Outlining

I'm trying out a new form of posting (emailing stuff to the blog), so hopefully that'll work. Also: Emily (Harper), have you received this? I have it set so that it emails all new posts to you as I post them.

Last October, when I was outlining The Clockwork Experiment, my outline grew to be 23 pages long, the details of which were mostly edited out. It was all layers of bullets using Microsoft Word's Outline mode.

This year, I intended to go in with nothing but the submission packet (query, premise sentence, and synopsis) that I wrote up for it for my Creative Writing exam last spring.

Then I found this, and I've been using that outlining spreadsheet. Each of the different steps comes with its own sheet within the book (term for the overall spreadsheet), as well as its own deadline! I'm on step three now, which is basic character names, motivations, goals, and obstacles, which isn't due until the 14th. (Side note: That "premise sentence" turned out to be the length of a paragraph. I'm good at informative dependent clauses, which maybe isn't the greatest talent in clear and coherent writing).

The thing is, since this is a re-write of something I did in 6th grade, I already have half a cast of characters ready-made. Since I have to change most of their names for various reasons (such as copying off of other books I've read), and that I had already done some name changing in 6th and 7th grade, some characters have gone through 3 or 4 names since their creation, which leaves me hopelessly confused (as well as grateful for the character page in the outline book).

I've had to pull out the folder with the original pages in it just to find the names (and existence) of certain people.

I feel like a scholar going through ancient documents or something, and trying to write a book about her findings. Except I wrote the "ancient documents."

Something I've learned about my 6th grade self: I sucked at originality. Practically everything was a poorly-concealed rip-off of a book or movie I loved at the time (most of which I still love). Maybe now I've just consumed enough media that my rip-offs blend together enough that they seem original.

I really wasn't going to outline, but it's turning out to be incredibly helpful.

Besides, I'm having fun! :D

Views on "The Quad N: New Beginnings" = 7. One of which I know is Audrey's. Who else saw it, and what did you think?

Writing vs. Life

“I love Munich, and I love being in cities with lots of other people because I’m reminded that there are billions of people like me and we are each stuck inside of our minds feverishly trying to crawl out to make connections with other people.” - John Green


My creative writing teacher from last semester recently posted on his blog that he "let life get in the way of writing."


Well, okay.


My thoughts on that are this: How is that possible?


In my mind, writing and life are inexorably intertwined. Even if I'm not actively writing or planning a story or poem or whatever, everything that happens to me has an effect on my writing. 


Here's what YA author Maureen Johnson had to say about it in her post on MFAs:


"The best material and the best method comes from life, life outside of the routine of college. Sure, stuff can happen to you in college—really weird and crazy stuff. But you’d be amazed just how SIMILAR a lot of that weird and crazy stuff is, how a lot of people will have the same stories.


Here’s a little story about ME . . .
“Great!” you may say. “That’s means people will LIKE my story because it will remind them of their own experiences!”
It doesn’t work that way. The key is PERSPECTIVE. You need experience and time to figure out how to frame those events, to realize what they mean in the long run. Plus, you just need MORE STUFF to happen to you outside of the confines of a campus. You need to struggle and have heartache and have to search for a job and a place to live and make important decisions.
The people I saw who really excelled in the MFA program were people who had been out of school at least for a few years. Pretty much all of these people had had jobs. And some people had come from very different fields of study. The difference in the writing was incredible. I mean, even if you are writing about vampires or werewombats . . . you still need to instill your story with an underlying BIG TRUTH about love or loss. Maybe you want to write about a girl who moves to New York to make it big! Awesome! What do you know about that? Have you tried to move to a place and make it big? Have you ever moved anywhere on your own? It’s experience and perspective that give stories depth.
Frankly, I don’t push MFAs on people at all. I did one, and I’m glad, but I don’t think it is what made me. And when I look around at all of my writer friends, I’m the ONLY one (that I can think of) with an MFA. They all had various kinds of experiences. John Green was a hospital chaplain. Ally Carter was an agricultural economist. David Leviathan still is an editor/publisher. Justine Larbalestier has a PhD in semiotics. Scott Westerfeld designed software. Robin Wasserman did her graduate work in scientific history. Cassie Clare worked for the National Enquirer. Meg Cabot ran a dormitory. The list goes on and on.
I had loads of jobs. I was a waitress in a theme restaurant, I traveled around the country with a media company, I worked in theater, I worked with tigers and weirdos and directors who made everyone take off their pants for rehearsal, for management consultants who used incomprehensible jargon . . . and I wrote. I used a lot of what I saw. I used crazy customers. I used the worry of not being able to make the rent. I used the psychology I learned from waiting tables. I used the struggle and loss and uncertainty and excitement and wisdom . . . all from things that happened to me after I left the security of a campus and moved to a city and made it on my own.


See?

You're supposed to "write what you know." If all you know is what you've read, and what you've written, all of your stuff will end up sounding like other people's books, and very similar to your own. So I don't think you should spend all of your time reading and writing. Both are great, and both are necessary, but there needs to be more.

This, I believe, is part of the reason the first version of Ishaera was so terrible. All I knew was other media I'd consumed. Now I'm older, and I've had more experiences, and I've read considerably more, so even when stuff combines, you can't tell because so much other stuff has been mixed in.

So this is why I don't feel bad that I haven't written anything in...a month? (I've written a song. That's about it.) I mean, I do feel a little bad (what with the "write every day" maxim that's repeated so much), but it doesn't bother me too much. I am living, and living is what is important. Both to my writing and to me.

The End. (See? I'm way out of practice. lol)

CW Exam

Last night I had a dream that during my Creative Writing exam (which I took today), Dumbledore walked in and told us that for his Headmaster National Boards (NBs are these things that teachers do to get more money), he had to write a song, but he didn't feel like writing a song, so he'd gone down to the band room to get the jazz band to write him the music, and he wanted us to write the lyrics. So we did, because our teacher didn't make him leave. So by the end of the exam period, I only had about half a paragraph written.

These are the kind of dreams I have when I'm nervous about something.

My actual exam consisted of me sitting in a chair for 3 hours...writing. I had to write an elevator pitch, a query, a 1-2 page synopsis, and the first chapter of my "current (imaginary) WIP." I wrote about Ishaera.
I happen to be rather pleased with how the first chapter turned out. I now need to find a way to get it back from Mr. Nantz... after he's graded it, of course.
My hand was very cramped afterwards.

Thought of the day: Confidence is important.

That thought was gained by means of my sister's piano recital last night.

Plotting & Stuff

Whatever the new Doctor Who episode was called...it was awesome. I can't wait for the next one. I love the weeping angels.

In Creative Writing, our assignment is to plot out a novel, making sure we follow 3-Act, and preferably also 8-Sequence structure. So I'm taking advantage of the time and working on the plot for The Family Business. At the moment, it's turning out to be more of a comedy than I thought it would be. Hopefully I can pull it off. As of now, I'll be doing it for NaNoWriMo this year.
Our unit on plotting has been fascinating.

Editing another 50 pages of Clockwork to send to you. Once I give you these, you'll have read up through page 150. Sorry these are late.

Not much else has been happening, other than that I found a cool new blog: http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com. Mostly about plotting (we were told to explore the post archives during class today).

I can't watch a movie anymore without thinking "Look! A ticking clock!" or "Long Dark Night of the Soul!" or "Gathering the Team scene!"

It's rather annoying. Even though it's probably helpful.

Ender's Zombie Fame

We were required to write fan fiction in Creative Writing yesterday. I'm serious. Our assignment was to take whatever book we're currently reading, pick a protagonist of our own invention, and write a story with that protagonist in a setting within that novel and involve a chase scene.
I ended up with Agent John Johnson chasing a "Decepticon" (his name for enemy agents) running through Battle School (in Ender's Game. Read it.) and into the Battle Room (where there is no gravity). I normally don't like fan fiction, but it was surprisingly fun to write. It's called "Ender's Fame," just to be corny with the rhyming names.

Expect more of Clockwork in your inboxes sometime over the weekend. Hopefully.

A Few Little Things

I've been assigned my first actual story to write for class. It's too long the way it is now for the word limit, so I'm going to transform it into more of a bedtime story type thing.
A few more chapters of Clockwork to come on Wednesday. :D Eager for your feedback.
I recommend the latest vlogbrothers video on the hypocrisy of big corporations.

Reading wise, I've got about 300 pages left of The Eye of the World. Next...I might read Dune, or The Time Traveler's Wife, or Stardust or one of my nonfiction books, or the next Wheel of Time book.

1/50 Characters

Considering this character spawned from part of our conversation last meeting, I thought I'd share him with you:

Max Kerbrem

A small community acting group, specializing in under-ten-actor plays, meets for their rehearsal of a slightly adapted version of Othello. Before they begin, they stand around chatting for a few minutes. It becomes apparent that every member of the group knows the same person, James Southropin, but none of them knew the others knew him. Max Cerbrem is astonished. “Why is it that everyone I know knows each other?”

Maybe that’s true for the acting group, but Max is known for his astonishing ability to find connections between the most estranged of things. He loves suspense and mystery films, often figuring out the plot/crime before the protagonist does, as well as watching tennis on TV. This year’s Australian Open is coming to a close, and Max is supporting Andy Murray. During the epic match between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, Max was rooting for Roger and felt horrible afterwards, so now he always hopes the lesser-known player will become the champion.

Max, a jingoist with a bit of a goatee, is fairly active politically as he has a relatively well-known radio show. The 31-year-old’s “friends,” led by Southropin, are secretly plotting to kill him as part of creating one global country. They know he’s a threat to their plans, which is why they have come together around him in order to eliminate his existence.

Sorry, Zach Dickerson, for making you into a murderer.

A Butt In Chair Day

Today was a Butt In Chair Day. I worked on my 50 characters for about an hour. I should be typing all of that up right now. Obviously, I'm not. I'll do that after dinner or something.

I've been taking characters from Clockwork, When The Sun Was In Your Hair, The Family Business, as well as some abandoned projects. I've also been creating new ones, of course.

And wow, has this assignment evolved The Family Business. I've worked out a good deal more stuff about the characters you know about, added several more (Bubos Puth being the most hilarious of them), and decided some things about the world Jake and co. live in. I might have to bring some of the descriptions next meeting just so you guys can have the information. Clockwork combined with Homework (that was a joke) will likely be keeping me too busy to work on much else. I also have to work in some time for me to do nothing more than play solitaire and watch YouTube videos (yeah, lazy me. Too bad.).

I haven't actually written the ones for Clockwork yet, so no astonishing things about that, but I did figure out some more motivations regarding the robots on the way home last night. No, they are not all going to be robots, by the way. You will just have to wait and see.

When The Sun Was In Your Hair, in case you don't know (which you probably don't), is what I worked on for the latter half of 8th grade. At the time, I intended it to one day be a published novel, but now I realize that it's pretty crappy stuff I don't want anyone to ever read ever (yet more people [just 2] have read it than have read the entirety of any of my other longer works). It sits sadly at around 52,000 words, abandoned. Looking back, I see that it was actually my form of self-psychotherapy. I needed to work through issues in my life and tell someone some things about me. Now I've either evolved out of those issues or have come to terms with them. I don't need Sun anymore. The characters are there (a version of one of them turned up later in 2009, oddly enough), and I'm using them for the assignment, but that's all the use it will give me, I believe, without so much editing that it would probably end up being an entirely different book.

We're in the computer lab for some of tomorrow typing up some of the character stuff, and then Monday and Tuesday will also be Butt In Chair days. 1.5 hours a day in which I can write with little relent while listening to my iPod if I so choose (which I didn't until I got to Evendara Diabbla, since I didn't have appropriate music for any of the other ones).

And my teacher for that class has such a bias towards us. The other classes (he teaches AP and Standard English 12) aren't allowed their iPods, gum, food, or a few other things we get. Ah, the unexpected perks of being a writer. :D

A Character of an Assignment

Ah, cheesy post titles. At least you sound mildly interesting.

We spent most of Creative Writing today reading each other our character profiles/paragraphs. Many were interesting, many were depressing, and many were about a hitman-priest.

Our homework was all of the above, with the priest being optional. We have to write 47 more character profiles for 47 more characters. An interesting assignment, a depressingly large assignment, and an assignment to possibly include a hitman-priest.

I'm thinking of doing some of them on characters I already have. My teacher won't know, and this could really be helpful to me. That's the point, right? To improve my writing?

So far I've completed 5/50 (including the 3 already done for homework last night), and am working on another one. Two of them (Anthony and Alfred Zuckermangut) are brothers, and I might do one about Mrs. Paula Urga-Torie's husband Robert.
This has proven to be a difficult yet enjoyable thing to do.

Crap, I need to go to my math homework. I completely forgot about that. Grrr.

Creative Writing I

A new post because I forgot to mention everything in the last one and this stuff is irrelevant to the topic of the last one.

I started Creative Writing I today. I must say, I didn't have the highest expectations for it, but it's turning out to be pretty awesome so far (yeah, there's only been 1.5 hours of it, but still). We talked about common character constructs (like the Gandalf figure and the Orphan Hero Who Knows Not Of His True Background (Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, Eragon)), the problems of writing urban fantasy in today's market (Twilight, it's all your fault the agents are tired of your genre), writing in general, reading, and mostly characters.
My teacher wrote some of these things on the board. There were ten total:

1. a lovesick dragon
2. Space Commander Jezlak
3. "The Creature"
4. a repeating 8th grader
5. a homicide detective in Baltimore
6. a demon on holiday
7. a time-shifting android
8. a navy bomber in Vietnam

And I don't remember what the other ones were.
Our assignment for homework was to pick 3 of these things (the three I chose are up there, of course) and write character profiles of them. There was a lot of emphasis on the importance of characters today.
The first one I wrote (Jezlak) was just a paragraph describing him. Then I got bored with that mode of expression. This is creative writing. So the next one (the Creature) was dialog. Only dialog, no quotation marks or words in between. The third is a letter (the 8th grader).

We're supposed to bring a "popular book" (meaning something that is the sort of thing we'd like to write, meaning not Great Expectations) every day. Some days will just be Reading Days, some days we'll do exercises with the books, some days will be B.I.C. days (Butt In Chair) on which we write and only write, and some days we'll do other stuff like today.

My wrist is sore from typing. Why is this? I haven't even been doing much of it today...

In other news, I'm also taking Healthful Living I (NOOOOO), Algebra II (meh), and Band (yay).