tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69673085920642408612024-03-13T12:17:31.005-07:00brian's blog: Diary of a WriterWriting & Publishing FictionBrian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.comBlogger349125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-67256817603104795942024-03-12T19:41:00.000-07:002024-03-12T19:41:22.513-07:00The Absolute Best Way To Fail At Writing A Novel<p> </p><h3 style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: "Roboto Slab", serif; font-size: inherit !important; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; white-space: break-spaces;"><strong style="font-size: inherit !important;">THE ABSOLUTE BEST WAY TO FAIL AT WRITING A NOVEL</strong></h3><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Let me begin with the #1MOST MOST EFFECTIVE WAY YOU CAN USE TO FAIL AT WRITING YOUR NOVEL. There are other important ones. This is #1 though. Others will only hamper you from completing your novel unless there are too many of them, in which case they will sink you faster than a tsunami. It’s like fighting pygmies. Sure, you can probably take on one or two, but you get a dozen of the little buggers attacking you and you’re dead meat. So a lot of bad habits will, I have to say, make it difficult for you to be successful.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">However, for now, we’ll focus on the number 1 way to fail at writing a novel. What is it? First, a few examples of someone using this method to fail effectively: Say you are a would-be writer. You’re at a party. You have a job, but it’s not something you’re excited about. What you’re excited about is writing. You confess, more than once, that you’ve always wanted to write a novel. But there’s a problem. Things keep getting in the way. You don’t have time. Not enough hours in a day, weeks in a year, that sort of thing. Some people you say this to are sympathetic. Some are understanding. Maybe one or two give you judgey looks, but that’s just one or two.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">At first.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">You go on to tell the people at this party that the distractions are too numerous. Your fantasy football teams, your Facebook page, your house cleaning, your trips, your new passion for cooking, your old passion for surfing the net, your Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, subscriptions, your friends, your enemies. Who has time to write?</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Not you.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Then there is the more sympathetic case. You work 50 hours a week at a taxing job; you have a family, a spouse, kids, parents. You are tired when you get home from work and just want to veg out in front of the TV. There really is no time. You certainly have good reasons not to write. That’s pretty much all that can be said to someone in this position. It’s really not your fault. You have to really want to write to use the tiny amount of free time you have on writing. So that’s what it comes down to. If you really want to write, then you will need to use that tiny amount of free time to write. If you do, you will make progress. It will be slow, but slow still gets you there, eventually. Nothing gets you nowhere.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">The number one way to fail at writing a novel is not to write. Sometimes we overlook the obvious. If you want to fail at writing, don’t write. If you want to give yourself a chance, you know what you have to do.</p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-88400148326386239562024-02-14T09:57:00.000-08:002024-02-15T08:51:56.822-08:00WRITERS, Knowing When Something Is Wrong Actually Means You're Doing Something Right<p> </p><h3 style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: "Roboto Slab", serif; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; white-space: break-spaces;">Knowing When Something Is Wrong Actually Means You’re Doing Something Right</h3><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">We all want our writing to be great and we all think at one time or another it is. We’re positive it’s destined for the bestseller list or a literary award and a call from movie people wanting to turn it into a blockbuster film after paying us a small fortune for the opportunity.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Alas, if it’s a first draft and if you’re a new writer, you’re suffering from a common writer affliction, “manuscript hallucination”. Rarely does any writer write something really good on the first draft, let alone someone who is new to writing. The new writer suffering from manuscript hallucination often doesn’t know he or she or they are not seeing clearly. That’s because the new writer can’t tell the difference between good and bad writing.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">And this is one of the keys. Good writers still write a lot of crap. But they are good writers because they can see the difference between their good writing and their crap writing and they revise in a way that improves the writing. I’m not just talking about prose here, but also characterization, setting, and plot.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">If you are a new writer, just being aware of this common writer pitfall will help you move on to the next stage of your development. Every writer who admits having this hallucination and gives themselves a bit of time and several revisions will improve their writing, regardless of where they start. A lot of writing is a skill, which means it can be learned. Sure, talent and luck play into it, but those are mostly out of our control. Work to discover what you do well and what you do poorly and learn the difference and you will be on your way.</p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-41666135844704247782024-01-12T10:01:00.000-08:002024-01-12T10:01:46.483-08:00Where Do You Get Your Ideas? If you write it they (words) will come...<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: break-spaces;">What’s the most frequently asked questions of writers by would-be writers? Ready? Here it is. </span><em style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: inherit !important; white-space: break-spaces;">Where do you get your ideas? </em><span style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: break-spaces;">I’ve been on a lot of writer panels at book festivals and conferences and when writers are talking craft, it’s the one that comes up again and again.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">I get it. You sit down to write and nothing comes to mind and you sit and sit and stare out the window and decide the house needs to be cleaned (which can be a plus in terms of housekeeping but not helpful with writing). You can’t get started. You just don’t seem to have anything to write about. You become discouraged.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">You’ll hear smart answers from writers about where they get their ideas—like “I go to the idea store” or “I’m a member of the idea of the month club and they send me an idea each month”. That kind of thing. And the reason for these ridiculous answers is, as I’ve said many times, writers have no idea where their ideas come from.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">So let’s just get that out there. WE DO NOT KNOW.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">So how can we help you who think you have no ideas? One way is to tell you we are all in the same scary boat. At first it might seem impossible it is going to take us anywhere at all. We are going to sink to the bottom of the sea. We are doomed.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Here is my advice. Put marks on a page. The only way to get it moving is to get it moving. Easy for you to say, you say. Right. Easy to say. Hard to do. You have to allow yourself and expect that some of what you write will be pure crap (that you will make less and less crappy as you revise until it is not crap).</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">I learn what I’m writing by writing. It’s the only way I know how to do it. I might begin with an idea or a character or simply a line of prose. There are many ways to begin. Just get some words on the page and then try to build on those words. Push forward. Write ten or fifteen pages. Keep writing if it seems you might have something that you can keep pushing forward. If you can’t, maybe set it aside and try writing something else. HOWEVER, be aware this is a first draft and so by nature probably, for most of us, pretty bad with a few shining moments.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">If you write it, they will come. MORE WORDS and MORE WORDS… Maybe it will be a character or maybe you’ll have an interaction between characters or some cool setting detail or an interesting story idea. Something will click in those pages. Keep writing and pushing forward using whatever is clicking to keep you going.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">You figure out what your story is, who your characters are, what the setting is, as you go along.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">And then, when it’s time, you revise, and that’s when it all starts to come together. Most often, when would-be writers want to know about ideas, what they really mean is where does the writer get the STORY that will be told? For most writers, the story has to be built brick by brick, whether the writer does this in outline or rough draft.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">The only way I know how to write my story is to write my story. Write it and more words will come.</p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-62808188343532409252023-12-07T11:30:00.000-08:002023-12-11T08:04:07.532-08:00<p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px 0px 1em; white-space: break-spaces;">How do you write a lot? Here’s the secret: you write a lot. I know. Insightful. If you spend more time writing, more words find their way to the page. But here’s the tricky part. You probably think you spend more time writing than you do because you find distractions. I know. I do it too. But if you say you write two hours every day but what you really do is write for thirty minutes and then do some research, have a snack, surf some sites because you need to know everything about Easter Island after seeing some pictures on another site, for thirty minutes and then write a little more and have some ideas that drive you back to the internet to search for... well... you’re not sure. Then the phone rings. Then you check your email. </p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">You tell yourself you wrote over two hours and only got 1000 words done, but really you wrote about 45 minutes. A thousand words in 45 minutes is pretty good. 1000 words for two hours isn’t horrible, but it’s not great. Honestly, if I write for two hours, really write, my word count always makes a significant jump sometime in the second hour when I get the FLOW. When you get the FLOW, you know it. You are lost in the scene. You are living it. Words are jumping from your fingers onto the page so fast your fingers don’t even touch the keyboard. </p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">So here’s my advice. Write down how much you write WHEN YOU WRITE. If for any reason, good or bad, you STOP, you don’t count that time. Just record the actual time you’re putting words on paper. If nothing else, you’ll realize you probably write faster than you think. Maybe, though, it will help you really focus. An hour of real writing is worth several hours of writing a little here and there. And I’ll say, for me, sprints don’t work. They do get you to focus on writing (that part is good) so if that’s what you need to get there, do what you need to do. But the problem is that it’s hard to get to into the FLOW in fifteen minutes. Then you break it to take a break. So when you come back, you’re starting over. It works too much against reaching the state of FLOW </p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Write when you write. Try to work your way into the flow. That’s how you get a lot of words on a page.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Or so I think today.</p><p>Brian</p><p><br /></p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-44242740173079442202023-10-30T18:03:00.003-07:002023-11-01T07:37:30.339-07:00 Do This If You Struggle When You’re a Discovery Writer (Panser) <p> <span face=""Segoe UI", sans-serif" style="color: #1c1917;">Do This If You Struggle When You’re a Discovery Writer (Panser)</span><span face=""Segoe UI", sans-serif" style="color: #1c1917;"> </span></p><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face=""Segoe UI", sans-serif" style="color: #1c1917;"> </span></p><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face=""Segoe UI", sans-serif" style="color: #1c1917;">It’s scary writing a first draft. You don’t know where you’re going. How can you keep going? What happens if you can’t come up with anything? What happens if you wonder so far off from where you should go you become lost, too lost to ever recover? What happens if you write yourself into a corner? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face=""Segoe UI", sans-serif" style="color: #1c1917;"> </span></p><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face=""Segoe UI", sans-serif" style="color: #1c1917;">Here’s what you do. I’ve read many authors who do various versions of this. You can’t outline the whole novel. You just don’t work that way. But can you outline a scene? Think only of scenes; often scenes are whole chapters, but sometimes they might just be part of a chapter. Doesn’t matter.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face=""Segoe UI", sans-serif" style="color: #1c1917;"> </span></p><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face=""Segoe UI", sans-serif" style="color: #1c1917;">I can’t outline, but I can outline a scene that builds on a previous scene. What I try to do in the outline is to number the main points of a scene, whether this has to do with action or conversation or reflection. Whatever the main points are. Then I write that scene. I can write it because I’ve already seen it in my mind through the outline. It’s made all the difference. How does the scene begin? How does it end? What are a few points in-between? This will allow for spontaneity and inspiration while at the same time helping you plan in a way that will make you more confident.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span face=""Segoe UI", sans-serif" style="color: #1c1917;">This outlining, scene by scene, gives you a roadmap, allowing you to stay on track and not get lost or stalled. And you can always go back and add more detailed notes or expand the outline later when the story is further along and you realize you need more to your paragraph-outline.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span face=""Segoe UI", sans-serif" style="color: #1c1917;">So, if you're a panser who wants to bring more structure and planning to your literary efforts, try outlining a scene. You'll still maintain the freedom to discover the story as you write, while having a sense of what’s just ahead. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-48786927045918572512023-10-06T20:09:00.003-07:002023-10-06T20:09:53.079-07:00Plot and Language. Do They Come From Different Parts of the Brain?<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: break-spaces;">Fiction writing is complex. There’s a lot that goes into it. Here’s a point to consider: your ability to plot and tell a story come from a different place than language usage—style, voice, insight, interior life of a character.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;"> This was a huge revelation for me. THEY COME FROM DIFFERENT PLACES IN YOUR MIND and you can’t do both at the same time. At least not as well as you can when you separate the actions.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">In practical terms, I think this means that you should try to separate them when you go through whatever your writing process is. Work on story and use that part of your brain. Write out some sentences telling yourself what you want to happen in the scene, what your goals are, and how it moves the big story forward. </p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">If you’re a discovery writer like me, a panser, you’re not going to be able to outline the whole story, so the way that you do this is by focusing on a single scene or chapter. Think just about the story, the bones of it, the plot of the scene. </p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Then, when you’re writing the chapter, focus on language. Having already plotted out the scene, you can try to make the language express the inner conflict of the character. Your style. Your personality. Write sentences that clearly show what you’re trying to make the reader think or feel or that describe the setting or whatever you’re trying to describe. </p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Separating the creation of your plot points from your use of language and all the things that go into writing your sentences will, I think, help you be better at both.</p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-70682413648467594752023-08-30T17:53:00.003-07:002023-08-30T17:53:36.234-07:00DON'T PANIC: Discovery Writing Means Discovering Your Story As You Write<p> <span style="color: #1c1917; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">As a discovery writer, the most important thing is being open to discovering your story as you write. The first draft is just the beginning - you may find you need to change your story extensively in subsequent drafts before it fully takes shape.</span><span style="color: #1c1917; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><i style="color: #1c1917; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Do not panic.</i><span style="color: #1c1917; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #1c1917; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is normal for a discovery writer. Just relax. Do the writer meditation. Stare out the window for fifteen minutes and daydream. Take a nap on the sofa. Have a drink if necessary—whatever you need to relax. You will go the wrong way many times in your first draft.</span></p><div style="border: 1pt solid rgb(229, 231, 235); padding: 0in;"><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="border: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: #1c1917; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="border: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: #1c1917; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif;">Trust that the act of writing itself will help you find the heart of your story. Don't feel discouraged if you need to rework plot points, add or cut characters, or even take the story in a new direction in later drafts. Every word you put down brings you one step closer to knowing the story you want to tell.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="border: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: #1c1917; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: medium; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(28, 25, 23); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; padding: 0in; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1c1917; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif;">The key is not to get too attached to any one version. Be
flexible and willing to make major changes if needed. Adhere to the philosophy
that you can't fully know what you mean until you see what you've written. Let
the story emerge organically through revision after revision. Eventually it
will come into focus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="border: medium; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: #1c1917; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="whitespace-pre-wrap" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: medium; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(28, 25, 23); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in; padding: 0in; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1c1917; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif;">So keep an open mind as you write that first draft. Don't worry
about getting it perfect. Just get the basics down. There will be time later to
shape it into the story you envision in your revision. Trust the process of
discovery through writing. Your story is in there waiting to be found.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-7814839898545531732023-07-27T14:24:00.004-07:002023-07-27T14:24:38.009-07:00What Works For Me: building a novel<p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px 0px 1em; white-space: break-spaces;">I’ve been looking at the Hero’s Journey and Three Act and Four Act and Five Act structures and Save the Cat and Save the Dog and Save the Writer and the many potential ways to structure your writing. So many ways. Choice overload. Like walking down the cereal aisle in the grocery store. And because writers approach writing in different ways, what works for one may not work for another. But what if none of them actually works for you? What if you struggle every time you try to plug one in? You blame yourself. Why can’t you get the hang of it?</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Maybe you’re trying too hard to make it work and it’s making you overthink things. Writing is an art and a craft. If you can’t let your writing brain get into a flow, it’s hard to really express what your writers feel in certain situations. Maybe you’re trying to stick too closely to the form.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Here’s what I do.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">I follow three-act structure in a general way. One of the fathers of philosophy, the ancient bearded Greek, b. 384 BC, Aristotle, came up with it. Works pretty well for most novels. But I ONLY follow it in a general way. I don’t worry about any of the specific rules more modern writing books put on it. </p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">What really directs my writing, what gives form to my story, are my plots and subplots. A book might have one main plot, but my books usually have several subplots that are related to the main plot in some way. I use these to structure my writing.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;"> If I can figure out what these are in my rough draft, that gives me a general outline of what the novel is and how it will be structured. So if I’m writing a mystery, for example, and I know I want to add a romantic subplot and maybe a family subplot then when I’m writing my story I’m looking for ways to develop each plot, focusing of course on the main plot. In revision, I’m making the development, the steps of each plot, clearly foreshadow the next step. In a romantic subplot I’m showing the evolution of the relationship, ideally related to the solving of the mystery if my main plot is mystery. If I add a family plot, like a relationship between siblings or parents etc. then that is developed too. The progress of these stories propels the plot and also gives me the organization of my entire novel.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">As I’ve mentioned in the past, foreshadowing is essential. However, I don’t have to come up with it all at once. Once I figure out what’s happening at the end of one plot, let’s say our romantic plot, then I go back and with the advantage of twenty-twenty hindsight, I construct my foreshadowing.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">And that’s my advice for plot and structure. It works for me. It may or may not work for you. What I like about it though is that it gives you clear content to work with when you can identify the type of plots that are in your story.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Happy writing. </p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: break-spaces;">Brian</span> </p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-60914225426502588912023-06-27T07:57:00.001-07:002023-06-27T07:57:51.029-07:00YOUR CHARACTER HAS TO CARE OR YOUR READER WON'T<p> <span style="color: #2f3333; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Your Character Has To Care or the reader Won’t</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #2f3333;">When you’re creating characters, particularly main characters, they have to care about something. Even if they’re a nihilist they must care about not caring. They must care so much about not caring that the reader is convinced of their dedication to the meaninglessness of life and will want to know why they are the way they are.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #2f3333;">I remember Madalyn Murry O’Hare who was an atheist who lived here in Austin and disbelieved so completely in God that she formed a church of atheism. She was fanatical about her disbelief. Now there’s a character I want to read about.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #2f3333;">If your character cares about things you’ll find yourself, as a writer, learning interesting things about the character that make him or her come alive. Usually, you’ll discover the two most important things about a character: what do they want and what do they need. There are other important things but these two are at the top of the list.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #2f3333;">I recently watched a movie where the main character cared about nothing. This was supposed to be based on a troubled past and a pessimistic outlook on existence, neither of which seemed real because the character didn’t care about his past or his pessimism. The writer/director added some meaningless violence and a bit of meaningless sex to spice things up but, honestly, it was so boring and so pretentious and tedious that I quit on it about half way through. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #2f3333;">I pride myself on my ability to watch some very trashy shows/movies so it was a disappointment that even I have my limits.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #2f3333;">I get excited about a novel, show, movie that has characters who care about things. They engage me emotionally and intellectually and I start rooting for them or against them. Once that happens a story has me hooked. I’m going to watch or read even if the plot isn’t all that interesting or unique. Make your characters care. Your readers will, too.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #2f3333;">Thanks for reading.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #2f3333;">More personally: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: #2f3333;">I have a novel coming out on June 29. It’s absurdist comedy at its most fantastical. Check it out if you like that kind of read. Here’s the blurb.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #0f1111; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 28px;">A fun, fast, fantastical read: After an altercation with a clown, I get lost in the woods and find a strange town. When the librarian of the town dies in front of me, I try on his ring. It fits. I’m declared the new librarian by the mayor and townspeople. I get to live in a houseful of books. But I soon learn the job involves more than just tomes and information. In fact, my first assignment is to discover who murdered my predecessor.</span><span style="color: #0f1111; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 28px;"><br /><br /><span style="background: white;">Meanwhile, I learn that the town is a whole lot stranger than I’d first thought and I’d thought it was pretty strange from the first. The library has a ghoul and a ghost, which seems excessive. Not everyone in the town of Eden is alive or even human. A headless seductress (she carries her head around with her) propositions me, but may also be trying to kill me.</span><br /><br /><span style="background: white;">Honestly, I have some secrets of my own. After aging out of foster care, I hit the road. At first, I just drift; then I begin to get messages in dreams that direct me to places where people need the kind of help I can give them. I learn many things. One of the things I learn is I am the One. The only problem is that I am not that One. I’m the other One. The One who will bring destruction.</span></span><span style="color: #2f3333;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 31.5pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6Z3PXC9/ref=sr_1_1?crid=20FB7JOU1MNM0&keywords=Brian+Yansky+The+Librarian+of+the+Haunted+Library&qid=1685785907&sprefix=brian+yansky+the+librarian+of+the+haunted+library%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-1">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C6Z3PXC9/ref=sr_1_1?crid=20FB7JOU1MNM0&keywords=Brian+Yansky+The+Librarian+of+the+Haunted+Library&qid=1685785907&sprefix=brian+yansky+the+librarian+of+the+haunted+library%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-1</a><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in; text-indent: 31.5pt;"><br /></p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-383363418638313932023-05-22T14:52:00.000-07:002023-05-22T14:52:42.359-07:00Discovery Writers--how to write in later drafts<p data-pm-slice="1 1 []"> I’ve written on how to approach early drafts if you’re a discovery (pantser) writer. Be free. Take chances. Do lots of prewriting as you’re writing. Understand that because you don’t outline, you will almost certainly need several drafts. All right--so let’s say you’ve written three drafts. Remember, the first draft will be 10K-15K because you're finding your way. The second draft will probably be around 40K because you’re still finding your way and building on top of the foundation you’ve put down.</p><p>In draft 3, which might be your final draft, or/and draft 4—you’ll be trying to give your writing structure and development and theme and all the things that you need. You’ll be adding a words. How many depends on you.</p><p>How?</p><p>When you get to a draft where you have discovered and given some detail to big moments in your novel, then you need to work in foreshadowing. Now, when you’re a reader, you think of foreshadowing as something that gives the reader a sense or clues as to what will happen. As a discovery writer, I’m suggesting you work backward from the important moments of your story and build the foreshadowing to them. Most of your story can be worked out this way. </p><p>Let’s say you have a few plots working in your novel—a mystery plot and relationship plot and a few others. One is the main plot and you have two or three subplots. Once you figure out where they end, you simply work back in a logical way to where they begin (of course it’s not simple or easy, but this will give you a kind of reverse map to follow). So if you have a relationship plot that ends with the girl getting two boys, then you have to figure out how this happened. You have to work with intention to build an exciting, interesting, logical sequence that will lead the reader to whatever ending you’ve worked out. That’s one strand of your story. Then you move on to the next. And next. And next. </p><p><br /></p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-77853981940360420122023-04-30T16:51:00.003-07:002023-04-30T16:51:58.655-07:00<p> </p><p>I think that discovery writers (pantsers) are intuitive writers. I advise doing a lot of prewriting as you move through a first draft because of this. At the same time, pay attention to your intuition. Cultivate it and try to be open to where it's taking you.</p><p> I think sometimes we back away from our intuition. Maybe it takes us in an uncomfortable direction and we force our story to go in a different direction. But maybe backing away makes our work less than it could be or maybe costs us a lot of time because we lose the thread of the story that we're really meant to write.</p><p> As discovery writers who don't outline or don't outline much, we have to be open to finding our story as we write. Feeling confident in our intuition—working on understanding the cues that will help us build the story we're trying to write—can help us write better and faster.</p><p>If you have the time, check out a four minute story I recorded on YouTube. It's humorous horror or creepy comedy...certainly strange, but I was following my intuition.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdGE-_iTb5Y">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdGE-_iTb5Y</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Good writing!</p><p>Brian</p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-5314850655781124882023-04-01T06:54:00.002-07:002023-04-01T06:54:34.290-07:00One Thing I've Done To Write Faster THIS last Year<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: break-spaces;">The one thing I’ve done in the past year that has helped me be a better writer and a faster writer is FOCUS ON THE FLOW. Now, there are specifics to this, like my discovery-writer-self finding a way to discover write my drafts and still be fast. HINT--first draft only takes about two weeks. See earlier entries for more on this, but I’ll write a blog on it in more detail soon.</span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">BUT nothing has helped me more than my goal when I sit down to write. Everything I do is an attempt to get in the Flow. Once I get there, I’m writing faster and usually better than when I’m not in the Flow. It’s pretty simple: you need to not find excuses to break the flow once you get it going. Any kind of interruption will break it. A lot of them are self-made: I suddenly have to check my email; I start thinking about some problem in my life; the phone rings and I answer it; I have to do research; I have something that needs doing that day that I suddenly must do; someone comes into my writing space to tell me something and ON and ON...</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">You can’t let these things get in the way. It’s that simple. You have to find a block of time, sit at your desk, and write. Don’t interrupt yourself. Don’t let others interrupt you. I can’t tell you the difference this has made. Oh, wait, I can. I can write about 1000 words in an hour if I’m not interrupted. If I am interrupted, I’ll do maybe a thousand in a day. Whatever your numbers are, think of that ratio. You’ll write more or less, but whatever you write you’ll see a real improvement if you actually, truly write when you’re writing. It’s easy to fool yourself. I speak from experience—unfortunately.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Another tip—don’t start off your writing time by checking email etc.. or going on the internet. If you need to sit for a minute or two and think about what you’re about to write, visualize it, write out some sentences about it, by all means do. But then get right into the writing. Some days the FLOW will come easily and other days it will be a struggle. </p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">BUT the more often you get there, the more you’ll write.</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Good writing,</p><p style="caret-color: rgb(47, 51, 51); color: #2f3333; font-family: OpenSans, sans-serif, serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.7; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: break-spaces;">Brian</p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-32985740459631484132023-03-04T01:20:00.000-08:002023-03-04T01:20:07.941-08:00Pantsers (Discovery Writers) NEED a Blueprint<p> Pantser (Discovery Writer) — A writer has to face the blank page. It can be daunting. A bitter, cold winter storm, an empty white as far as the eye can see. Now, the outliner, feeling all warm and comfy has his or her outline to keep that empty white at bay. They pull it around them like a warm coat.</p><p><i><span> </span>But you can't outline.</i> If you're wired a certain way, trying to force yourself to outline will just leave you frustrated and maybe worse, feeling defeated by the blank page, feeling like you will never be able to finish your novel. Because here is the thing: that blank page isn't just there the first day you start writing. It isn't just there at the beginning of your novel. It is there every day you push forward in your story. Every single morning you face it.</p><p>But here's what I'd like to advise— you need to think of a first draft as blueprint. You can't get hung up on trying to make your pages into the story you hope to write. Understand that for you (unlike the outliner) that first draft will go all over the place. Let it. Write down alternative possibilities in places. Force yourself to keep going.</p><p>My trick: I write a first draft in two weeks or less. I'll write bits and pieces of it but I won't be afraid to stop narrative flow and just write myself notes. <i>X might happen here or Y might happen OR even--not sure what will happen here. </i></p><p><i>This is important: what you are trying to do is discover your story, your characters, your world, in the first draft. It might be 20K or a bit more or less. </i>Write it out from beginning to end, do it fast, don't let yourself get caught up in sentences too much. Try to, especially, get the story down.</p><p>Then in draft 2 you'll have a first draft that will be a kind of outline/ first draft combo—with dialogue and notes and scenes all mixed together. As a discovery writer (pantser if you prefer but I do not) you find your way in a first draft and it becomes a blueprint for the several drafts you will need to complete your novel. You can still write quickly and well. You just have to have a different approach if you're a discovery writer. </p><p>This shift in thinking will make all the difference.</p><p>Good Writing!</p><p>Brian</p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-22489902152077627122023-01-15T15:07:00.002-08:002023-01-15T15:07:47.264-08:00How Do You Create Characters Your Readers Need to Read About? Be Present.<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">It’s good to be present in the moments of your life, and it is also good to be present in the moments of your story and your character’s lives. That’s it. You want to communicate to the reader who your character is then what they do, what they see and don’t see, think and don’t think, feel and don’t feel, is everything. Sure, you can roll in backstory, their past, but even here what’s important is how whatever happened in their past made them feel and think and how that shaped them. I had two grandmothers: both of them were poor, uneducated, and married the wrong men. One was bitter and that bitterness filled whatever room she was in. The other was joyous, interested, funny and that filled whatever room she was in. My point: to make you understand each character what happened to them isn’t enough. To make your reader’s understand what happened to them isn’t enough. You have to show the reader their inner lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">I think you do this by being present in the telling/showing. You try to express to the reader what the character’s reactions are to what is happening in a scene. You get in your character’s mind and you make things happen and you work to make sure your character’s actions and reactions —physically, emotionally, and intellectually— are authentic. That’s how you build a character your reader will want to read about.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-64975331543174715942022-12-18T18:26:00.000-08:002022-12-18T18:26:08.159-08:00How To Be Prolific<p style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">HOW DO YOU BE PROLIFIC?</span></p><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">You write a lot. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">OK, but how do you write a lot?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">You have to focus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">OK, but how do you focus?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Now we’re getting to it. And I have to warn you. It’s easy to fool yourself about how much you actually write. So one way to focus is to document how much you actually write. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">SPOILER ALERT: you most likely think you spend more time writing than you do because all those little breaks, even just looking at your email or going to the kitchen to make coffee or grab a little snack or going to the bathroom TAKE TIME. Your writing time. So be exact. How much time do you write?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">There are two reasons this is important. If you know how much time you’re writing, then you can figure out how many words you write, on average, in a certain amount of time, say an hour. It will motivate you to compete with yourself if you’re like me. BUT here’s the more important, in my opinion, reason. You can’t just turn writing on and off like your turn the water on and off at your kitchen sink. Doesn’t work that way. If you get distracted while you’re writing, you lose your focus and when you lose your focus your writing speed and, often, writing quality go way down. When you lose focus you lose momentum.Writing is going well. It’s like coasting down a hill. But you stop. You interrupt. When you come back, you aren’t going down a hill. You aren’t even on a flat straightaway. You’re going uphill. You just looked at your email and you’re going uphill.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Sucks, right?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">You want to be prolific? It’s easy. Write a lot. Write going downhill. Don’t allow interruptions. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">WHAT TO DO: Short version: avoid distractions/ MAKE WRITING TIME WRITING TIME.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 13.5pt; margin-top: 5.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Get yourself to a place where others won’t interrupt you. Set an amount of time to write before you take a break. Some like sprints of 15-20 minutes. I get going and I prefer to keep writing for an hour or an hour and a half before I break.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 13.5pt; margin-top: 5.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: medium;">DO not interrupt yourself. No checking messages. No looking at facebook or whatever your social media preference is. No looking up questions the manuscript brings up by visiting google or websites (do that after writing time).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 13.5pt; margin-top: 5.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Some people mediate for a couple minutes before writing and some visualize the scene they’re about to write and some spend a couple minutes writing out what might happen in the scene and what it moves forward (plot, character, setting?)—this would be me. DO something to get yourself into the scene and then write it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 5.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 13.5pt; margin-top: 5.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">4.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Keep track of how much you write in each session. There will be some variation but you should get more words and better words as your focus gets stronger.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="font-size: medium; margin: 5pt 13.5pt 5pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 13.5pt;"><o:p> Good luck,</o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 13.5pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 13.5pt;">Brian</p><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-91875382511491003432022-11-26T12:50:00.003-08:002022-11-26T13:01:07.818-08:00Make Discovery process work for You<p style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Fellow Discovery Writers (sometimes known as pantsers, a term that does not describe our process and was likely started by outliners)—do not allow the outliners to make you feel less. Your method is as relevant to the struggle of writing a novel as those who sit down and roman numericize (figuratively or literally) to a nice neat plan of story.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 1in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard, serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Truth bomb: most of us do some discovering and some outlining when it comes right down to it-though usually more one than the other- but for purposes of this blog entry let me just advocate for my brothers and sisters who discover their way to novel writing.</span><span face="-webkit-standard, serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard, serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Five points to help you make your Discovery process work for you.</span><span face="-webkit-standard, serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard, serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span>Write the very first draft of your discovery quickly and with a carefree attitude. By this I do not mean take a “let them eat cake” attitude toward your reader or good writing habits. I mean realize that you are finding your way (hence the word discovery) and that you will go wrong here and there. Write that first draft in weeks, not months. Fast and furious.<span face="-webkit-standard, serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span>Realize as you’re writing that first draft that you will go wrong in several. places. Write yourself notes when you’re unsure about plot points. Leave the final decision for the next draft.<span face="-webkit-standard, serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span>Sometimes you may realize you have a choice at a certain point: maybe the character leaves home or maybe she stays thinking to help her mother with her drug habit and leaves later after failing—you’re not sure which way works better. Try both or choose one but leave open the possibility of the other.<span face="-webkit-standard, serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span>In my first drafts, I’m working on what names work for places and people etc.… They often change. That’s OK. Sometimes finding the right names takes a while. Let your people talk to each other. Sometimes hearing their voice, in relation to another voice or voices, can be helpful in learning character.<span face="-webkit-standard, serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span>BE OPEN all the way through your draft. That’s key. But finish. You have to finish. My first drafts are generally around 20-25K because some chapters I’ve written a scene and then described what comes next in the chapter. You’re writing fast so if you get stopped just write that you’re unsure how to finish the chapter—if necessary.<span face="-webkit-standard, serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">6.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span>BONUS POINT—one of the realities of discovery writing is that you’ll need more drafts than an outliner. Another reason to make draft 1 short and with many possibilities. I usually writer three drafts, a revision, and a polish. I can still write a novel in 3-4 months.<span face="-webkit-standard, serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in -0.5in 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard, serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in -0.5in 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Good luck and good writing, </span><span face="-webkit-standard, serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in -0.5in 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard, serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in -0.5in 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Brian</span><span face="-webkit-standard, serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-84335828911231685932022-11-11T12:00:00.002-08:002022-11-11T12:00:38.687-08:00How Do You Make People Care About Your Characters? It's really pretty simple, really.<p>There are, as with every aspect of writing, many ways to achieve success in making people care about your characters. You can make them like them by having them do things that your reader approves of or you can make your character get the reader's empathy by having bad things happen to them and then having them find ways to overcome the bad things. You can make your character active. Readers like characters that try to do things, solve things, stand up when others are sitting down. There are all kinds of ways to create characters that engage readers. Try the above if you haven't.</p><p>But I said I was going to make it simple and here is my simple take. And I direct this, in particular, to my fellow discovery writers, those whose process is to discover story, setting, and, yes, character, through the act of writing drafts and not outlines—<i>find your narrators inner voice.</i></p><p><i>Find your narrator's inner voice.</i> Maybe you will have to overwrite in your first draft a bit for this or maybe you'll have to add in later drafts of your discovery drafts to get the voice down—depending on what kind of writer you are. But what I mean by inner voice is that voice we all have going on in our mind all the time. And when we're not alone, when we're involved in some act, or reaction, it's still going on. It's at this time, in a scene in a novel, that your characters inner voice will be SHOWING rather than TELLING if they're acting and reacting to what's happening. It's the tone and content of these thoughts that will reveal character.</p><p>OK, here's the simple: people will care about almost any character if they get to know that character. We can care about some awful characters (Tony Soprano, think Game of Thrones, etc...) if we get to know them. We don't have to even really like a character, just find them interesting and understand motivations. Let that inner voice reveal the character. </p><p>Good Writing,</p><p>Brian</p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-9520473473251987072022-10-21T04:34:00.000-07:002022-10-21T04:34:03.403-07:00 No More Outliner Envy for Me. Discovery Writer All The Way, Baby<p> </p><p>Greetings Campers,</p><p>No more Outliner envy for me. It just doesn't work. Lord knows I've tried. But I have given up because it's not who I am. Discovery writer all the way, Baby. You gotta be what you've got to be. </p><p>Need some inspiration? Here's a classic: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN-3A-I2jxU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN-3A-I2jxU</a> </p><p>Say you're like me. You are not an outliner. Just no question. Can't be done. You are a discovery writer, sometimes called a seat of the pantser, and you've accepted your way.</p><p>I've been writing about how I try to find places in my fiction where I create special moments, emotional ones, mm's (memorable moments), for the reader. Think of any fiction you love and you'll think of certain moments that really stand out to you. You create those moments by building up to them, setting them up with a series of moments, foreshadowing what is to come for a chapter or ten or sometimes a whole novel, and then delivering some kind of payoff. You can look at any fiction you love and see these moments.</p><p>For example, LORD OF THE RINGS, has many. Think of what led to that final moment when Frodo throws the ring into the fire. But you likely remember many more. One I remember, especially emotional, is when Gandalf is shouting "You shall not pass" and gets whipped from the bridge by the monster from the deep. The loss in that moment of Gandalf is like a punch to the face. </p><p>So now I want to add another point to this. If you can imagine several of these emotional moments before you get writing OR as you're working through your five/six day flashdraft,(see below) then you have given yourself a great push forward and likely saved yourself a lot of time.</p><p>I'm not talking about an outline. I'm just talking about coming up with a few special emotional moments on one page before you write your first draft. You just use what works as your discover your story in your flashdraft. </p><p>Say you have the Gandalf scene. You think about what might lead up to it and you do a little reverse design. What can you make happen to get there? </p><p>Having a few ideas like this (sort of like points on a map but do not think plot, think cool moments, emotional outcomes) before your start your flashdraft (see earlier blog entries for complete explanation) can save you even more time and help you make the right choices.</p><p>Good writing</p><p>Brian</p><p>On a more personal note. I have a new novel (third in a trilogy) coming out this week. It's Scifi fantasy with aliens and dogs and lots more. Out on the 27th on Amazon. First novel free for three days after to celebrate the publication.</p><p> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09X7GQJSJ?ref_=dbs_p_mng_rwt_ser_shvlr&storeType=ebooks">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09X7GQJSJ?ref_=dbs_p_mng_rwt_ser_shvlr&storeType=ebooks</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXu0Uf1azqOjovb1U4yKLq1nffQVgI_IiCIwPYPSOGEw5k1iWrtlMNyHAuMxzqEmjG39uUjM8YzpQzTsW4PeDgFzzDQg0wFm2c9RWd9xs8rGO3_5KzTEVZA5j1fl6gPoTIE2tty1NEAmxAaFAv1mId-TTyDpeKCCEnGdflEKuG1Tx9JV8mGsw5xUhNkg/s2560/Aliens,%20Hybrids,%20and%20Egypt,%20Texas%20book%203_cvr-v1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXu0Uf1azqOjovb1U4yKLq1nffQVgI_IiCIwPYPSOGEw5k1iWrtlMNyHAuMxzqEmjG39uUjM8YzpQzTsW4PeDgFzzDQg0wFm2c9RWd9xs8rGO3_5KzTEVZA5j1fl6gPoTIE2tty1NEAmxAaFAv1mId-TTyDpeKCCEnGdflEKuG1Tx9JV8mGsw5xUhNkg/s320/Aliens,%20Hybrids,%20and%20Egypt,%20Texas%20book%203_cvr-v1a.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><p>My dog, Gandalf, has a role as Velcro1 and Velcro2 in all three books.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheEyjvkVytdM7Sqih-7GvvSzwd_iDRK9timC8XGG7jh8SyhMKjs2xjwLStVtcEqmX95ucpv41LtFp6UGZGBfCD-Y8tWlx07Sevda23-PtPZvJb5U5Kj3goPNc7Bs9ZfVmJfapxXWgajPeWz9V1cGDHxRsGakU7rVFoUFdq30Jb9d9Gtazue-QmOOEQnQ/s2016/0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheEyjvkVytdM7Sqih-7GvvSzwd_iDRK9timC8XGG7jh8SyhMKjs2xjwLStVtcEqmX95ucpv41LtFp6UGZGBfCD-Y8tWlx07Sevda23-PtPZvJb5U5Kj3goPNc7Bs9ZfVmJfapxXWgajPeWz9V1cGDHxRsGakU7rVFoUFdq30Jb9d9Gtazue-QmOOEQnQ/s320/0.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>Thanks for reading.</p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-20534788746745698122022-10-04T18:50:00.001-07:002022-10-04T18:52:17.237-07:00Want To Know Moments<p> Set up <i>Want To Know Moments. </i></p><p>Not what you want to know and not what your character wants to know. I'm talking about the reader. You know that person on the other side of your writing. The one who actually reads what you wrote.We don't talk about the reader much but we should. I get the "I write for myself" argument. I do write for myself . But what I've learned as I've gone along is that I have to think about the reader too, especially when focusing on the storytelling side of things.</p><p>There are many ways to engage a reader BUT you must keep them wanting to turn, no, excited to turn the page. Cool world building, complex characters, good language are important but you need narrative momentum, you need the WANT TO KNOW MOMENTS, to keep the reader reading. It's a skill and an art to build a story. But creating <i>want to know moments</i> will go a long way.</p><p>Think of small things, big things, medium size things that you plant in your story that the reader will want answers about. Some of these might be fairly immediate. In the same chapter. Some might be a thing the reader wants to know through the whole novel. Your skill at setting these up and developing them, showing progress, and then giving resolution (THE PAYOFF) will be an enormous part of the success of your storytelling.</p><p>An example might be a relationship between two characters. Think of a simple Rom-Com. Two characters meet, they don't like each other or they do but regardless something gets in the way of their starting a relationship. We're all so familiar with this plot how can it ever work? Because the reader WANTS TO KNOW...How will it work? Specific skills at developing a relationship that in a Rom-Com we all know will work out is what I'm talking about. All along the way will be small WANT TO KNOWS and you, as a writer, will make the characters work through them. Then there's a satisfying moment. A first kiss. But it doesn't work out so the setback sets out another WANT TO KNOW MOMENT. They get back together...etc...You see— it's foreshadowing and resolution again and again to the ending.</p><p><br /></p><p>Think Lord of the Rings. There's the big WANT TO KNOW...will Frodo be successful in destroying the ring... but think of all the other small WANT TO KNOWS that are set up and answered in the story.</p><p>You need many tools in your toolbox to write a novel. Understanding the importance of WANT TO KNOW and learning how to foreshadow and build up to an answer, a resolution, is an important one.</p><p>Keep Writing,</p><p>Brian</p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-83038087176451426632022-09-19T12:15:00.001-07:002022-09-19T12:15:41.261-07:00Be What You've Got To Be: Discovery writer or Outliner<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p> <span> </span></p></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Be what you’ve got to be. Try outlining</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">and</i><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">discovery writing (some call this pantsing as in flying by the seat of your pants) if you don’t know which you have to be. Figure it out. But don’t try to be an outliner just for the security of it if</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">it’s not the way you work. You’ll do outlines that don’t get you anywhere or that take you to the wrong places.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO FLY BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS OR, as I prefer to call it DISCOVERY WRITE, if that’s the kind of writer you are.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">However, I can save you some time if that’s the kind of writer you are. I suggest you look at the first couple of drafts as discovering your story. Don’t get caught up in trying to keep most of a first draft that is really just you discovering your characters, setting and plot. If you do that, you’ll end up with a poorly crafted novel.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">You have to work your way through drafts, carefully throwing out any bit that isn’t part of what you’re trying to build. You have to be a bit ruthless in this regard. You have to be open to cutting absolutely anything that gets in the way. It may take you (as it takes me) three drafts to actually get to the revision draft.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">That’s why I make my first draft a zoom draft—because I realize I will get great ideas and good characters and good plot points but that I will throw out much of a first draft. The second draft I usually keep about half but really start to get down what my novel is and who is in it and what happens. Third draft the book stretches out some and it’s the first draft I feel like, <i>Hey, I might actually have a book. </i>Then it’s revision drafts—fast.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">Sounds long. I can do all this in under four months.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">You can be a discovery writer and still write well and fast if you have the right process.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">Good luck writers. Hope this is helpful.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Brian</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-1397726432048473392022-08-18T07:17:00.002-07:002022-08-18T07:17:32.817-07:00Choices When Writing A Novel: they're everywhere<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">A lot of writing fiction is about the choices you make as a writer. You have to make choices in a story. Do I go right here or left? Does he fall in love, out of love? Does she decide to fight the monster in her past? You make these big decisions that affect the main plot of the novel and you make scene decisions and sometimes even paragraph decisions. Do I describe this action in detail or give just enough detail to get to the next scene? Then there are character decisions. Then there are world-building decisions. And, of course, there are language decisions. Which words to use and what syntax and so on.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">Each choice means you give up other possibilities. If you’re a discovery writers sometimes these get to feeling a bit random. That’s because you’re working your story out as you’re writing it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">Outliners try to make many of these choices when outlining. But we pantsers, discovery, drafter type of writers can’t do that. WE JUST CAN’T. We may want to, thinking that outlining offers more organization and safety, but when we try we fail in terrible ways that kill ideas or cause novels to die in early stages. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">I write this from personal experience. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">So what I do is try to add some control to my discovery writing by going all in with the discovery. In drafts 1 and 2, I let myself be open to whatever changes come my way. Draft 1 is my zoom draft. I’m discovering my story and characters. I do this in less than two weeks. On the novel I’m writing write now, I wrote about 20000 words. SO I do listing and freewriting chapters and dialogue and sometimes abbreviated action etc... I write CHOICES in some of those. I could have the character do this or that or this and that or… I just write out possibilities in places.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">Second draft I’m making a lot of choices. But it comes naturally because I have a familiarity with my story. I can make more informed choices. I can avoid the MAJOR kind of rewriting I’ve had to do on my manuscripts in the past. Thank the Gods.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">By third draft I’ll have 65K or more and I’ll really know my world and story and characters and this is where I’m doing only a bit of rewriting and much more revising.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">However many revisions I do, 1 or 2 or even 3 after these first two drafts, they’re more focused and much faster.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">Hope this gives you some ideas about working with choices.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">Brian<o:p></o:p></p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-37270177963823984032022-08-02T10:57:00.000-07:002022-08-02T10:57:09.004-07:00Don't Forget to Foreshadow in Your Novel<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">It’s one of the most important skills in the storytelling aspect of writing novels. Alas, it is often ignored for its more flashy cousins but it's important in many ways.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">When writers talk about progression of a plot or, for that matter, progression of a character arc, they’re talking about the steps of plot or character that lead the reader to a satisfying ending. If you can create foreshadowing, that is give the reader of hint of what is to come, and then build what is to come in an interesting way, that’s an important part of plot progression.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">I work on foreshadowing the most after I have a workable draft (maybe my second or third) and know where my ending of various plots are. Some of my minor plots may finish before the end of the manuscript, but the most important ones are at the end and will require several steps. If I can foreshadow at least some of these steps as I move the novel forward, I'll create suspense and that sense of progression and, perhaps that satisfying payoff. Another way to say this: the foreshadowing helps me lay out the breadcrumbs that the reader will follow to the destination, the conclusion of the novel.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">Hope this is helpful.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">Happy Writing Fellow Campers—<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">Brian<o:p></o:p></p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-66089484892520443892022-07-20T07:08:00.005-07:002022-07-20T07:08:57.137-07:00How to Write A Novel In Three Months<p> </p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm5tc2s7uOjB0ezDf9QqyrGjHc3DVgIGGBtwB8KYTI5pgLOQlMYDRhNQneTiJxRJt0cGyoxEqlGQy7wVjDs5S9JHKBlEIz2QYpHyx-5g0N2HL6w2kPr5zjPUkao7y1vPM4weYsmnQ87zbBVkvVA0EPxk4LTFFxPPEvXCwrBV1QPwuCiVBwZZawmVSqhA/s960/294598542_572792357706196_2972595356744894772_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm5tc2s7uOjB0ezDf9QqyrGjHc3DVgIGGBtwB8KYTI5pgLOQlMYDRhNQneTiJxRJt0cGyoxEqlGQy7wVjDs5S9JHKBlEIz2QYpHyx-5g0N2HL6w2kPr5zjPUkao7y1vPM4weYsmnQ87zbBVkvVA0EPxk4LTFFxPPEvXCwrBV1QPwuCiVBwZZawmVSqhA/s320/294598542_572792357706196_2972595356744894772_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />Though I self-published these two novels, Fireside Audio has picked them up for their audio line. Very happy to be working with them. <div><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Zoom: How to Write A Novel In Three Months</span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">This is the third of three entries on writing “What Will Happen In Egypt, Texas” in</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">three months, which is freaking fast for me. The novel will be out on Saturday, July 23. I am not a fast writer by the standards of many self-published writers though by trad publishing I’m fairly fast, about two novels a year.</span><div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">So, three months is in fact, freaking fast for me.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">How did I do that you ask? Zoom draft.</span></div><div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">I’ve written about my Zoom method twice, so if interested just scroll back</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">a couple of entries.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">The main thrust of my zoom method is that I try to write a rough draft, a short one, in four, five, six days. IA draft between 10000-15000 words. It’s more than an outline because I’m actually writing scenes BUT it is much less, obviously, than a full-length rough draft. <i><b>It is, however, and this is very important, a full draft, beginning to end.</b></i> I came to this, in part, because I realized how much I change my rough drafts.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">I mean my mantra for a first draft has always been <b>LOW EXPECTATIONS</b> so I have been aware of this problem for a long time. I spend a month to six weeks writing a draft that I mostly revise into non-existence.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></div><div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Only good thing was I didn’t print the first draft out and add to the environmental crisis by wasting paper.</span></div><div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">OK, back to Zoom draft. Four, five days, done. And then I revised and revised and revised because revision is where whatever magic I’m able to create happens. A story forms. Characters pop up to live in that story. A world pops up around them. Etc.…Etc...</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">What I found was that the first and second revisions were mostly adding to the novel’s length. I think by the end of the third draft it was at about 61000. Each of these drafts took maybe three weeks.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">The story definitely changed a lot</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">but many of the changes were going deeper into character development and adding plot. Then I did a draft where I just went through trying to make the plot better, more interesting, more compelling. I advise that you do this at some point in your revision. Focus on one thing and go through the manuscript and improve that one thing.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">I did one revision just working on language and tightening up scenes. Then one final draft for polish.</span></div><div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">You probably think this is a lot of revision. It is. But that’s just the way I work. Hence, the importance of my zoom draft. Because</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">I did it so fast and it got me into the world of the story, the characters, and setting, I was able to spends months on revision and still have a finished novel in about three months.</span></div><div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">So that’s good.</span></div><div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Plus, I’ll be honest, there’s a real rush to writing a draft in four-six days.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">And I think I can improve on how I write my next Zoom draft and so maybe I’ll improve my output</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">and quality.</i><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in -67.5pt 0.0001pt 1in; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p></div></div><div><i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></i></div><div><i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Happy Writing,</i></div><div><i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">Brian</i></div>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-80122248390289822792022-06-17T07:10:00.000-07:002022-06-17T07:10:12.128-07:00Leaving breadcrumbs: how to write plot<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">I love language. I love a good sentence. I work on my sentences. I have fun when I get to do this, especially in later drafts, because it is one way the characters come to life and the setting comes to life.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">Also, I love dialogue. I can reveal a lot of character in a conversation. It’s not just what people say but how they say it. This is also language focused. You have to make the language work.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">I love style, a certain writing style. It’s about rhythm and author voice and a particular way of seeing the world, whatever that world might be.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">I love character. I love to develop them, discover them, and make them give the story meaning by specific details of a life.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">Wait, isn’t this supposed to be about plot? So all those aspects of storytelling I mentioned above are based on language and character. My books are character driven, that is scenes made by characters in situations. But the actual plot has to come from another place. Writers need to see that. Practice plot in isolation until you can put it together with character and language in an intuitive way.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">What’s plot then? It’s leaving breadcrumbs for the reader to follow. These lead to a destination that is expected and unexpected and satisfying. Each breadcrumb must be take the reader a little closer to the destination and be interesting in and of itself. When the reader reaches the destination it will be spectacular and the breadcrumbs will all make sense. If you do them well, your reader will follow them with anticipation and the anticipation will be satisfied. You will have several plots like this in a novel but one of these will be the main plot. You will have character arcs, too, that will function in the same way. Breadcrumbs to destination.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">And that is that.<o:p></o:p></p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6967308592064240861.post-72938913259806021192022-05-31T15:49:00.000-07:002022-05-31T15:49:55.633-07:00Zoom draft, part 2<p> In my recent zoom post I wrote about a new strategy for writing a novel that I think might help me and might help someone write faster and maybe even better, particularly if they happen to be a panser rather than a planner, a discovery writer rather than an outliner. </p><p>I suggested that you write a very quick draft, one that takes under a week and is 10000-15000 words long. I did this and had a draft of my novel, from beginning to end, in that time. In the past, I felt like I wasted a lot of time writing a longer first draft since often my discovery draft ended up being something I revised throughly anyway. My thinking was that if I wrote a first draft much faster maybe I would speed up my writing process without losing quality since, in my experience, most of the work of creating story came in later drafts, just as improvements in language and theme did.</p><p>Now I am working on the revision. I've spent slightly over a month and have increased my word count to about 45000 words. I am about half way through the second/third draft of the novel. However, I'm not just filling out what I had written with additional development. I've made several major changes to the plot as I've tried to develop and deepen the story.</p><p>So in that sense, I'm still feeling around in the dark a lot. However, in spite of this, I'm much farther along than I'd normally be because of the short time I spent on the first zoom draft. I don't feel like the road blocks and diversions are any more than on former novels. I had hoped that writing the draft so quickly might make me better at plotting; I don't feel that happened much. I still need a first draft to start working into the story. However, and this is key to how long the writing will take, I didn't spend several months on a first draft. I spent five days.</p><p>So far, I'm pleased wit this new strategy.</p><p>MORE LATER</p>Brian Yanskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16338795130182877245noreply@blogger.com0