On Being "Done"

Hello, Blogosphere. I haven't posted for a little while because I've been in the Editing Cave. For the past week I've shunned friend seeing, job hunting and movie going to finalize my last round of edits for Torn (aka Novel#2). Blogging is not allowed in the Editing Cave: only chocolate, coffee, and Bon Iver. I'm pretty pleased to be able to say that, after two years of planning, writing and rewriting, I'm finally "done" with a story I love.*

In celebration, I'm hoping to do a few posts on my writing and editing process this week to share some of the things I've learned along the way. But first I want to leave you with a series of pictures that inspired me while I worked on Torn and helped me shape it.

Source: google.com via Kate on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Kate on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Kate on Pinterest

Source: tumblr.com via Kate on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Kate on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Kate on Pinterest

Source: nowthatsnifty.blogspot.com via Kate on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Kate on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Kate on Pinterest

*except for some expert final proofreads from Mom, who is better than any editor I know at picking up funky grammar errors.

Backstory (and why it matters)

I've just read my fabulous crit partner Ryan's post on the importance of backstory - I've thought about backstory so much this week that I'm hitching a ride on the back of her thought process.

If novel #2 (otherwise known as Torn) has taught me anything, it's that there are so many things you need to know about your characters in order to bring them to life. I'm not just talking looks, ticks, and speech patterns; I have to know about the whole span of their lives in order to understand their motivations. So much of their background hasn't made it to the surface of my story. But every piece of knowledge, evident or not, has helped me to stay true to my characters' voices. There's nothing quite as fun as discovering something new about your story just when you thought you had it all figured out.

Things I learned about my three main characters this week:

1. One likes foreign films, but he's a terrible reader.
2. One can't dance.
3. One has a violent aversion to socks.
4. The one thing they all have in common: life-changing experiences with dead bodies.

And then there are the backstories of my support characters - these are the ones who are giving me trouble. I'm finding it difficult to flesh them out without letting their voices take over the narrative. A teacher of mine, Kim Wilkins, once said this about supporting characters: you never want it to feel like they 'go back in a box when they're off the main stage. So how do you make sure minor characters aren't coming off as cardboard cutouts? Here are some of my findings:

- Every SC should have a defining role to play in the main characters' lives. What is their specific function and place? My character Dalton was pretty flat until I realized that he's my MC's secret keeper; he's the one she feels most comfortable sharing with.

- When SCs are becoming cliche, give them some interesting contradictions. They're phobic about germs but refuse to wear socks outside. Or whatever. Contradictions are what make people unique.

- Don't just give SCs traits; give them relationships with their traits.

- Spend time crafting the MCs' relationship with their SCs. It's often through the main characters' descriptions and feelings towards their supporting cast that readers really get to know them.  

How To Plot Your Novel (H&S-style)

When I write stories, I don't often know how they end. Or how they middle, for that matter. All I have are specific scenes or characters, and everything I write sort of flows out of those. This method is not one that leads to stunningly-paced and coherent plot lines. My characters do weird things (sometimes twice) that don't make sense in the grander scheme of things. There are weird holes that I can't seem to figure out how to fill. But novels can be such big, unwieldy things. They make it hard to step back and see them simply and honestly. Enter the Health & Safety Spreadsheet.

My Manfriend helped me trial a new kind of plotting procedure. It's what he uses when doing an incident report in which he has to piece together what went wrong in a sequence of events. I'm not going to lie, I was skeptical. It sounded businesslike and un-fun. But I was told there would be colorful Post-its. And there were lots!

The green ones were for major plot details. The blue ones were for important emotions going on in the scene. The pink ones were for incidental happenings that couldn't be classified as 'major events'. I really can't tell you how helpful this process was. I'm pretty visual, so seeing my story laid out in its entirety let me see what was happening too soon, what wasn't happening at all, and what plot points needed strengthening. It helped me realize that some of my scenes were in there because... well, they were pretty. But they weren't serving a function, so off those Post-its came.

I'll definitely be using the Incident Report method again. Just add a bottle of red wine and you've got yourself a pretty fun little party.

Novel #2: Done!

We crazy creatives all have our rituals for when we reach a pivotal moment. In Stephen King's Misery, the writer's thing was Dom Perignon and a Cuban cigar. For me, it was champagne and brownies.

The pivotal moment being: I finally finished Novel #2! Which means I can stop calling it that and start calling it by its actual name: Torn.

I started Torn early in 2010. It's seen me through some rocky times, and has been a constant source of solace. It is my first book in which I tackled multiple viewpoints, which was challenging, but very fun. Of course, it's not really done. I've got a LOT of editing to do before I can do anything with it. But, 86,500 words later, I'm still in love with my characters and I still believe in what I've written. It's stuffed full of shape shifting, blood spilling, good looking people brooding, and a whole lot of public nudity.

And that, in my opinion, is worth some very decadent baked goods.

Mom and I used to make 'midnight brownies', an oh-so-bad-for-you mother/daughter bonding ritual that marked many a teenaged night. And, since I was celebrating, here, I decided to go for Peanut Butter Brownies.

And they were worth every thigh-jiggling bite.

Novel #2

2010 was the year of many things for me. One of those things was Novel #2 (which, technically, I started at the very end of 2009). I'm feeling a little frustrated with myself because #2 (also called Torn) is taking sooo muuuuch loooonger to finish than I thought it would. But that's not to say I'm not excited about it. I'm really excited about it. I love my characters and my setting a lot, and I'll be excited when I can share it with whoever I can convince to read it over for me.

It's just that I'm feeling a little embarrassed. After finishing Novel #1, I thought I'd learned so much about plot and character arcs and streamlining. That I learned what I'd need to do to make sure I didn't end up with a lumpy, patchwork first draft when I gave this whole novel-writing thing another go. But I can see, without even having finished it, how much work I'm going to have to do to get Novel #2 where I want it to be. But I'm beginning to think that maybe this is my process: write madly, stop and pace and plan, write madly, then copy/paste/partially rewrite my merry way to a story I'm truly proud of. Maybe I'm not the kind of writer who ends up with a first draft that doesn't need to be half shredded. Maybe that's okay.

After more than a (very tumultuous) year, I've got about 20,000 words left to go. So, for the purposes of inspiration, I thought I'd Wordle the 50 most-used words in my manuscript.

Here's to finishing my draft by June!