not sure how this happens, and I know that every day that I don't write, I think about the fact that I haven't written a lot.

I hear a lot of writers say (and I know exactly how they feel) that getting themselves to write is the hardest part. Once you've made yourself sit at the computer, gotten rid of all the distractions like Twitter and Facebook and (squee!) new blogfollowers and comments, and finally gotten around to opening your story, it becomes easy**. The words flow.

The big hurdle for many writers is not getting the words, but making themselves sit and write the words in the first place.

I no longer want to feel guilty about skipping a day of writing. I want it to be easy to sit down and get past all the distractions and WRITE! And I never, ever, want it to take three years, or even more than a year to write a first draft again. I want writing to be my first priority of the day (other than, you know, the things that keep me alive).

So, I've decided to give myself a writing habit.

habit (from Dictionary.com)
–noun
1. an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary: the habit of looking both ways before crossing the street.

I want writing to be so ingrained in my daily routine that I start getting jumpy if I don't get my fix. Ok, that could be taking it a bit far, but you know what I mean.

I've designed myself a writing habit building schedule, to help me become a daily writer for life:

   1.  Commit to thirty days of writing at least 500 words in a row on fiction. No skipping days. No complicated goals. Just get the words. Habits take repetition over time to build. Thirty days is generally accepted as the point when you can stop thinking too hard about the action, but it isn't the end. It's a good start.

Instead of focusing on cultivating self-discipline, introduce rituals similar to brushing your teeth. Incremental change is better than ambitious failure. Success feeds off of itself.

-Tal Ben-Shahar, Happier

   2.  Make it a ritual. Do the writing first thing in the day. Don't do anything else until I've reached the 500 words. No blogging, no checking emails, no reading other blogs, no Twitter. Nothing else till I've got my words (other than making coffee - this is essential). This step doubles as a reward, because then I've got the other things to look forward to once I've finished.

   3.  If my self discipline really isn't doing it for me (it hasn't got the best track record), remove temptation. Since for me, the biggest blocker for writing is the interwebs, that means switching off the modem at the wall (which means no more Thesausus.com while I write - hope it doesn't come to that).

   4.  Write it down and put it somewhere I can see it. This is what I made for myself to stick right in front of me on the wall. Feel free to use it too if you want.

   5.  Have a buddy. I think, at least for those of us writers who also blog and tweet, we writers like to share experiences. Writing itself is such a solitary thing that we reach out to other writers to see how they're doing. If anyone would like to join me on my attempt to create a writing habit, please do!

There you have it, five steps that are hopefully going to ensure I never have a problem with writing motivation again.

Do you think you could benefit from creating a writing habit? Do you have problems motivating yourself to write? Why don't you join in?

* Although love can surprisingly easily turn to hate sometimes

** Unless they're suffering from writer's block

We interrupt this programme to bring you a totally awesome announcement...

I FINISHED my first draft!!

Since giving myself a kick up the bum on Friday I've written 9,700 words exactly (weird, huh?)

The finished first draft stands at 85,439 words.

It's taken me a LONG TIME to get this far (I've lost track).

There's still sooo far to go. Not just REVISIONS (which I'm kinda excited about), but also another book. This one was only the first of two. Still another 80k words approx to go on this story. I'm not sure how I'm feeling about that exactly.

So yes, just had to share. Yay, Celebration!!

What do you have to celebrate? Come celebrate it with me (generally celebrations are best when they're done with others).

Crumbling the walls of writer's block

I've written a few posts recently about making writing goals, how I wanted to get a certain number of words per day and have my WIP finished by a certain date. I had such great intentions, but in the end intention =/= action.

I've been struggling with months and months (and months) of writer's block. It got the point where I forgot what was going on in my story and had to go back and review my words. This took a lot longer than expected, because I found myself editing along the way (I know, not recommended), and getting distracted from it all together. This has all culminated with me getting very fed up with myself.

So, without further ado, here are my tips for kicking writer's block to the curb, and taking some of my own advice:

• Shut down the webs. Twitter - closed. Facebook - logged out. Blogger - gone. The only web thing I leave open is my trusty Thesaurus.com (I love that page).
• Give myself permission to freak out for a moment about the fact that I don't know what the hell is going on with my story, then shut that down too.
• Try something new. This is where I completely strayed from my traditional writing process, which makes me think I'm not as much of a Pantster as I thought. The tools I used were: pretty pens, notebook, note cards, computer. Here's what I did, written in handy dandy instructional form:
1. Start with the notebook. Ask a question. Any question. If the 'what happens next' question is blocking you right now, ask something else. Anything to get the ideas flowing and the Muse warmed up. I keep a list of plot holes I need to resolve and started with one of those.
2. If you're finding that the answer to one question leads to another, and then another, then you're doing it right. When your writing brain is feeling limbered up, try asking the 'what happens next' question. If it's still blocking you, maybe ask it in a different way, like 'what happens as a consequence of character X doing action A?'



Not too imaginitive, right? It's ok, it doesn't need to be amazing, as long as it gets answers.

3. Once you've got an idea of what happens next, grab the note cards and pretty pens. Sit yourself on the floor (more space to work that way) and start writing out ideas for scenes. Don't worry about order, just write them. Once you have them, then put them in order. When I did this, it turned out I only had four major scenes to go until the end of the WIP. Woop!
4. Start writing! I ended up getting 4,371 words the day I did this.
• Keep writing every day. Create a writing habit (will post about this later in the week, otherwise this would be a mammoth post).
• Learn from others. I didn't come up with these ideas by myself. This is an accumulation of all the wonderful writing resources I've seen on the webs (check the Writing & Publishing Goodness links to the right). If you found this process helpful, I would definitely recommend checking out Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways. I haven't even finished the course yet, and already I've gotten so much out of it. Also, she's adding new content in March, and the price of the course will be going up after March the 11th, so if you're interested, check it out now. If you're on the fence, Holly has heaps of free writing courses and articles on her website to check out first. What are you waiting for? Go forth and explore!

And that is all. I now have around 10k words left to go, and all that time I was stalled not realising how close I was to finishing.

What about you, do you ever suffer from writer's block? How do you go about beating it? What are your favourite writing resources? We'd love to hear about them.

I am a ninja

Yesterday I gave myself a major kick up the bum and wrote 4,371 words on my WIP. It was fantastic, like breaking down the walls of writer's block that has been holding me back for such a long time. I'll blog about how I did it next week, in case anyone else is struggling with the same issue and needs some inspiration.

I have around 15k words to go, so my revised goal is to have the first draft finished by the end of February at the latest. Having the end in sight is such a good feeling. Even though it's not really the end. The current WIP is only the first in two books so I still have another whole novel length MS to go on this story.

To help me stick to this goal, I've signed up for Ali Cross's Ninja Novel Writing Month of February. For those who want to do nanowrimo but wish it didn't have to be in November.

Is anyone keen on joining us? What are you waiting for? Go forth and sign up. Also, you can get one of these super cute ninja buttons =>

The Writing Process: Idea to Plot

As I mentioned in my previous post, today is the What's Your Writing Process Blogfest day, hosted by Shallee McArthur. Check out the link to see a stack of great posts about other writers' metaphorical tools when it comes to getting a story on the page. You just might find something that can help.

Today I wanted to talk about how an Extreme Pantster goes from getting an idea to developing it into a plot. Now, if you know anything about being a pantster, you're probably going to tell me that putting 'pantster' and 'plot' in the same sentence is a contradiction. Well yes.. this is true, to a certain degree. But let me explain.

Let's start with The Idea. Writers have various methods of coming up with The Idea. Taking inspiration from everyday life, brainstorming, their own past. None of these work for me, or at least, very rarely. To get an idea I first have to start writing it. Sounds kinda backward and counterintuitive huh? Yep, sounds that way to me too. But it's the only way that woks for my muse.

In case you're wondering what I actually mean by that, well, it is how it sounds. I sit down, no clue of what I'm going to write, and start putting words to paper (or tapping them out on the computer) and I start writing the start of my story. After a page or two I start getting an understanding of The Idea. For example (an in-class demonstration =P):

The back of Makenna's hand stung, like shards of glass jabbing into her skin. She rubbed at it, trying to ignore the pain, and the tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. She'd been in trouble one too many times this week, and she wasn't about to get kicked out of class again. The thing is, while she could feel it digging into her skin and bones, she knew if she looked there would be nothing there. Only her pale skin and long spidery fingers. Mr Fredrickson would accuse her of causing a commotion and send her to the principal, or worse, the school councilor. 

       So she would wait till class was out, and then hurry to the bathroom to run some cold water over the phantom wound. All the while trying to ignore the creepy stares the new kid kept giving her. It was hard not to notice the fact the pain had started when he turned up.

This is how my stories start, I had no idea what I was going to write just now (and yes I came up with this while I was writing this blog post so please forgive the crappiness) but as I wrote it the more I knew what had to come next, and what was happening to the character, and even why it was happening. The Idea is forming. (And now I actually kinda wanna write this story).

So now that we have The Idea, we need a plot (and characters, conflict, setting and all that other good stuff, but let's save that for another day). Again there are so many ways to plot a story: scene cards, story arcs, computer programs, etc, etc. They're all good ways, and they all work for someone.

My plotting method grows organically from my idea cultivating method. I keep writing. Once I've written that first paragraph, or page, or whatever it takes, I start seeing things that I want to happen in the story. Scenes I want to write. Characters I want to meet. I never have a fully fleshed out plot, but I tend to have a few scenes I know in advance which I'm really excited about. The rest comes as the idea did: by writing and discovering.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? Not always, sometimes I get stuck, have a bout of writer's block (I hate writer's block). At these times I try out some of the tried and true methods of the more organised writers out there. I try to think about where my story is going. Have conversations with my characters. Ask questions. Usually I can get past the block and keep going. Sometimes... it takes awhile.

There are definitely pitfalls to being a pantster. You can be writing in a certain direction for a long time before you realise you've gone completely off course. And it can take a lot of effort (and cut words) to straighten out the story again. But I find that, for me (at least for now), this is what works. Maybe one day I'll realise that it doesn't work as well as I thought it did, and have to force myself further along Pantster-Plotter spectrum. But for now, I'm happy where I sit.

What about you, how do you come up with your Idea? How do you mould it into Plot?