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One of the joys of writing Blue Moon is finding uses for elements I introduced earlier just for color or bits of business. Do people writing novels do this, too, or is the tuxedo cat stealing cream in chapter four never to be seen again?
What if you needed a sudden noise in the middle of the night in chapter thirteen? Wouldn't it make sense for Mr. Underfoot to turn out to be the same cat? And then, near the climax when the villain needs to send a message, poor little kitty gets a curtain call?
Grisly example but does this happen in novel-writing?
Writing a serial I'm finding out is like butchering a buffalo, you end up using every last bit of the animal except for that ugly little organ no one knows what it's called. ::grin::
So is it like that for a novel or is it more like an architect who knows what to do with every brick and eyebolt?
Donna
Comments
It's like that for me
When I'm writing a long piece I have certain things that I know are going to happen, but connecting them together is a very fluid process. Often times minor characters or insignificant side plots get elevated in importance.
Scott
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of--but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
Lazarus Long - Robert A. Heinlein's 'Time Enough for Love'
Bree
The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.
-- Tom Clancy
http://genomorph.tglibrary.com/ (Currently broken)
http://bree-ramsey314.livejournal.com/
Twitter: @genomorph
Same here ...
... to the point where sometimes I wonder if my subconscious is putting things in that it KNOWS i'm going to need later. *smiles* Maybe my subconscious is a better writer than i am!
Randalynn
My unconscous is a better writter than I and so are our cats
Heck, my late mother could probably do better.
I find, like Donna/Adonna, I recycle a lot and my danged characters take off on their own. I had a pretty good idea where Timeout Whateley Academy Fan Fic was going and then all these interesting side *roads* opened up and the readers kept asking about this and that and wouldn't it be great if...
Here I am at Timeout 4, chapter 8 underway, with a Christmas story, two Glacier Girl side stories -- the last two parts of the second story are not forgotten I promiss -- and two Fan Fics of my fan fic being readied to post here. I feel like the socerer's apprentis.
I don't dare throw any of my old ideas away, I find that "Wow, that one fits perfect here" or "Boy with a minor tweak this abandoned bit is just the thing to fix this delema."
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Discipline, Donna!
In the creative process, you can do anything you want -- anything. Minor figures become major, and major sub-plots are abandoned as the muse takes you in another direction. I tell you though, I can't do a serial of any complexity unless I finish the whole thing beforehand, otherwise the risk is too high that what I've written is either too much, or that I'll find out to my dismay that I've blown a great opportunity by not being able to go back and add something to satisfy a "neat" late plot twist.
One author said that until it's done, you have nothing. She wrote novels for publication, so her point was that unless a story had a beginning, a solid middle, and an ending, and they all meshed the she wanted them to, then there wasn't really *anything* there, just words and ideas. I pretty much believe it.
It's not a criticism of people who write serials or anything like that. It has its purpose. By all means, let your mind go, flow, let the wind blow, release you mojo, whatever. Sometimes it can turn out rather well. BUT, I'll bet that there isn't a single extemporaneously written serial that couldn't be improved by taking the entire mass and reconstructing it, cutting out and adding in, rearranging to make it more of a coherent whole.
Just my $.02.
Aardvark
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
I take your point
But I'll counter:
"I'll bet that there isn't a single novel of any sort that couldn't be improved by taking the entire mass and reconstructing it, cutting out and adding in, rearranging to make it more of a coherent whole."
It's really a null statement, since perfection doesn't really exist. ::grin::
But a novel is a different thing than a serial written on the fly. It's like saying a trapeze artist would get there faster if they walked. And we already had this discussion last week. ::grin::
And your lady who said, "until it's done, you have nothing," was writing for publication in which case, economically she's right -- you don't get paid till you turn in finished work. But a child that dies at age ten is still valued, and so does a serial that ends at chapter ten have value. Just not for everybody.
For what it's worth, I do intend to take "Blue Moon" and "improve" it and repost it as a BigCloset premium novel. ::smile::
-- Donna Lamb, Flack
-- Donna Lamb, ex-Flack
Some of my books and stories are sold through DopplerPress to help support BigCloset. -- Donna
Finished
I don't know who Aard was referring too, but I do know Wen Spencer said something similar. Her point was not that you don't get paid until it's finished, which is true. It's impossible to polish and edit until you have that beginning, middle and end Aardy mentioned. How can you get feedback on the story as a whole from just reading parts?
One of my first acts after finishing a tale is to chapter by chapter read it backwards. Others have given this advise as well and it does work. I can check my logic and make sure I've taken care of all the dangling plot ends this way. With out a ending this is much harder. I have nothing against serials but they would drive me mad trying to write one. Or in other words just not my style.
Yes characters do suddenly demand more 'screen' time and some killed in an earlier chapter has come back to life. I love it! To me this means the work is alive and I am more interacting with it than dictating. That is fun and enjoyable. Dictating is not.
Hugs!
grover
Editing in process
Grover, you say, " It's impossible to polish and edit until you have that beginning, middle and end Aardy mentioned. "
That just isn't true, I've written serials and polished and edited constantly throughout the whole process. When you're posting chapters as you write them it's different but isn't impossible. :)
The reading chapters backwards trick was what I did when writing "Urban Renewal". Not just at the end but not for every new chapter either. But I did do it a few times while working on the story. It works. :)
Typically, I write a chapter, re-read and polish it, then re-read at least the previous chapter and polish and expand the current one again. Then I let it cool for an hour or a day, proof and possibly polish some more then post. Except for posting, it's pretty much how I write when I'm not posting a chapter as I go.
As for feedback -- on Urban Renewal, I got 16 comments on the final chapter and 4 to 16 comments on most of the other chapters (that's counting replies by me, too). The 16 is pretty typical for a novelette posted all at once here. I'll probably get that many again when I repost it all at once after a final edit and polish.
If writing a novel is like building a building, writing a serial is like tending a garden. :)
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Smiling
That's why I'll never be able to write a serial. *Grins* Now I do edit some as I go along for grammar and other mistakes that creep in. But that last one for context and logic at the end is the one that pulls the story together. Sometimes I have to tell those characters that demand a part no and they end up on the cutting room floor.
Besides I'm still fairly new at this and honestly is still finding out what works for me. To have a whole completed story after leaving so many unfinished is still a marvel for me. Yes I still feel a enormous sense of accomplishment placing the words "the end" in their proper place. True that edit I was talking about is still to be done but ...
For me the advise "until you finish you don't have anything" gave me the 'push' needed to finish my first story, "A Princess's Wishes: a Halloween Fairy Tale" I understand about series and do see how they are an exception. Perhaps one day I will write a serial when I have more experience under my belt. I have learned the hard way that the words "never and impossible" have a way of coming back to haunt me! :)
Hugs!
grover