Info Dumps

Yesterday I mentioned a twist to the heroine’s back story in BEAR. I came upon this twist because I needed an excuse to reveal a truth about the world in BEAR. I’d begun to think that this particular truth would end up being one of those little world-building tidbits that the writer knows, but which ends up on the cutting room floor, and I hated that. Not because this part of their world is wonderful or fantastic–quite the opposite. I think this tidbit could effectively show the dark side of their society and would hopefully make the reader begin to question why everyone (the hero especially) accepts the status quo.

So while this truth may not be essential to the plot, I feel it would be a subtle, effective way to mark the beginning of the end. The problem with tidbits like that is how easy they become info dumps (blocks of information that the writer needs to convey, but which is lumped into paragraphs or pages and not layered into the story). The best visual reference I can give for an info dump is an early John Wayne movie I saw recently, Texas Terror. (Personally, I have no idea where that title came from. I guess they must have been in Texas, but I didn’t see any terror.)

When the heroine first arrives on the scene–dressed, by the way, in stylish ’30’s fashion that kind of stands out in a western–she looks directly at the camera under the guise of speaking to the driver and says, “I’ll be awfully glad to get home. You see, I’m Bess Mathews, and I own the Lazy-M Ranch. There must be thousands of cattle and at least a hundred cowboys. And just think–I’m going to be boss!” This is, naturally, followed by the lines, “Oh! Look at those wildflowers,” which she then wanders off to go pick.

This, my friends, is an info dump, rightly inheriting an eye roll and groan of disbelief. Yes, okay–the movie was only 50 minutes long, so the whole thing was peppered with scenes like this, but it’s not the way to write a book. All writers spit out info dumps now and then. The trick is to recognize them and filter them out before they hit the public. Hopefully, I’ll manage to avoid any such mishaps in BEAR.

The Joys of Being a Pantser

So, for those who don’t know (I’m looking at you, Misi), there are two basic types of writers: pantsers and plotters. Pantsers are people who make the stories up as they go along. They “write by the seat of their pants”, if you will. Plotters are, of course, people who plan out everything before writing a word of the book itself. Not exactly rocket science, you ken?

While most writers fall somewhere in between the two extremes, they usually identify with one camp or the other. I, safely ensconced in the world of averagedom, am no different. I’m a pantser, but I do a little skeleton plotting, too. I have the overall concept, the ending, and a few key turning points in my head before I begin to write, and I like to plan a step or two ahead of where I’m at currently. So if my characters are about to go into the spooky mansion, I’ve already decided that Scooby’s going to accidentally hit a hidden switch on the stairwell that separates him from the rest of the group and completely freak out. I may not know where he’s going to end up yet, but I’m a still a step ahead of them.

Now, what does this have to do with anything? In terms of world viewpoint and attempted contribution to the literati, absolutely nothing. I’m just excited because I may have found a twist to the heroine’s backstory in BEAR that’d make it look like I’m a plotter while still being true to my pantser roots. *Grins* It’s the little things in life.

The Neat Stuff Out in the Internet Ether

In an effort to fulfill all Librarian-esque duties for my local RWA chapter, I asked members for their favorite research and/or writing tips, tricks, and techniques websites with the intention of gathering all the links and placing them in a couple easy-to-access locations for the group as a whole. I’m going to wait a few more days before sorting and displaying as only a handful of people have been able to respond so far, but holy toledo–what they’ve sent me is pretty damn cool. I didn’t know this stuff was out there in the internet, ripe for the taking, which is stupid of me, I know, but still. Way cool.

The chapter gets first priority, but once I get the list set up over there, I may have to still a link or two for my site. *Grins* Granted no one minds.

So? Anyone out in this neck of the woods have any really neat research sites to recommend?

Speaking of research, I stumbled on a History Channel show called “Life After People” which was, in a “this is totally a sign” semi-creepy way, just what I needed when I needed it. The show describes what would happen to all the man-made structures if humanity were suddenly wiped from the planet. Not exactly your Tuesday night pick-me-up, but fascinating nonetheless. The two characters talking loudest at the moment (who aren’t the ones I need to be focusing on, by the way, though I decided to let it go because writing something was better than writing nothing), while decidedly human which makes the basic principle of the show a bit moot, are a part of a world where the human population had been abruptly and drastically been reduced, so a lot of it still applied.

“Character Development”

As I mentioned yesterday, I stumbled upon an unconventional character development tool: The Sims.

Okay, okay. So really I was procrastinating, but hey–a game can be a useful tool.

Yeah, you’re right. That’s pushing it, but within those lost hours of playing a three-dimensional version of simulated life with a clear hierarchy of needs, I decided to create a neighborhood based on my various stories and/or ideas. (Sure, it’d have been better to actually write the stories, but we’re moving past that.) Granted, no matter how well made The Sims, the game could never simulate the stuff that goes on in my head, but when creating the characters, I found myself pondering details that I don’t usually consider.

I tend to have a much better concept of my heroines. Aside from the obvious advantage of being a woman myself, I was raised with two sisters, often surrounded by a passel of aunts, female cousins, and friends from school. (How my father survived while surrounded by so much estrogen, I’ll never know. Bless his heart.) But while the heroines are often vivid, the heroes tend to be a little more vague until I’ve gotten deeper into the story.

Working out the hero from the first of the sisters series, Daniel, in the game, I had to not only settle on his appearance, but the aspects of his personality. Sure, there are limitations that exist in the game that don’t exist in real life, but I still had to decide whether he was more nice than neat. Would he be more drawn to groups or one-on-one interactions? How serious is he? How creative?

Then, when setting up his household, I needed to keep that personality in mind. What would he have lying around? Would he do anything with the yard? Hang up pictures? And in doing all that, I discovered more about my hero than I thought I would. What I’d intended to be a sheer waste of time became, in a way, educational. I discovered that Daniel is creative, but with an eye for the bigger picture with a tendency to lose sight of details. He likes clean, clear lines, bold statements, and sharp colors. Understated and loyal, Daniel does well in social situations but has no problem being alone. He’s a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy, who’s interested in so much that he has a tendency to start projects and never finish them, always moving on to the next “ooh, shiny!” What fully captures his attention, though, becomes a lifelong passion.

And here all this time I’d just had him written down as a brunette with gray eyes.

Still Working Out the Kinks

Okay, so I didn’t get much writing done this past weekend. Actually, I haven’t done much writing this entire week, but I’m not counting Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday because real life needed my attention. I’ll admit I have no real excuse for Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. I managed to get a little written late last night, but it’s hardly worth mentioning. Maybe a 100 words or so, which would be fine and dandy if I’d managed that every day, but I figured out pretty quick last month that I don’t do well with that schedule.

My main goal this weekend was to attempt to plot some of the sister’s series. I’ve plotted before using the index card method. You know, where you write down plot points on index cards so you can shuffle them or move them around if/when needed? Yeah… turned out to be a waste of index cards. Less than half of the plot points made it into the story, and the ones that did were so obviously forced that the story itself lost a lot of its heart.

Sometimes I think after over a decade of decently steady writing, I’d have my method down, but I remind myself that 2 full manuscripts (3 if you count PYNIMY, which I don’t because it’s terrible and horrible, and I’m rewriting it because it will never, ever, ever see the light of day as it is now) doesn’t a habit make. So we’re still working out the kinks. Well, that and the whole ten-years-of-writing-I-have-only-two-manuscripts-to-show-for-it?? thing, but one step at a time.

I have discovered, though, that stuff like theme and character arcs help a lot, so that’s part of what I’m focusing on with this series. While I’ll still have to get some major plot points for the series arc, which is part of where I’m tripping up, I did manage to get the book order figured out, match the heroes with the heroines, decide on a theme for each book, and figure out what the heroine’s arc will need to play out.

The heroes…well, they’re still cardboard cut-outs, but I have discovered a new form of procrastination technique that helped. (Surprised the heck out of me.) But more about that tomorrow.

The Bigfoot Effect

I admit it. I’m fascinated those “Finding Bigfoot” shows that come on channels like Discovery or Animal Planet. I love to watch people tramping through the woods with high-tech gear, waxing eloquent on the scientific research that supports their theories that Bigfoot exists. He just needs to be found, they say. They have evidence to support it.

Now, do I believe in Bigfoot? No.

But I kind of want to. See, aside from the fact that I love the idea of the drama and the mystery of some unknown animal of that size tromping around the Pacific northwest, the people who believe do so with such enthusiasm, such gusto, that I end up rooting for them. Yes, I say. Go forth and prove us wrong! I want myth and legend to become life, fiction to become real! 

I think it’s human nature to both fear and desire the unknown. When our own world becomes mundane, we start making up new ones. At the same time, we create stories to explain away the unknown, but in doing so we create much more, a wealth of stories that provides both answers and yet more questions. Think of ancient myths. The gods were created to explain why it rained, but that explanation spun off into a new, wide-swept world. Who are the gods? Where did the come from? What do they do with their time?

Believing in Bigfoot is feeding that need for myth and mystery, only those believers bring that myth into their own reality. In a way, Bigfoot believers and writers aren’t so different. Our realities are both stories. Mine’s just on paper.

Monday Update

I made it to page 245 of the CAROLINA NORTH revision this past weekend. Woo-hoo! I made it over the first major rewrite hurdle. While the plot stayed the same, the POV didn’t, and as the Infamous Kate W pointed out, that means it’s basically a whole new story given the change in motivations. Personally, I think it’s an improvement, but I’m still riding that fresh-written glow. We’ll see what the peanut gallery has to say.

While I still have 155 pages of revisions, including at least two scenes that potentially need a complete rewrite, I’m beginning to re-research literary agents and agencies to start submitting the manuscript once I’m satisfied with it, so keep your fingers crossed.

BEAR is slowly picking up the pace again thanks to the 100 Words-a-Day Writing Challenge. I debated joining since my focus has been taken up so thoroughly by the CN revisions, but that ended up being the reason why I did join. I didn’t want to lose the thread I’d picked up in BEAR, and I figured a hundred words or so a day will force the story to stay fresh in my mind. So far, it’s worked. (*Knock on wood*) I’m starting to plot and plan again.

Unfortunately, I’m still obsessing over the architecture in BEAR. I keep thinking if I can just draw one dang building correctly, I’ll be able to let it go, but my imagination far exceeds my skills. Nothing comes out looking the way it does in my head. Almost makes me wish scientists will hurry up and invent those cameras that take pictures of people’s dreams, so I can stop leaving chalk pastel fingerprints everywhere.

I’m also beginning preliminary research and character development on a seven book series I think of simple as the Sisters series. (Told you I’m a wiz with titles!) The story’s still percolating, and I haven’t had a chance yet to just sit down and write out character sketches. Until then, I won’t be able to hash out the plot, since my stories are all character-based.

That’s it on the writing front. On a personal note, the widgets are still missing on the right side of my pages, and I may be forced to commit the murders of my Day Job coworkers and their competing radios. Yikes, what a headache…

Monday Update

Continuing what seems to be a weekly theme, here’s where I stand on my varied projects:

• I finished reading the Golden Heart entries and submitted my scores, and whew! That’s a lot of pressure. I felt bad giving anyone too low of a score because I know that’s their dream the same as mine, but at the same time giving a mediocre manuscript a higher score because I sympathize with the author isn’t fair to the really good manuscripts that deserve those scores. I just did the best I could and reminded myself that my score’s one of five for the preliminary round, so it’ll all average out.
• Because of the GH judging and another mini-project I was working on for a fellow ARWAer, I haven’t done any further editing on CAROLINA NORTH. Wait, scratch that–I got one scene semi-edited late last night. (”Semi” as in I ended up rewriting it and need to go back and read it again tonight to confirm that this is indeed the direction that I want to go.)
• Because of the GH judging, the other mini-project, and the non-editing of CN, I haven’t written anything new (other than blog posts) in the last week. I’m starting to get the itch, but I really want to finish editing. My goal this year is to finally get an agent, which requires me to have a polished manuscript and a decent synopsis, conduct research, and start querying. And it’s already March.
• I did, however, sketch out a scene from BEAR. Apparently I’m obsessed with it, as I’ve drawn it in oil pastels, sketched it in pencil, started painting it in acrylics, and bought both prismacolor pencils and chalk pastels with the intention of doing it again. In fact, I’m planning on doing an entire series of the architecture from that world, but I’m not sure why. I get obsessed with the weirdest aspects of my worlds. (In the Padeia trilogy, it’s the clothes, which Misi–Middle Sister–sketched for me, and in CN it’s the dialogue which, blessedly, cannot be drawn but does need to be sharply edited.)

It felt good to draw again, but it’s been so long that I was shocked about my lack of supplies. I don’t have a decent sized sketch pad, no prismacolors, no chalk pastels (until I bought some), no paint thinner, not even any #2 pencils! It’s probably just as well considering how horribly rusty I am. I tried sketching out my heroine from BEAR and, aside from the fact that I was always terrible with portraits, it was fairly pitiful. But that’s besides the point. I just enjoyed having that charcoal stick in my hand again.

If Only I Didn’t Have to Sleep

I’m a night owl living in a morning-person’s world. *Sigh* If only I didn’t have to sleep, I’d have so much time to do all that fun, [marginally] creative ideas that I’ve got floating around my head. Curses, o’ Day Job! Thy necessity is as iron bands upon my soul!! Though I must feign obedience to thy viscous demands, I shall refuse to bow beneath thy accursed stringency!

Ahem. Please excuse my emo moment. As you may have guessed, free times seems an elusive thing as of late. It’s my own damn fault, though. I’d signed up to be a judge for the RWA’s Golden Heart awards, and, naturally, set the ’scripts aside until now, when my ratings are due in on Monday. (For those of you who may not know , the Golden Heart is a contest for unpublished manuscripts, and entries consist of a synopsis and the first 50 pages of a completed ms.) I don’t think it’d be fair to rush reading the entries since it’d my own fault that I waited so long, so I’m setting aside my editing in favor of reading each in turn. CN will just have to wait.

What’s even better [being sarcastic here, folks] is that characters from two of my other WIPs have taken to pacing inside my head. And there’s not a lot of room up there. They keep bumping into each other, and they’re getting irritable about it, but I need to first finish reading the GH entries and then complete my edits to CN before I work on either of them. And Pynimy (pronounced Pin-eh-mee), my girl, you’re really going to have to wait because you have the worst habit of only popping up when I’m not actively working on your story.

Anywho, here’s a fantastic comic I stumbled across the other day that offers a funny critique of movies and their genres. Click on the picture of the right for Brian Carroll’s description of the Romance genre. It’s pretty funny.  (This link is for my favorite strip so far, all about chick flicks versus romantic comedy.) Another link about why a man hates beauty and the results of the “contrast effect” of modern media, and finally–just to throw in the bizarre–another about a fish with a see-through head. No, really. It’s crazy.

Books to Movies and Movies to Books

Okay, I’ve been gone awhile. I know. I have been remiss, vaporous, and deficient. Of course, that’s one of the benefits of having your own blog. You can do stuff like disappear mysteriously for days and offer no excuse other than to say “that’s just the way it had to be, baby”. Call me the modern day Agatha Christie. (Except for that whole, you know, writing genius mysteries thing.)

I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that this will be yet another of my nothing-in-particular posts, but you’d be wrong. Ha! Had you going for a minute there, didn’t I? This post does, in fact, have a very particular topic.

The Oscars.

Yes, I watched them. I haven’t the last few years, but I did this year from beginning to end. What does this have to do with writing? Well, they do give out awards for screenplays, you know. The “Best Adapted Screenplay” is one of my all-time favorite categories, and unlike the Best Actor/Actress/Cinematographer/Person-Who-Held-The-Grip-Straight categories, the winner of the adapted screenplaywill get a guaranteed viewing. I will watch that movie if I have to hunt through every last Blockbuster in the greater metro area. Thank God for Netflix.

Even better, the movie has a book that goes with it. Woo-hoo! What could be better than yet another excuse to read? But I don’t just want to be entertained. I want to learn, too. Somewhere along the line, a book spoke to someone loud enough and strong enough for him or her to think, “This could be a great movie”. Why? What about the book was so compelling?

Then you get to watch the final result of the process that created words on a page to images on a screen, and you get to see what they left out, what they changed, and what they tried to keep as close to the original as possible. Why those scenes? Why that phrase? Naturally, I’m of the “book is always better” set, but I also think that the two media can’t fairly be compared. Different rules apply. I think of it as comparing planes to cars. Yes, the goal of each is essentially the same, but different laws of physics make each go, and people have very different reasons for choosing one mode over the other. The visual tells a story in the way the written can’t and vice-versa.

Sometimes they can come close, though. A brief, beautiful merge of prose and pictures. I like to say that the closest movie I’ve seen that gave me the same sense of reading is The Remains of the Day with Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins. Those two actors are so innately talented that at times I believed I could feel what they felt, as though I’d seen their thoughts written on the page. Most recently, I’m seeing it in the current book I’m reading, Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (also to be a movie). But that’s another post.