NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is coming up, and people are preparing to slam out 50,000 words between November 1 and November 30. The people at Creative Live have decided to offer a discount on a bunch of their how-to-write classes as part of “NaNoWriMo prep month.” This means that if you are available at the right time of day, you can watch those classes for free all the way through (as opposed to being limited to just one or two sample segments). (Creative Live streams their classes live over the day or two of initial taping; after that, you have to pay if you want on-demand access, or wait six or eight months for a rerun.)
They’ve been doing this all month, though I just found out about it last week. I’ve spent the past couple of days watching some of their writing offerings. I recommend dipping into them, for people who have time and inclination – all the ones that I saw make very interesting points, and all you’re committing is your time. Most tend toward analytical, systematic approaches, but there are at least a few that have a more “yeah, you could do this, but other people do this other thing” attitude, which I prefer (even when I really like the particular systematic approach the lecturer is touting. Because There Is No One True Way To Write.)
As a result of all this binge-watching, I have been thinking about process all week, mainly about misconceptions about process and why people might have them. I came up with quite a few.
- It took this writer a while to discover how they work, and it is so very much easier for them than everything else they have ever tried that they are sure it will be easier and better for everyone else, too. This one is particularly common among writers who have moved into teaching without ever having had much exposure to other writers who don’t work the way they do.
- The person has critiqued, taught, or edited a lot of mss., and watched the same mistakes and problems crop up over and over. So they design a system to prevent these problems from happening in the first place. These systems can be really helpful if those are the sort of mistakes and problems you make routinely; even if the system is totally at odds with your process, you can often adapt it as a tool for editing and revising in the second and third draft.
- There is some aspect of writing that comes easily to them, or that they love doing, and they assume this is going to be the best/easiest/most fun place for everyone to start. Or it’s an aspect of writing that they consider vital (usually that means it’s either plot or character), and because this thing is so fundamental, it is the best place to begin. They design systems that start from this “good place,” assuming that it will be the right spot for anyone and everyone to start working and/or that it will keep other writers from making certain basic mistakes.
- There are things that they need to know, or need to NOT know, before they start a story. Since they go off the rails if this is not the case, other writers must need to know/not-know these things in advance, too. This comes out really, really clearly if you get a planner and a pantser talking to each other about process. One will say “I need to discover the story as I write; I get blocked if I know too much about the end; I have to surprise myself or I lose interest in writing; outlines make me feel trapped and claustrophobic.” Then the other says “I need constraints to do my best work; I get blocked if I don’t know where I am going; everything comes out as a hot mess if I don’t have a plan in advance and I get discouraged and stop writing; having an outline makes me feel safe, even though I know I can change it whenever I want.” And then they look at each other and start spluttering “but…but…but…”
Fundamentally, all of these systems start from the basic assumption that they need to make it easier for a writer to get to a finished product. Some writers have a hard time seeing that a scene needs to be cut (and even more trouble letting go of it); fine, let’s design everything in advance so they never write an unnecessary scene. Some writers have trouble creating a causal plot chain; OK, let’s examine every scene for cause-and-effect before they actually start writing their novel. Some writers have trouble bringing their story to a climax, and end up wandering off into left field and petering out; great, make everyone write their ending scene first, so they know where they are going.
There are several things wrong with this one-size-fits-all approach. First, trying to “solve” problems a particular writer doesn’t have may very well screw up other things about their process and/or story. Second, I don’t think there is a way to make the writing process smooth and easy and angst-free. We are all looking for the faster/easier/better way to write … but I do not know anyone who has ever found it.
The thing is, sooner or later, one is bound to run into a writing situation where, in order to make this book better, one is going to have to do X thing that is really, really hard and painful, and it’s going to take time and energy and determination to make oneself do it. And X thing is not going to be the same thing for everyone. Or for every book. At its most obvious, a system for advance planning will not work for pantsers; a system calibrated for burst writers won’t work for the slow-and-steady. Since most systems and classes don’t remind you of this, you have to remember for yourself that you need to take what seems useful and test what looks workable … and let it go if it doesn’t work for you.
I’m in the process of creating my first webcomic, and I’ve discovered that most of the advice in how-to-make-comics books about writing the script doesn’t work for me, mainly because it involves a lot of outlining and I’m a pantser who needs to write my way into the plot. I start out with a general idea of where the story is going and a few ideas of things that I want to have happen along the way, but there are always surprises that pop up as I write. It took me a while to realize that even though a comics script is a different format than my usual stories, I needed to use the method that works for me in order to get anywhere.
Not only does a given process not work for all writers, it doesn’t work for all stories. You never learn how to write *a* novel; you only learn how to write the novel you’re working on *now*.
As far as NaNoWriMo goes, I personally found it useful to go through once—pushing through to a deadline while knowing that thousands of people around the world were suffering the same torments as I was. And carving into my brain the knowledge that I can indeed put A Lot Of Words on paper in a relatively short time.
After that first time, however, I found myself just using tricks to enhance my word count, pursuing the 50k-word total with a marked degneneration of quantity over quality.
You said it.
I was just ranting in my own blog about people who insist that you start the process with a logline, or a main character, or an antagonist. . . .
https://marycatelli.dreamwidth.org/1024233.html
What’s a logline?
Judging by her blog, I think it’s a one-sentence summary of the plot.
You got it in one.
There are how-to-write books that insist you start with it.
Just wanted to say, I very much appreciate your blog and your approach that every writer is different and has their own way of tackling things.
I think a LOT of people tend to forget that writing is an ART and those doing it are artists – and NONE of us are created the same way. We all approach things uniquely to us. Which. . .let’s face it. . .is a good thing or the books coming out would be awfully boring rehashes of the same things again and again. (And as it is, they already can be sometimes. lol The old adage ‘nothing new under the sun’ is, unfortunately, to true, but we can at least find new angles to present old materials!)
For myself, I have always been a ‘pantster’. However, as much as I have written, and as much as I would like to publish at some point (this is NOT that HIGH on my priority list, honestly. I love writing, but am not thrilled with the whole publishing process. Although, I may be getting closer to be willing to grapple with it to send some stuff out into the world.) I really need to properly FINISH some of my stories. However, as a panster, I almost always have the same problem. SOMEWHERE in the story, I fizzle out – hit a wall and have absolutely NO clue where the story is going, much less how to get there. This gets rather depressing.
Recently I’ve discovered ‘authortube’ on youtube, and have looked closer to Nanowrimo, etc (not something I’m going to do again. DId it last year and regret it. 😛 Burned myself out and have not been able to write since. I am now struggling to deal with that burn out and get back into it. Yay. I already knew Nano wasn’t my thing. Now I know for sure. :P) and have listened to what other people do and how they do things. It’s good, in the sense that. . .what I have been doing isn’t working for me, really. So I’m listening, taking ideas and tools and settling in to try them for myself. See how they work, how I like it and how I can adapt them (or not) for my own use. Such as. . .outlining.
I’ve never liked outlining. It seems like it was wasted time to plan the story before writing it. Seems to spoil the surprise or the ‘creativity’ of actually writing. Or does it? However – I’m seeing the positive side of it now. Plan the story before I write. Work out at least the major path of the story. The ‘high points’, as it were. What I need to happen, where I want it to go – iron out some of those ridiculously sized plot holes, etc. When I have a generally full picture, I SHOULD be able to sit down and write the story – and, as long as I hit all the check points, I should have complete freedom in between to ‘create’ as I go. At least that’s the plan – as I struggle through the burn-out. lol
But, yes, I like to hear what people have to say. But you don’t really want it shoved down your throat as if their way is the ONLY way, either. It’s not. But it is nice of them to share so you can try it and see if it might work for you, in some form.
I hit the fizzle problem.
It might help you to think of the outline as being a really really really ROUGH first draft.
Basically mine are a list of scenes. (Higher level outlines don’t really work for me.)
Whereas my first drafts look like rather lengthy outlines. I have to flesh them out bit by bit, and it takes a while.
The closest I ever got to writing a novel in a month was when I did a fanfic (about 75K words total) providing closure to an online game I played that was closing in mid-story-arc. We were told it was shutting down in eighteen weeks; I spent one week rough-plotting and wrote a chapter per week for the other seventeen. That was in 2005; I don’t think I could do it now.
And then they look at each other and start spluttering “but…but…but…”
^ Every conversation I have ever had about process, ever.
Some writers have trouble creating a causal plot chain
Oh. That sounds… I wonder if that might possibly be the thing I’m talking about when I say I have trouble with plot. Might you be able to expand on that in some future post?