by Charlene Teglia | Oct 22, 2005 | Uncategorized
I wrote up a proposal yesterday, which meant developing a complete story idea to the point that I could sit down and write the entire thing without getting hung up or lost. It crossed my mind that this is what those getting ready for National Novel Writing Month might need help with, so here’s how I put together my idea.
The request for proposal came with a theme, so I was already halfway there. I’m a theme writer. The theme was one I could relate to, one that fired my imagination. If you’re having trouble getting started, try on a few themes and see if one grabs you. But if you never can identify your theme until the story is finished, or not even then, that’s okay too. Everybody works differently.
Next, I needed my characters and my basic situation. The characters came very easily, and the basic situation unfolded out of who they were and where they were and the time of year the story is set in. These two things actually represent multiple parts, so I’ll try to break that down. My story is an erotic romance, so the characters had to have traits that made them right for each other. Their discovery of these traits as the story unfolds is what makes the romance believable. And since it’s an erotic romance, the erotic element has to be built into the characters and the basic situation, not spackled on. Through the erotic aspect, these traits will be unfolded and revealed to the lovers.
The basic situation has built in internal and external conflict; opposing forces that have to be resolved. This is the plot.
So there are the pieces: theme, setting, characters, plot. It’s not necessary to know every detail about a story before writing it, but it’s good to have some idea what will happen, how the characters will get from A to Z. If you can imagine the key scenes along the way, you have your plot outline. For some reason with this story I have a pretty complete plot outline, which is rare for me. Often I only have the basic situation defined and how it’ll be resolved is a mystery. Probably I have such a firm grip on this plot because it’s not a full-length novel. If you’re plunging into NaNoWriMo, don’t be dismayed if you don’t have a detailed plot outline. If you know who your characters are (or at least have some idea of what their driving characteristics are) and a basic situation in mind that puts them into conflict, the plot will naturally unfold as the result of the characters’ actions.
There’s still plenty of time to prepare for Nov. 1, so if you want to try to write a novel in a month and don’t know where to start, start with these basic building blocks, add your imagination, and you can develop a solid story idea.
by Charlene Teglia | Oct 21, 2005 | Uncategorized
Lately I’ve had many, many days when the two small people didn’t nap at the same time, leaving me no workable chunk of time during the day. I’m able to keep up with all the writing-related business with one eye on a child and regular interruptions, but the focus I need to write new pages? Um. I need at least a little time when I’m free to concentrate. The best time I can count on regularly, then, is the time after they go to bed.
This is hard because I’m not at my most productive at night, I’m tired at the end of the day, and the last thing I want to do is sit down and produce the concentrated energy required for new pages. But it is my best opportunity, so I’m in the process of training myself to use it. (The popular “try and get up before your family” idea assumes that the mere act of mom getting up will not get everybody else up. I’ve tried it, and the minute I stand up everybody’s awake with me. Doesn’t work.)
I’ve trained myself to work in small segments of time, I’ve trained myself to consistently write a page in 10 minutes without having to reread the entire manuscript up to that point, and I’m confident that I can train myself to do this, too. But just like those things took practise and a little time to get used to before I could do it steadily and consistently and easily, I’m prepared for this change to take a little time to get used to, too. I figure it’ll take me a week before it starts to feel at all comfortable.
While I’m doing this, I’m using the same method I used to train myself to write fast and to write in small segments of time. That method is to write whatever is on the top of my head, not fiction. Once I have the mechanics firmly established (writing freely and easily at night after children go to bed) it’s very easy to change WHAT I write. I expect it may take a week before I start writing actual fiction manuscript pages in this time block, but once I get myself trained to produce at that time, I bet I’m going to wonder why I didn’t do it sooner.
If you’re training yourself in preparation for NaNoWriMo, you might test out this technique. Instead of trying to write fiction, first train yourself to do the mechanics of writing fast, freely and easily, writing whatever comes into your head until you get the mechanics down. Then when you’ve got the words flowing fast and easily, start in on your novel.
by Charlene Teglia | Oct 20, 2005 | Uncategorized
I think I can actually take the sprouts out for a walk today. Yesterday we were all too weak and sniffly, but today I think we’re up to it. It’s great to live in a place where we have sunshine and beautiful weather nearly every day of the year, and we take advantage of it to do something outside pretty much daily.
It’s good for creativity, too. Get moving and it gets your brain moving. Suddenly ideas start to spark, dialog flows, a plot piece falls into place. If you’re stuck on a story, I recommend unsticking your body. See if the brain doesn’t follow!
I can work on Wolf today. Hurrah! I so desperately want to get this beast finished and gone. I feel tons better than I did yesterday, so I can at least make some headway.
by Charlene Teglia | Oct 19, 2005 | Uncategorized
Somehow in the move everybody got sick and now we’re a houseful of Crabby Appletons. This is a term invented by SARK. You can see the pictures she drew in her book, Change Your Life Without Getting Out Of Bed. Hilarious pictures. Just thinking about them now restores my sense of humor. It’s hard to stay a Crabby Appleton when you picture the cartoon caricature of a crab apple in human form, and getting your sense of humor back is the first step to getting over Crabby Appletonitis. Since I do not want to be a crabby cartoon, I’m not going to try to work today. I’m going to rest and get over this.
by Charlene Teglia | Oct 18, 2005 | Uncategorized
A huge thank you to my husband who entered in all the site updates this morning. I think everything is now up to date and consistent. And there’s a new excerpt for Love Spell, the infamous restaurant scene. On the EC site because it’s a 6 author anthology there wasn’t room for a very long excerpt. But this is the excerpt that makes everybody say “WOW”, so it’s the one I wanted on my site.
I have a WOW scene for Wolf, too. *wink* Hopefully I’ll have that under coming soon, um, soon. I’m going to shoot the dang manuscript with a silver bullet if it isn’t off my desk and on somebody else’s by the end of this week. I’m rapidly approaching the point where if it can be better or if there are mistakes to fix, somebody else is going to have to point that out. I may launch it to Suz more in a spirit of desperation than celebration, but hey, whatever gets it out the door.
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