Sunday, April 12, 2009

Novel Writing Day #3

Today I finished with my synopsis writing, character developing and scene charting. I'm pretty happy with the wad of paper work that I have accrued. What I found most helpful from doing the preparatory work using the methods I already mentioned was
1. Writing the story synopsis/out line from the other character's points of views. I usually put a lot of work into the non pov major characters and the notable minors and know a lot about them before I start writing, but I've never thought about what the book would be like written from their point of view before. For some of the secondary characters I found it a challenge to write the story from their pov and still make it dynamic and interesting. I learned a lot about my characters doing it, and about the blind spots in my writing.
2. Focusing on finishing each paragraph, bar the last, of the plot outline on a disaster (from the snowflake method). While I think you have to be wary of making your writing too formulaic and boiling it down to a science rather than an art, I enjoyed examining each scene to see exactly how it drove the story forward and how to make it page turning even when it wasn't action orientated.
I have also written out various words on a big sheet of paper to remind of things that I like in books and that I don't want to lose sight of while writing Gift. Things like MAGIC. I hope it will help keep me focused.
I hope to start chapter one tomorrow, even if it is only the first couple of paragraphs. It will be hard to get any serious writing done because we're celebrating Easter and I'm in charge of the vegetarian dish (I got off very easy). Also, I suppose I should take one day off. As we know, all work and no play makes Inky a dull girl.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love hearing about your preparations (and the viewing the story through the minor characters' eyes is interesting - also opens the debate as to whether your novel is going to be 'hero' ie subjective or objective - ) BUT I want you to hurry up and start it as dying to read it

DNOTY2007 said...

Yes, I agree! Glad to hear that you have completed the synopsis - that's pretty good!

(I don't think doing dinner for vegetarians is necessarily easy!!)

Unknown said...

Prepare away Inky!

May the best writer wins.

SSQuo said...

You are really writing writing writing! That's great.

I like the idea of placing the words you like to integrate in front of you. I think that simple action DOES help. Its a simple reminder and it stays in the subconcious.

Inkpot said...

Interesting point, Anon, about subjective or objective. Glad to hear you are eager to read the finished project.

Dinner for veggies is hard all right DNOTY2007/2008. They are a picky bunch.

Thanks Shadowthorne. I suppose I am competing against writers in general or did you have a more specific opponent in mind? :)

Yay, SSQuo, I'm writing again! :) It helps me keep on track having the words in front of me so that when I wonder off on a tangent I know where to find my way back too.