I've been researching a possible non-fiction project. Here's the process so far:
1. A loooong period of brainstorming, and bouncing various ideas off friends. Scratch that--not ideas, but questions. Which questions were my friends and acquaintances interested in? Which ones made their eyes light up?
2. Lots of note-taking sessions on non-fiction books (Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell was a huge help) and documentaries (16 and Pregnant on MTV is my personal fav) to guide me in terms of structure.
3. Mini eureka moment! An article in the newspaper connected with all the thinking I'd been doing. My thoughts coalesced into an actual thesis I wanted to study more--and one which could be easily translated into a solid structure.
4. Went online and searched for local resources about the topic--there were tons, but I got cold feet. Hit the books instead...of which my library had exactly two.
5. Working through the books at the moment, taking notes upon notes and feeling very much like I'm in Soc. 101. But is this the best way to research?
6. ?!
Damn, I know I need to talk to people in order to get real answers...but I also need a certain amount of background research in order to know which questions to ask.
Showing posts with label collaboration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label collaboration. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Max Beta
A beta-reader got back to me about my story last night. There were certain things I was really nervous about--one plot issue, a political correctness problem, a slow pace at the beginning. He didn't talk to me about any of them.
Beta-Reader's List of Biggest Weaknesses:
MAIN CHARACTER IS UNLIKEABLE:
That weakness really crushed me, because I have a tendency to create unlikeable characters. I don't know why other people find them cold or nasty or self-interested--*I* love them! And it gets difficult hearing that other people hate "somebody" that you love.
The character's mother is dying, which I thought might garner some sympathy. Apparently not enough....so I also had her do something kind in the beginning. I also had her come to someone's aid at the climax. And for her to consider how her actions effected others, near the end.
HOW DOES THIS STORY CHANGE *HER*:
At the climax originally, Supporting Character X was in danger--but got lucky.
At the climax in the next rewrite, Supporting Character X was in danger--and had a horrible thing happen.
In the CURRENT draft, Supporting Character X is in danger--and when Main Character tries to save him, disaster strikes HER. I'm much happier with this version because:
1. it shows Main Character's agency--and agency is vital to creating a compelling character
2. the plot now makes more logical sense--there's now a reason for her particular injury and her next period of growth as a character. It clears up the story's theme.
3. This is *HER* story, goddamnit--why should Supporting Character X get all the glory?
THE AUTHOR FLINCHED:
Sometimes, such as during the above climax, I'd give the before and after, but hide my eyes during the middle. It's a tendency of mine--and I think pretty common--to shy away from showing the really horrible or gut-wrenching part of a scene, for the same reasons we'd avoid seeing or experiencing those things in real life. BUT space = importance to a reader. If something is meant to be the heart of the book, it should be given plenty of attention. Which means the author's flinching confuses the reader's understanding of the story. I went back and worked some more on that... though it's difficult for me to find the line between graphic, extraneous violence and necessary detail.
There were a couple areas where it seemed, on the other hand, that I was providing too much detail. Sadly, there weren't enough of those; this story is 12,500 words and still growing. At this point, I wonder if I should work to expand it to novel-length.
On the one hand, it feels like a complete story. On the other, there are tons of places I feel I could improve the story by expanding. Right now, I need to knock it down to under 12K (at the least), but after I send it out as a (short--ha!) story, I think I will expand those parts.
In the meantime, I'm going to send it to him again and see how he feels about the character's arc now. I also want to make sure all the supporting characters have arcs of their own, and that the whole thing is pretty (and about 500 words shorter). Otherwise, I think I'm done!!!!!
Beta-Reader's List of Biggest Weaknesses:
MAIN CHARACTER IS UNLIKEABLE:
That weakness really crushed me, because I have a tendency to create unlikeable characters. I don't know why other people find them cold or nasty or self-interested--*I* love them! And it gets difficult hearing that other people hate "somebody" that you love.
The character's mother is dying, which I thought might garner some sympathy. Apparently not enough....so I also had her do something kind in the beginning. I also had her come to someone's aid at the climax. And for her to consider how her actions effected others, near the end.
HOW DOES THIS STORY CHANGE *HER*:
At the climax originally, Supporting Character X was in danger--but got lucky.
At the climax in the next rewrite, Supporting Character X was in danger--and had a horrible thing happen.
In the CURRENT draft, Supporting Character X is in danger--and when Main Character tries to save him, disaster strikes HER. I'm much happier with this version because:
1. it shows Main Character's agency--and agency is vital to creating a compelling character
2. the plot now makes more logical sense--there's now a reason for her particular injury and her next period of growth as a character. It clears up the story's theme.
3. This is *HER* story, goddamnit--why should Supporting Character X get all the glory?
THE AUTHOR FLINCHED:
Sometimes, such as during the above climax, I'd give the before and after, but hide my eyes during the middle. It's a tendency of mine--and I think pretty common--to shy away from showing the really horrible or gut-wrenching part of a scene, for the same reasons we'd avoid seeing or experiencing those things in real life. BUT space = importance to a reader. If something is meant to be the heart of the book, it should be given plenty of attention. Which means the author's flinching confuses the reader's understanding of the story. I went back and worked some more on that... though it's difficult for me to find the line between graphic, extraneous violence and necessary detail.
There were a couple areas where it seemed, on the other hand, that I was providing too much detail. Sadly, there weren't enough of those; this story is 12,500 words and still growing. At this point, I wonder if I should work to expand it to novel-length.
On the one hand, it feels like a complete story. On the other, there are tons of places I feel I could improve the story by expanding. Right now, I need to knock it down to under 12K (at the least), but after I send it out as a (short--ha!) story, I think I will expand those parts.
In the meantime, I'm going to send it to him again and see how he feels about the character's arc now. I also want to make sure all the supporting characters have arcs of their own, and that the whole thing is pretty (and about 500 words shorter). Otherwise, I think I'm done!!!!!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
just another brick in the adobe
The last couple days have been packed with procrastination, and I'm sick of how that feels. Today is NaNo catch-up day.
I'm fine in terms of the official word count, but I'd planned to write 2.5K each day for the month, in order to get an entire draft done. Since my drafts seem to be better when composed in condensed time-frames, I figured NaNo would be the perfect opportunity to get a long-held and long-loved idea (finally) down on paper.
NaNo's upsides:
--It's easy to explain a group project like this even to people not especially into writing. And since lots of lay-people are doing it, it doesn't seem impossible or silly for me to try, too--even to people who otherwise forget I write.
--Lots of support. I never thought the forums would help me as much as they have. Hearing about other "nobodies" working to stack up high word-counts and struggling with the day to day drafting process has been great. And the counter at the top of my page--even joining the site at all--has given me a sense of accountability.
NaNo's downsides:
--Because the support and fellowship of NaNo are what brought me to it in the first place, I feel tied to the NaNo timetable; meaning, this is a November project, and it doesn't matter that this November is an incredibly stressful time for me.
--I don't know if such a speedy draft is best for this particular project. On the one hand, speed seems to work well for my writing in general--or at least, it has in the past. On the other, this level of speed doesn't allow for a "perfect" first draft..which, in a project like this, that I've already outlined and thought about, seems a shame. I wonder if a slower first-go might result in a better finished project? Maybe I've outgrown the need to silence my inner-editor by burying her under a mountain of words? Maybe I'd be better off letting her speak a bit during my drafting?
I'm not sure if keeping to my old NaNo inspired style of speed drafting is a way of refining my process or of crippling it....
I'm fine in terms of the official word count, but I'd planned to write 2.5K each day for the month, in order to get an entire draft done. Since my drafts seem to be better when composed in condensed time-frames, I figured NaNo would be the perfect opportunity to get a long-held and long-loved idea (finally) down on paper.
NaNo's upsides:
--It's easy to explain a group project like this even to people not especially into writing. And since lots of lay-people are doing it, it doesn't seem impossible or silly for me to try, too--even to people who otherwise forget I write.
--Lots of support. I never thought the forums would help me as much as they have. Hearing about other "nobodies" working to stack up high word-counts and struggling with the day to day drafting process has been great. And the counter at the top of my page--even joining the site at all--has given me a sense of accountability.
NaNo's downsides:
--Because the support and fellowship of NaNo are what brought me to it in the first place, I feel tied to the NaNo timetable; meaning, this is a November project, and it doesn't matter that this November is an incredibly stressful time for me.
--I don't know if such a speedy draft is best for this particular project. On the one hand, speed seems to work well for my writing in general--or at least, it has in the past. On the other, this level of speed doesn't allow for a "perfect" first draft..which, in a project like this, that I've already outlined and thought about, seems a shame. I wonder if a slower first-go might result in a better finished project? Maybe I've outgrown the need to silence my inner-editor by burying her under a mountain of words? Maybe I'd be better off letting her speak a bit during my drafting?
I'm not sure if keeping to my old NaNo inspired style of speed drafting is a way of refining my process or of crippling it....
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Steppin Up
Yesterday, my collaborator and I made our version of a step-sheet.
We started out with a long walk in which we argued about pacing (Me: FAST! BIG! Her: SLOW! UNDERSTATED!), and character (Me: specific motivation! Her: theme!)
Talked about the few scenes we'd discussed previously and wrote one-sentence summaries for each, which we put on note-cards and taped to a foam-core board.
Looked at them and tried to put them into a three-act structure. Found out we were writing a detective story.
I said: don't detective stories follow five-act structure? And, as a tv writer wanna-be, five act is actually sort of my thing.
We brainstormed for a while, and made a lot of random cards and finally (FINALLY!) found a solid, interesting, specific motivation for our main character. He came to life!
I went back to an old plotline we'd liked, and a five-act version of it sprung out of my mind. It worked!
We re-configered the cards on the board so they were in five acts.
Act by act, we talked about what happened to the main character. At the end of each act, he had to make a decision.
In my head, and a book on mystery writing (I *think* it's based on the act structure in You Can Write a Mystery by Gillian Roberts, but if not--someone please correct me?) the five-act structure for mysteries is:
1. Problem/Decision
2. Easy solution--FAILS!
3. Discover *real* problem
4. Figure out how to solve it
5. Solve it! (or not)
We went through all five acts, and got extremely happy with our main character's journey/the A-story. YAY!
We went back through each act and planted clues that would later be important, or added scenes with characters that had slipped out of sight for a time (for instance, the love interest is kept from the hero for the length of an act, and we'd almost lost sight of her. Likewise, one character is important at the end, so we had to show him for a bit at the beginning).
I wrote it all down in a word document, and we had a forty-scene, five-act stepsheet.
Wow, a whole movie officially plotted, and it only took five hours.
The plan now is: we each have three scenes from the first act (the entirety of the first act, put together) that we're writing today. Tonight we'll put them together and see how they look. Talk about how we felt the first act went, and if we have any changes we want to make to the second and third acts before we assign and write them. At the end of the third act, I have the feeling we'll have a major plotting session again to hammer out every little detail of the fourth and fifth acts, which are bound to change in the drafting process. Then we'll write the rest, and celebrate that we'll have a FULL DRAFT OF A FABULOUS SCREENPLAY!
So, it was a hard, exhausting, but definitely productive day. My favorite kind.
We started out with a long walk in which we argued about pacing (Me: FAST! BIG! Her: SLOW! UNDERSTATED!), and character (Me: specific motivation! Her: theme!)
Talked about the few scenes we'd discussed previously and wrote one-sentence summaries for each, which we put on note-cards and taped to a foam-core board.
Looked at them and tried to put them into a three-act structure. Found out we were writing a detective story.
I said: don't detective stories follow five-act structure? And, as a tv writer wanna-be, five act is actually sort of my thing.
We brainstormed for a while, and made a lot of random cards and finally (FINALLY!) found a solid, interesting, specific motivation for our main character. He came to life!
I went back to an old plotline we'd liked, and a five-act version of it sprung out of my mind. It worked!
We re-configered the cards on the board so they were in five acts.
Act by act, we talked about what happened to the main character. At the end of each act, he had to make a decision.
In my head, and a book on mystery writing (I *think* it's based on the act structure in You Can Write a Mystery by Gillian Roberts, but if not--someone please correct me?) the five-act structure for mysteries is:
1. Problem/Decision
2. Easy solution--FAILS!
3. Discover *real* problem
4. Figure out how to solve it
5. Solve it! (or not)
We went through all five acts, and got extremely happy with our main character's journey/the A-story. YAY!
We went back through each act and planted clues that would later be important, or added scenes with characters that had slipped out of sight for a time (for instance, the love interest is kept from the hero for the length of an act, and we'd almost lost sight of her. Likewise, one character is important at the end, so we had to show him for a bit at the beginning).
I wrote it all down in a word document, and we had a forty-scene, five-act stepsheet.
Wow, a whole movie officially plotted, and it only took five hours.
The plan now is: we each have three scenes from the first act (the entirety of the first act, put together) that we're writing today. Tonight we'll put them together and see how they look. Talk about how we felt the first act went, and if we have any changes we want to make to the second and third acts before we assign and write them. At the end of the third act, I have the feeling we'll have a major plotting session again to hammer out every little detail of the fourth and fifth acts, which are bound to change in the drafting process. Then we'll write the rest, and celebrate that we'll have a FULL DRAFT OF A FABULOUS SCREENPLAY!
So, it was a hard, exhausting, but definitely productive day. My favorite kind.
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