transubstantiation, snowflakes, and other itchy thoughts ~

[lookingland]

i finished my outline for The Kidnapped Christ last night ~ the ending is still warbly and meandery, but i think i should prolly have enough words before i get there that i can squeeze it down by then. and on the other hand ~ there's a good chance i won't be writing this in chronological order from the first scene.

especially since the first scene is rather complicated and requires some nuances that at the moment i don't really have the brain power to navigate. it involves L & M in the makeshift chapel of the converted saw mill talking about the Eucharist.

uh ~ huh?

yeah.

i have some thoughts on how i will accomplish that without turning it into a treatise on the Real Presence and getting all mired down into the theology of the business ~ the scene is mostly to set up the diametrically opposed attitudes of the primary characters (belief vs. a hostile sort of skepticism), as well as to establish a few plot necessities: mainly the financial situation of the parish (finances? what finances?), and the importance of what will be a central silent character throughout this melodrama: mainly God Himself, who's about to be kidnapped.

but yeah, i don't really feel too much like starting there.

i might start with the kidnapping itself. or perhaps at the ending (i often write the endings first).

either way, that's the beauty of the outline: i can just pick a scene, any scene, and leap right in ~ i'll worry about assembling the puzzle later.

interestingly (for someone, i am sure), this is the same way i used to write my college papers. never in order, always sort of simultaneously spiraling inward and outward. books "happen" to me, the way i see it. they emerge like those magic trees that grow when you stick the chemically treated paper trunk into a little pan of water ~ the way the crystals bloom.

i think this is why the so-called "Snowflake" method doesn't work for me personally. because i've always created in fractals intuitively. when someone breaks down the process and defines it, i get all rumpled because it creates the semblance of verbal rules over something that mathematically complete without them. it's spontaneous. it shouldn't be explained or need explaining.

not that i don't appreciate that someone bothered to explain it ~ and i hope it works like gangbusters for those of you who are doing it ~ because as a process it has tons to offer.

but i just cringe at it personally. can't explain that except that i feel like it's too much of a reduction of the creative side of the work ~ there's just soooo much more that goes on than simply piling words onto words.

i'm blithering. it's official.

be forwarned ~ the more my brain goes, the more i shall likely be posting.

: D

~ this has been an official NaNoish posting.

Comments

[geckobird.livejournal.com]

That is way exciting about your outline!

And the story sounds really interesting! The scene you described sounds like a hard on to write - no wonder you're thinking of starting with a later scene. I'm really interested in seeing how it all turns out!

I love how you describe your writing process - such a vivid image! I think it's really interesting how you write out of order instead of writing it from beginning to end. I generally write from beginning to end... Only once have I started with an ending and worked toward that point, and twice have I paused an important slow scene, to chew out an action scene that happens usually in the next chapter, and then return to the important slow one. I think I like to write from beginning to end because I have a tendency to discover something in the beginning that will effect the end, and if I have an outline, the discovery usually won't be in it. Do you ever have a problem like that?

Do you mind if I ask where your stories ideas come from?

Usually, I start with a random scene or character that suddenly may appear in my head (or dreams) and I write out the scene. If I really like it, I just keep writing, and won't even have an outline. It's like I'm traveling with the characters through the story as their silent scribe. :D

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

I think I like to write from beginning to end because I have a tendency to discover something in the beginning that will effect the end, and if I have an outline, the discovery usually won't be in it. Do you ever have a problem like that?

just the opposite ~ ! when you write from both sides turning in on themselves, you can see the larger picture in a way that makes the details of the story far more available. like: i didn't know that the story had to begin in the chapel except that i realized that at the end there's a pile of reward money that needs to be dealt with ~ and what better way to deal with the money than give it to the parish? so the story has to start with the parish in need so that it can come full circle. none of this is what the story is actially about ~ but it's metaphorical closure on a whole lot of different levels for what's actually going on (a spiritual battle). the outline led me to this discovery and the actual writing will continue to reveal even more. because in all cases you are connecting things through the center ~

~ i am a huge continuity freak. huge. the first thing i peck at in a crit are any continuity issues. you would be amazed how many more errors you can make by just plowing through chronologically. writers have a bad tendency to make assumptions about what the reader already knows or has been told. for me, keeping myself off balance means i'm all the more focused on how things connect and where there are ends left untied. not sure i can make more sense of it than that. it just works for me.

Do you mind if I ask where your stories ideas come from?

i don't mind you asking at all ~ ! problem is, i doubt i have a satisfactory answer. hahahahaha ~

the stories usually start with a very simple image. in this case, the image of someone stealing the tabernacle from a church. then things just logically progressed from there: what would happen? morse would pursue them. he would pursue them to his death if need be. and what if they tried to kill him? then someone would need to rescue him. and who would rescue him? someone who has no compuction whatsoever about killing others so that one can be saved. and what happens then, when two best friends find themselves on opposite ends of a moral spectrum? and what happens when that conflict turns out to be strictly religious? and what happens when the source of the religious conflict is past spiritual abuse? etc. etc. etc. and then all the what ifs that fill in the supporting story: what would L's wife say about him killing people? what would she say on the cusp of the birth of their first child? what would happen if the people who have been shot turned out to be wanted by the law with a bounty on their heads? etc.

~ and it just keeps unraveling ~ as complicated as i want to make it. and when it seems like there are enough complications for one story that are complementary and supporting of the major themes, then i stop asking questions ~ hahahaha ~ but you can bet i am asking well into the process and usually it's when i'm finished with the book that i stop asking.

but like you, it's important to state: i'm just following them on their journey (a journey unconcerned with chronology) ~ i follow them and see what they do and just report on it . like watching a movie in my head. and every question prompts a new reel to get slapped on.

: D

this was fun answering. haven't really stretched myself to think about these things in a while.

[geckobird.livejournal.com]

I find your way of writing fascinating! :D

When I was rewriting my Kate and Jill story, I would wander from chapter to chapter sort of in the way you described, but still the original draft was written chronologically. One thing I've always wanted to do is write a story backwards. I've always wanted to start with an ending scene and then work my way backwards until I reach the beginning. Haha ~ endings I seem to have the most trouble with, so it'd be a huge challenge for me. I tend to have scenes from the beginning and middle that inspire a story and then I work systematically through them to the end, where the ending eventually reveals itself. ha! I guess I write the way I read a book! I'll pick up a book read the first chapter (or the first couple pages) skip to the middle and read a few pages and if I like it, I'll read it. :D

It seems a lot of writers have a starting image (me included!) that begins their creative process, and then story grows from that little seed. The way you described your writing gave me this fun little image: A tapestry that is tangled, its beauty hidden by the mess of threads. Each thread extracted and untangled with each question answered, until all the threads are untangled and ready to be woven into a finely structured piece of art. ^_^

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i like the image of the tapestry!

: D

i usually come up with endings first. for me to start with an image at the beginning or early on is unusual.

my civil war trilogyl started with the image of two soldiers sitting on a dead horse drinking coffee. that became the ending scene of the first book (though they couldn't sit on the horse in the final analysis, alas ~ hahahahaha ~ it just wouldn't work, though the horse is still in the scene).

last year's NaNo started with the image of morse and marithé going to confront the devil in the form of patient john fischer. this ended up being sort of the climax moment of the book.

so i guess it depends ~ generally speaking though ~ whatever i start with, i usually keep and build around.

~ and like you, i pick up a book, read the first line, flip to the end and read the last line ~ and if i'm intrigued, i'll read the book.

: D

[markredmond.livejournal.com]

I'm inspired! Also anxious. You have put much pre-NaNo thought into this. I am soooo green.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

hahahahahah ~

~ trust me, i am totally unprepared. i can just talk a good talk. as an inveterate outliner, this is standard fare for me. i haven't actually put hardly any work into NaNo yet ~ and now that i am trying to relocate to St. Paul in the midst of all this, i have no idea whether i will be up to the task this year.

you may be green ~ but that just means you're not jaded with the whole thing ~ or will be sloppy in your attack!

: D