Prewriting

Prewriting

Sorry about the delay. I’m trying to be better about that. Obviously, I’m not perfect yet. Part of my problem was that I couldn’t figure out a topic. This was absolutely not what I planned to write on. But perhaps this is what someone needs to read.

Some writers know absolutely every facet of their story before they sit down to write. Their writer’s bible may be hundreds of pages long, involving everything from what shoes the characters are wearing to what is the position of the stars on any particular night. I am in awe, but I personally can’t do that. Nor have any of my stories actually required that though some stories might.

Other writers may go in with a vague idea, or no idea, just discovering things as they go along. Stephen King is famous for this. I’ve seen this referred to as the ‘Headlights method’. So named because it’s like driving a car on a remote road at night. The headlights only illuminate a few feet ahead of the car, but it’s possible to get all the way home that way.

Personally, I need something a little more in-between, though I definitely lean more to the pantser method (as in flying by the seat of your pants) than the plotting method. But I do some outlining, some freewriting, which some call being a ‘plantser’, a hybrid of pantsing and plotting. No, I didn’t name these.

I suspect most people are somewhere in between. But there’s still something about the word ‘outlining’ that sends chills down the spines of so many. (Is it Roman numerals, capital letters, numbers, lowercase letters?) Guess what, it doesn’t have to.

No one, and I mean no one, is going to demand to see your outline and critique it in red pen for being in the wrong format. Because no one cares how you outline or even if you do at all. All anyone cares about is if you write a coherent story. A good outline can help with that, but it won’t do it for you.

But that means you can do any kind of outline makes sense to you! Be as organized or unorganized as you like. Outlines are tools. No tool works for every person in any situation. I’ve tried many of these methods at least once, and some I liked, some I didn’t. One caveat, while adequate preparation can speed the writing process, it can also be a way to procrastinate. It can also drain some of your excitement if every plot point is planned before you write the story.

This also isn’t something you can only do before you get started. Maybe you start with an idea, an image, or a sentence. Then after you write for a while, you come back to plan where you are going. Or this can be something you do when you find yourself getting stuck.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Pre-made templates: Many writers have created templates for characters or plot or other important elements. Many of them can be found for free online. Try WritersDigest.com, I know there are some there.

Or you can look in other directions. A character creation sheet for role playing games is not the worst starting point, especially if you are also an experienced gamer. (My brother is trying to get me involved). Again, there are often free templates online.

If you like templates and can’t find one that meets your needs, maybe make your own.

Flash Cards: This method works best for plot and particularly when you know you want several particular things to happen but you aren’t sure the order. So you write each plot point on a flash card (3×5 index cards or post notes work well for this) and then arrange and re-arrange until you like the order. Having a board you can stick them to or a string you can attach them to makes it so you can view all cards at the same time.

If you like using flash cards, it might also be beneficial to make an index card of important information for each character. Be sure to mention eye and hair color, because readers will notice when your protagonist has blue eyes in Chapter Three but green in Chapter Twelve, but you don’t want to go through three hundred pages to make sure you are consistent.

Mood Board: This is a visual method that means collecting a bunch of pictures that make you think of your story. This can be a physical collage with pictures from magazines or printed out, but it’s also likely to be virtual, maybe on Pinterest or a blank document. This can include pictures of people you are modeling your protagonists after, pictures of the setting, and so much more.

Ideally, the mood board puts you in the mood that you are trying to evoke when writing. If you are writing a gothic romance, maybe this makes you feel slightly spooked. If you are writing a story of an exotic place you have never been, the board should give you a feeling of wonder.

It also gives you a starting point in describing what something looks like. I can give you a vague description of a castle, but wouldn’t it be better if I had a particular castle I wanted to describe?

Tentpole Method: I got this from a writing book, but sadly, I do not remember which one. I’ll add it in when I find it. The tentpole method is that you figure out the ten most important scenes in your book and then spend most of your effort on those scenes. Not that you neglect the rest, but more like the 80/20 method. These are probably going to be the scenes that resonate the most with your readers, the scenes that make your book the unique masterpiece that it is, so you want to make sure they are as perfect as you can make them.

Freewriting: This is my standard method of prewriting. It is exactly as disorganized as it sounds, at least when I do it. I tend to open a blank document and just spew out words. There are a lot of ‘So’s, ‘Okay’s, and ‘What if’s. I’ll go with an idea and then write down that I like that or that I don’t like that, what if we went with this instead. To give an example:

So, I’m writing an example for my freewriting. Should I actually try to plot something out, or should I just freewrite as if this was my example? Well, if I did plot something out, then what? Would I feel obligated to write about what I freewrote about? Or would I feel obligated not to write about it since someone could read it? Is ‘freewrote’ even a word? It ought to be.

Okay, so if I just use this as an example, then isn’t it going to be boring? Probably. Should I put in something more interesting? Like what? If I do, am I wasting time or being inaccurate?

Okay, what if I…

As you can see, I ramble. A lot. I probably put in at least as many questions as I do direct statements. The point there is usually to just keep the words flowing. My freewriting may not be coherent, but I usually manage to uncover my ideas and decide how I want things to go.

There are many other methods of outlining and prewriting and you may prefer a combination approach. I know that for Nightmare’s Revenge I used a lot of premade templates, outlined everything I could, and still ended up throwing in a new subplot early on that ended up anchoring the story. With the Hyde Chronicles I had pages and pages of notes that included every major character’s important information that ended up lost when my computer was stolen. I used the tentpole method when I was working on my quest story. I’ve created mood boards for a few stories and am making a few on Pinterest that I will eventually open up to be public. I’ve used my ramble-y freewriting on probably every novel and most short stories I’ve written.

I promised an announcement. Whimsy and Wonder Publishing (my publishing house) is expanding! There will soon be a Non-fiction imprint. The first book (booklet, really) in that new imprint is a guide to the uses and growing of Lavender. It will be available July 29^th! If you are interested in being an advanced reader, please email me at hjhardingbooks@gmail.com. As an advanced reader, you would receive a copy of the booklet for free, early, in exchange for writing a review when the booklet becomes officially available.  This is ebook only for the present. Please just mention in the review that you are an advanced reader. Thank you.

I am also accepting names for the non-fiction imprint of Whimsy and Wonder.

What ways have you used to outline?

Writing Realistic Injuries

Writing realistic injuries

Sorry about the delay. The holiday started to throw my schedule off and then I ended up with some kind of injury in my right arm affecting the nerves in my elbow, wrist, and fingers.  Typing hurt a lot, and I was trying to rest my arm as much as possible. It’s not quite fixed yet, but I’m doing a lot better, and not in pain anymore. Yay!

But this has inspired today’s post. Writing realistic injuries. As you might guess, this blog post has lots of mentions of various injuries, ways those injuries can be acquired, and ways people might react. I’m not going graphic, but if that’s an issue for you, you may wish to skip.

We all know that your characters have plot armor. It’s pretty common for characters to survive things that are just utterly implausible. This isn’t really about that. Though do maybe spend some time thinking about the odds of survival for someone who went through what your character goes through.

But it’s also very easy to only focus on major plot related injuries, and usually only when they are important to the plot. However, people get injured on a regular basis. I (very briefly) held a job where minor injuries every day or so were the norm. Little things, like scrapes and scratches, punctures that didn’t break the skin. Some injuries were more serious. One person had a leg go through a wooden staircase, while another dropped something very heavy on his foot.

Your characters, as they go through adventures, are probably going to rack up some mundane injuries. The cat (dragon, pack lizard, etc.) scratches them. Paper cuts are common. I once got one from the aluminum foil over a yogurt container, and that’s much worse. People trip on things or stub their toes. Get in a fight? Getting hit hurts. Walking a lot? Hello, blisters and sore muscles. I haven’t had it in years, but I used to have my ankle occasionally go sideways for no reason.

Injuries are not just some plot thing to be thrown in and then forgotten about. Spend a moment to think about how your character gets the injury, how they react to it, and the consequences.

How do they get injured?

Getting hurt is easy. Maybe they are clumsy or just unlucky. Maybe someone tries to hurt them. Maybe their body just hates them, pretty sure mine does. Did your character have some warning such an injury would or could happen, or does it take them by surprise?

To a large extent, this is the least important question. Pain is pain, why does it matter why they feel it? Mostly for the reaction. Let’s say your character has a bad burn. How did she get it? Was it through doing something brave? Doing something stupid? Because someone else was stupid? Because someone was malicious?

Let’s face it, the how will matter to some people, including your character possibly.  People judge. Your character might find being patient during the healing process easier if she feels it was worth it. Or maybe she struggles because she feels ashamed of doing something stupid or being weak. Or, maybe your character wants to say it was worth it because they saved something or someone, but it’s still not quite enough for them.

I don’t want to victim blame, and you should try to avoid it too, but people do make judgments. It could add a little texture to your plot but be careful.

How do they react?

Unless you are invulnerable or have some kind of nerve disorder, pain hurts. That’s the same for the toddler as it is for the trained soldier/assassin. What changes is how we react. Sometimes we learn to push through pain, either through training or necessity or familiarity. Adrenaline dampens pain, so sometimes you don’t realize you are hurt until afterwards. On the other hand, even the most trained individuals can only do so much when punched in the nose.

I use that as a deliberate example. Getting hit in the nose causes pain to blossom in the whole face, causes the eyes to water, which can decrease visibility, often causes bleeding, and is a good way to shock the entire system. It is also possible to kill someone by hitting them in the nose just right.

Maybe someone who trains in boxing, where punches in the nose are expected, could ignore it and move on. Most people are probably going to have a harder time shaking it off.

I don’t know when or if I’ll ever finish it, but I’ve got a loose premise for a story set in a superhero world. My main character is a girl who is obsessed with supers, and of course, eventually becomes one herself. But in the first chapter, she falls off her bike and skins her knees and hands. And it hurts. It isn’t agony, but she doesn’t want to ride her bike anymore because she can’t do it without pain. It’s the kind of pain that any super would quickly have to learn how to ignore, but right now, as a teenage civilian, she just hurts and wants another solution.

I did that deliberately. Because it’s the kind of thing that gets ignored a lot.

What are the consequences?

Injuries don’t end when they happen or only pop up when plot convenient. If your character sprained his ankle, does he have to rest it for a while? Does he limp for a couple days? Is he more prone to twisting his ankle for some time afterwards?

Does the injury leave a permanent scar? Is it an obvious scar? Does it cause any complications? Maybe still hurt in certain circumstances? Not every injury leaves a scar, and some can go away. I had a triangular mark on my hand for a couple years from getting stabbed with my sister’s fingernail (it was an accident). But it’s gone now. On the other hand (literally and metaphorically), I have a very fine scar in the crease between my thumb and the rest of my fingers from broken glass while trying to wash dishes over twenty years ago.

Injuries are weird. I have two other scars, one on the back of my head from the monkey bars back when I was six, and a long one on the bottom of my foot from stepping on a blade on the floor (don’t ask). Are those my most severe injuries? The foot one, maybe. But I don’t think the jungle gym was. I’ve had a lot of falls. A lot of falls. Many of which left scrapes and bruises. I mentioned my ankle giving out, which it did on average of two or three times a year for several years. None of those left anything permanent.

Sometimes a fall leads to bruises and scrapes. Sometimes it leads to broken bones. Sometimes it leads to compartment syndrome (picture may be disturbing) or something equally scary.

How do they react to pain?

I’ll be honest, I have a low pain tolerance. Many people can deal with a lot more pain than I can. But I think the vast majority of people agree with me that when we are in pain, we want it to stop.

I avoided a lot of my normal behaviors over the last week because either they hurt too much or I was afraid that they would aggravate whatever was wrong with my arm. Could I have pushed through? Maybe, but I strongly suspect that would have been the worst way I could have dealt with it.

Maybe your character has no choice. I could minimize what I did with my arm. It was highly inconvenient, but I used it as little as possible. If I had a job as a secretary, for example, I wouldn’t have been able to do that. If I had chronic pain, I would have to learn to adapt. If your character is trying to flee someone who wants to kill them, they may have no choice but to run on that sprained ankle.

In less stressed encounters, how do they normally react while in pain? Most of us don’t handle it the best. People get snappish, less patient, more aggravated. Hurt people hurt people. Unless they make a conscious effort not to.

Of course, in Speculative Fiction, you have advanced magic and technology that can speed up the whole healing process. Though, possibly not without side effects.

Arm is starting to act up again, so I think it’s time to wind this up. Next time I think I’ll have some exciting news to share with everyone.

Have any of your characters had ongoing consequences of an injury? How did they deal with them?