WIP: First Paragraphs

Caricature drawn by Worderella

Everyone talks about how important a first line is, how important the first page is, of any good piece of writing. We go on about how the idea needs to grab the reader, to hook them as one might hook a fish. But we never really give our own examples, unless we’re sure we’ve got it down. And the thing is, I don’t know if I have it down. I’m fairly certain I don’t, if only because I’m a type A perfectionist who second-guesses herself a lot.

So this is what I’m going to do: Below is the hook, and first lines of my working!title Trentwood’s Orphan. Give me your honest opinion, otherwise, I’ll never learn my lesson. But… also keep in mind that this is First Draft B, so I realize it’s still pretty rough.

As always, this is my writing and it is copyright protected, so please, let’s not spread this around and take it for yourself.

The hook for the novel is as follows: A grieving daughter encounters love and ghosts in Victorian England.

And so the novel begins…

NaNoWriMo

How many of you are doing NaNoWriMo this year? I did it last year, my first time ever, and I loved it. I won, which was exciting, and it inspired me to go back and start First Draft B of working!title Trentwood’s Orphan. I don’t have time to do it this year, which I’m sad about, but I’m being extra crazy and doing it again this year, to motivate me through the last half of my WIP. I started browsing the website and, not so surprisingly, I was sucked back in. I also want the following from their store: the “Can’t talk, noveling” mug and the 2007 t-shirt.

Now, as a fellow writer, I want to say the following to you NaNo-ers:

Don’t give up, even if you are already behind! You are a writer, no matter what you may think. You are doing the good thing by pushing yourself to achieve that goal of 50k words in 30 days. Don’t waste time on negativity, on thinking you might not finish, that you might not “win”. Anything you have on the page, whether it is crap or The Next Great Novel, is more than what you had before, and you should be proud! You should do the dance of triumph. You should crow the Xena yell. You should stand on the deck of a ship and shout to the heavens “I’m king/queen of the written word!”

So write that “shitty first draft” and revel in it for you are doing something that most people cannot do: You are challenging yourself. You have the persistence to keep going even when the Block chokes your imagination. If the Block has you in its throes, know that at least one person believes you can do it: Me. I know you have it in you to write that 1000+ words today. Don’t edit it, just write! Go wherever your imagination takes you, even if it makes your story fantastic and silly. Don’t worry about it, you can go back in December and change that paragraph, or page, or chapter.

The only one holding you back is yourself. We are often too hard, excusing in others what we despise in ourselves. Give yourself a break and rekindle your love of the written word. Be self-affirming, don’t waste your time thinking you can’t do it, just do it. It’s like that song once said:

You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mr In-Between.
No! Don’t mess with Mr In-Between.

* Crazy writer image courtesy of Ultima Chocobo at LiveJournal.

Storyboarding

I am an alpha personality: I live by lists, I like things ordered a certain way, I like to be in charge, I like to be on time. So you would think I use storyboarding to plot my novels, right?

Wrong! This past weekend was the first time I ever attempted a storyboard. And let me tell you: It was wonderful. I started out by drawing a line across an 11 x 24 sheet of paper for a timeline. I’ve always loved timelines, so it made sense for me to do it this way. Plus, my story has a backstory spanning ten years.

Then, I began writing major plot points onto post-it notes, sideways. This way, I could write multiple points on a single post-it, cut the post-it apart, and stick the post-it piece where I wanted. The backstory managed to fit on one page, as the image suggests.

The main year of my story covers two pages, as seen here, and here. The second page is where everything gets thrown at my main character… you can tell because the post-its are packed together and there are multiple dots of color everywhere. The last page, the conclusion of the story, is understandably less. I span my conclusion out over a couple months.

So what are the dots, you ask? The dots of color stand for each character that has their own complete subplot/story arc. I created a legend to help.

But why create a storyboard, Belinda? Your WIP meter says you’re 57% complete! Yes, well… that was true about a month ago, when the muse was flowing. Then I started writing a scene where I realized I didn’t know why the characters were arguing, just that they were. I freaked out, shut the file, walked away from the computer. I started reading Self-Editing for Fiction Writers and found my manuscript riddled with weak writing. As I started applying the rules, the heart of my story shone. A lot of little things happen where it helps me to know the month, so I started thinking of a timeline. And since I finished the storyboard, the muse returned. I even have my ending drafted, something sweet yet not cavity-inducing; I’m pretty pleased.

* Image by Organic Designs

A Recent Conversation

Mina: So how is the new work-in-progress going?
Me: Really well! I mean, I got up to chapter 18 and I was flowing and everything. Wrote a couple thousand words last month, but then… (sigh)
Mina: …?
Me: Well, I was writing, and everything was going fine, but then my young, energetic, American female character strong-armed a young man to the ground. I don’t know how it happened! One minute she was being very nice and chatty, the next, strong-arming him to the ground! That would have never happened in 1887 Victorian London!
Mina: (laughs)
Me: So I’m hitting the books again. I need to give her something else to do, something that will cause a scandal but still interest the English aristocracy, not scare them away. (I shake my head.) Strong-arming a guy to the ground. Who does that?

It’s one thing to be unique, but to be so modern! I’m appalled. But thanks to my character, I’m learning a lot about how the 1870s Anglomania (specifically in New York, Boston, Washington DC, Ohio, etc) started. Despite the fact that the English aristocracy most staunchly supported the Confederacy during the American Civil War, a mere ten years earlier.

How many of you have had a character that broke out of his or her time period so completely? What have you done to rein them in? Or have you changed your story/time period to fit the character?

Leg/Back Pain

I’m going to admit something: that birthday I mentioned a little while ago? I just turned 22. Which seems awful young for any sort of leg and /or back pain, right? I think so, and that’s what everyone tells me. This past February, however, I managed to unknowingly strain my back and then make movements that aggravated the nerve that runs through the SI-joint. The pain down my left leg got to the point that I collapsed, screaming, onto the floor while my parents listened on the phone.

A scary night for everyone, I was panicked and convinced I would never walk again, the pain was so severe and mysterious.

I’m writing about this because today looks like it will be a bad day; I have them every once in a while. My left leg’s nerve will jump, sending unnatural messages to my muscles, making me feel as though my own limb is alien. My hips tend to snap in and out of place a lot, too. I’ve tried some research here and there on why my hips have started snapping, but let’s face it: I’m terrified I’ll find something that says I require surgery, and even though my mother is a nurse I am terrified of hospitals.

Side note: Sometimes I wish, just for the back support, that corsets still existed. It would force me to stand/sit up straight all of the time. And cause me to faint should I get too excited and breathe so deeply that the stays cut me off. You win some, you lose some.

But there is a good side to this experience: I know the exquisite pain that comes from using your body incorrectly. I have some idea of how a person would walk, would change their habits, in order to accommodate something that will most likely never go away. And it just so happens that I have a character (or had a character since he’s dead) that, while his accident happened much differently, has many of the same symptoms.

Do you use your personal experiences to flesh out your characters? If you do, does it ever hurt to relive those memories in order to write it on your character’s behalf?

Hurting Our Characters

Well, it’s Finals Week™, so we all know what that means: I get to start writing again! At the end of every quarter as assignments trickle to a halt and I’m left with more free time, all those little nuggets of inspiration that came to me earlier (but I couldn’t encourage because I had to be in school-mode) are now free to take over. What does this mean, Worderella? What are you trying to tell us?

It means that I’ve written another couple of thousand words over the last few days, which is a cause for celebration. Assuming I keep my overall goal of approximately 85 000 words (the range for a full-length novel is anywhere from 80 000 to 100 000+), then I can safely say I am 39.5% complete with this draft.

But I’ve hit a slight roadblock. Attempting to be a diligent creator of characters and plot, I have just re-introduced a man from my main character’s past who hurt her, and is about to do it again. For the first time in my writing life, I don’t want to hurt my main character anymore. I kind of feel like she’s gone through a lot as is, and I like her. Why would I continue to want to hurt her?

Well, because that’s what you’re supposed to do in order to make the character grow and change. And because if you didn’t throw everything and the bath tub at her, your story is going to be boring and you’ll get tired of writing it. And because it will help you, as a writer, and perhaps even a person, to learn that conflict is a necessary evil.

This is often a topic of discussion between and me. I’m usually on the side of “Throw more at them! Make them squirm!”, because I love to see how a character can change. And now I find myself completely understanding ‘s dilemma. I suppose I’ve never had a character that I liked this much, so it hurts to hurt her. Maybe it’s because the situation I’m about to put her in is exceedingly uncomfortable, and forces me to deal with my own feelings on the same thing that happened to me. Perhaps I relate to the main character too much, so, rather than experiencing it through her perspective, I’m reliving the experience myself. Logical theories, all.

The fact of the matter is that I have to hurt my main character. I have to hurt all my characters, in some form or another, but most especially the main one. I have to bring her so low that she feels like she can’t go on, that there is nothing she can do to improve her situation…and then, because she is at the very bottom, have her realize that she can only go up from there. It’s the only way. I’m sure I’ll get past this, and will eventually shatter her (but oh! she’s already fragmented to begin with!).

Have you ever been in this situation where you feel like you have to do something awful to your character, but you can’t bring yourself to do it? What do you do about it? How does one get past this?

An Update

So. How is the WIP going? Fairly well, I would say. It’s a new month, which means I’ve printed out the previous month’s (incomplete) draft, kissed it, set it aside, and convinced my mind that I’m starting this month with a new inspired view of the WIP. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it seems to work for me. I’m 29% complete with this draft that I call The Rewrite of Novel # 2 ™.

It’s sort of a running joke between my friends, or, at least, those who are interested in my writing, to call my books by the order in which I started them. There is, of course, Number One, which is my self-published (subsidy) book from high school, Catching the Rose. Number Two is what I keep calling the WIP here, while Number Three is the sequel to Number Two, and the result of my participating in NaNoWriMo 2006. Number Three’s fun and quick tone convinced me to rewrite Number Two. (All of this is more information than you cared to know about, I’m sure, but I find the writing habits of other writers fascinating… so every once in a while, I indulge myslf.) I haven’t had a chance to write in the last four days or so, other than blogging, and I can feel the strain. This is funny, in a not-so-funny way, because last week I suffered from a mini-Block. This week, I’m struggling to hold the reins of my imagination until I have control of everything and know the exact route I want to take. Talking through the plot, or just talking about the WIP in general, does help, however, which is what happened this time around to kill the infamous WB.

I’d like to make an update, however, about a previous post in which I talked about Lulu’s Published By You package. According to POD Critic, while the package claims that the author (which would be you) is designated as the publisher (which essentially means you are the publisher and Lulu is merely the printer), the truth of the matter is that everywhere else you submit your book, Lulu will be listed as the publisher.

I began to think about this, and what the implications are. So, let’s walk through this. By registering your book with Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, etc, POD Critic claims that these websites still list Lulu as the publisher. Which means Lulu is still a subsidy press, rather than a community of self-run micropresses. It does make sense. After all, you can’t actually buy ISBNs separately, you have to buy them in groups of ten. So, Lulu is still being the middle-man by buying the blocks, and then allowing you, the author, to buy the ISBN separately, from them, Lulu. The U.S. ISBN Agency, however, will still list the ISBN as owned by Lulu. Anything that happens to the ISBN after selling it to Lulu is not really their problem.

Tricky, no? I think it’s a tricky move, and kind of mean, actually, but then, I suppose it is the author’s responsibility to look up and understand all the details of such a transaction. And really, if you’re going through all the trouble of buying the ISBN from Lulu, you might as well just set up your own micropress, like how POD Critic advocates. If you’re that serious about self-publishing, you might as well go all the way and just do it yourself.

Procrastination

I should be studying for my finite automata exam. Really, I should. However, I find myself procrastinating. Which is funny, because usually I use my studying and classwork as a way to procrastinate from my writing. Now, I’m procrastinating from the very thing that allows me to procrastinate.

Why am I procrastinating from my writing? Well, because when I look at the page, I sigh and my shoulders slump, rather than smile and put my eager fingers to the keyboard. Like I said before, I know where I want to go next. What I don’t know, what the characters refuse to tell me, is what path to take in order to get there. And no, I am not schizophrenic, though sometimes my mother worries I might be when I start talking about my characters as if they were alive.

The interesting thing about this (to me, at least) is that I have to write. I need to write. Not writing causes actual changes in personality. Feel free to picture a Jekyll/Hyde situation, but only because it’s amusing, not because it’s true. I do become a little more cranky, but the main thing is, I feel a lot more stress when I don’t write. Being a person generally inclined towards stress (and here my friends laugh and shake their heads at me because they know that’s an understatement), having a writing outlet has become an integral part of my personality, especially if I want to maintain general content (the adjective, not the noun).

I’ve heard from multiple people that this…need rather than want to write is what makes me a “serious” writer. I heard it earlier today, actually. Does it make me a serious writer? Perhaps so. I can’t be sure, I only know my experience with writing. I do know that there is a direct correlation between how stressed I am, and how long ago I last wrote something “creative.” Or sometimes since the last time I wrote anything, period.

So, I suppose my main hope is that by writing this entry, I will have gotten the procrastination blues out of me. That I will turn from my monitor excited to study finite automata, context-free grammars, and regular languages.

Or…at least helped you all to procrastinate a little with me.

Shameful Admission

All right kiddos, it’s admission time: I have let life get in the way of my writing. I know, I know, one should always make time to write. That’s been my personal mantra the last couple months, anyway. However, there have been extenuating circumstances, such as my health, school…basically, the sources of big bummers in my writing life.

As such, in this semi-depressed mood that always seems to fall during the last final weeks of winter, I have lost the will to write. I want to write, but every time I open the file, I just stare at the last bit I wrote. I can’t get past the last paragraph, because I hate it so. I take it away, and I can’t write anything new because…I can’t? This is the oddest sort of writer’s block I’ve ever had. I know where I want to go next. I just can’t transition to that point. Usually, I don’t know where I want to go next, I panic, and the Block Against Writing pummels me to the point that my ego breaks, and, to add insult to injury, throws me in a pit to fend off Doubt, Anxiety, and Cliche-Turns-of-Phrase.

It’s a traumatic experience.

But this time, I feel different. I’m in the dark but I can see the light; I can almost reach its source, I just can’t seem to unsquint my eyes long enough to know exactly where to grab.

So, I’m waiting. I’m letting it come to me, rather than forcing it out like I did with NaNoWriMo. Each night, I think about my characters rather than worry about my health or school: I do this so I will dream about my characters–my dreams tend to be eerily vivid and dreaming about my characters brings me some of the most interesting ideas. (Not that it’s worked yet in this instance, but it doesn’t hurt to try?)

Anyway, I thought I would throw this out to the blogosphere*. Maybe letting some steam off will allow my ideas to cool and solidify into something I can actually write about.

* blogosphere: the social phenomenon of blogs linking to other blogs. Term respectfully taken from Questionable Content.

Can’t Slow Down

I can’t remember if I mentioned this already (and I’m too lazy to look at the last couple entries to find out), so let me say this now: school is back in session. This surely explains the lack of posts and the reason why it is taking me three weeks to finish one book when normally, I finish three books in one week.

That aside, I am fighting for my right to write. I am taking six classes when the normal is three or four, I am working more hours than I have ever before, and I am the new editor-in-chief of my college’s magazine. Busy girl? That I am. Finding time to write? Surprisingly, I am. Because I’m so busy, I end up freaking out that I won’t be able to get everything done, so I start my homework and projects as soon as they are assigned, I end up getting them done a couple days ahead of time, and suddenly, my Friday morning shift at work is spent writing another chapter or so (in-between answering programming questions).

Life is hectic, but it’s good. Then again, life is always good when I find time to write and I feel like what I’m writing isn’t complete and utter dross*. Plus, the writing is easier this time around since I’ve put aside that first complete draft that I finished this past October. Following the sage advice of writers who have come before me, I’ve laid that draft to rest as utter trash and started anew with the same characters, now knowing what works and what doesn’t. I know now, that the phenomenon of the adult orphan will play a much bigger part. Yet, I don’t want the story to be bogged down with it, I want my characters to learn and grow. I know now not to force my characters, especially in terms of shoving the plot in one direction when the characters are plainly telling me to go the opposite way.

So tell me, how have your projects been going? The new draft is approximately 11,000 words, which I’m proud of. I gotta say, NaNoWriMo really loosened those fears that I have to write pretty the first time around.

* dross (n): worthless material that should be removed.