Finding the end

I'm 20K words into a new book and I'm having some problems.  I like the idea, I like the characters and the world I'm building, but I don’t know where I’m going with this book.

I have lots of ideas for the end, but nothing feels right, I don’t yet know what the end should be. I’m not a plotter. I don’t like to know everything before starting a book, but usually about 10k words in I have a pretty good idea where the story is going. I stop and write the end, then I know what I’m shooting for. All I have to do is figure out how they get there. 

This book isn’t working like that. 

I feel aimless. Part of that is maybe that my character right now is aimless and doesn’t know what she wants. Part of it may be the difficulty I've been having writing due to stress the past year or so. Either way, I need a goal. I need something to shoot for, so I know how to write this thing. 

What do you do with an aimless book? How do you find your goal?

The End

I know everyone has a different style of writing.

Plotter.

Pantster.

Chunks,

Lineary.

Or any combination of the above. My favorite, and what I am, is a chunky pants writer.

Sometimes I write backwards, too.

There's a story I have been mulling over for several months. I've been too busy and stressed to actually write it much, just 100 words here, or 200 there. I just couldn't get into it. Never quite understood the overall arch or characters. Then I discovered the end. Once I wrote where we were going I got excited, then I knew which path to follow.

I thought back and realized, I've done this will each of my novels. Write the beginning, then end, then go and fill in the middle. It's nice to recognize my pattern. I know every book is different, and it is, but having some sort of pattern makes me feel legitimate, more like I know what I'm doing.

Do you have a pattern? How do you write?

Alphabet Soup

As part of his pre-school, mini-Engineer (aka Truck Boy) was filling out Valentine’s day cards for his classmates. He loved doing it and insisted on writing all their names himself. I noticed that while he could make all the letters  and knew what letters where in which name, getting them in the right order was a completely different problem. 

He’d start in the right place but if he ran out of room, or if he just wanted to, he would continue the name under the first couple letters, or above, or in front of. Because there was that nice empty margin to fill up. Upon occasion the letters could be scattered around in no order whatsoever.  Alphabet soup. 

It reminded me of a few of my early novels. They were a collection of scenes thrown together with no overall plot arc, no through line, and no rising tension. Just as my son needs to put the letters in the right order for them to make a name, I needed to learn to organize my scenes. First thing that should be done after finishing the draft and letting it sit for a little is give it a read and just look for the over all plot structure. Is the conflict set up at the beginning of the book resolved at the end? Is there growth and movement throughout the book, or is it just someone reacting to things thrown at him. 

If the scenes don't line up like the letters in a name then you probably have a problem. I just finished a structure draft of my current WIP. I’m super excited to see how this is coming together, and I can’t wait to move on to language, polishing, and really making my book shine.  I’m even looking forward to checking the grammar.  

Have you ever written an alphabet soup book? 

Writing Knowledge

I was listening to a podcast that had an interview with a food photographer.  They asked the photographer why she takes pictures of food. The photographer answered "If I could answer that question fully I'd probably stop shooting what I'm taking pictures of". 

I've long known that, for me, writing is therapy.  I don't write what I know, I write what I'm discovering, what I'm learning. I write to work through my emotions, my stress, to help me comprehend what is going on and find organization to the chaos of life. 

Maybe that's why certain pieces fall flat after awhile, there's no discovery there, nothing to learn, so the novel becomes stale and boring and is eventually left, figuratively dusty and alone, on the dropbox account.

What about you?  Do you write what you know? Or what you want to know?

GoodReads Update

For those of you who commented on my private shelf at GoodReads question here, I have an answer. I read the manual and finally sent an email asking.  The nice lady who responded said that no, at this point there is no way to make a bookshelf private, but that they are aware that people want them and that it may be coming in the future.

So, there we have it.

I was pleased that they are considering it (provided that it is true and they weren't just being polite). Maybe, if people are interested in private shelves, we should all just email them and express our desires. Maybe that will help us get the future here sooner. Or not. Whatever.

Motivation

I have a deadline coming up this summer.  It's made me look at where I am and where I want to go with this MS.  Last week I even sat down and wrote a few plot points in  a time line.

No!  Of course I wasn't plotting.  This was entirely different.  I maintain my status as a pantster. 

Really.  No plotting at all.

*cough* Anyway....

How do you motivate yourself?  If you have a deadline or a goal and you really need to get working what do you do?  Do you have a special routine to get in the writing mood?  Do you work on a reward or punishment system?  I know each writer is different an there are many ways so I've been wondering, how do you do it?

Cleaning Day

My sister-in-law is a fast moving, busy woman.  When it comes to her home she tears through it in a whirlwind of work, doing one of her many projects, throwing things here or there and never cleaning until she blows through in a whirlwind of picking up.  I, however, clean while I go.  This causes The Engineer much distress as I have a tendency to clean up the tools he's still using. 

I can't help it, it's habit. 

Now, this is not to say my house is perfectly clean.  I have clutter spots where I dump stuff I don't want to deal with.  Also I have two kids.  This may be one reason I've adopted this style of cleaning.  There's no possibility of a large block of cleaning time so I clean here and there while I go.

I'm like that in my writing too. While I have participated in, and won, NaNo, in general I tend to revise as I go.  Again, this is not to say my first drafts are perfect.  There are things I don't want to deal with and I put it off until later drafts.  I'm a chunky pants writer.  I don't write linearly, and I don't plot, so I find I do a bit of editing as I put all the parts together.

This works for me.  It fits my style and it keeps the thoughts flowing, though I'm sure there are as many ways of doing it as there are writers.  How about you?  Do you tend to tear through a first draft leaving all the clean up until later, or do you try to tidy while you go?

Writing Blues

It can be hard to write on a Monday, even harder to get back into the swing of things when it’s the Monday after a holiday and maybe you haven’t written in a week or two. Not that any of you hard core writers would actually sacrifice your writing time for “life”.  Yep, me either.   

Still, supposing it had happened.  For me the best way to get back into it is just jump.  I open the manuscript, read a little before where I want to start working then plunge right in.  The first bit might not actually be good. Hey, who am I kidding, the whole first draft isn’t good.  But at least I’ll be writing again.  Supposing I had stopped that is.  

How do you get back into the swing of things?

Save it for Later

Do you have a file or a folder where you put your bits and pieces of writing to save for later?  Amazing first lines you thought of, a character sketch, an emotion you want to explore? A lot of times I put something in there and forget about it.  I suspect most of them will never get written because if it isn’t shouting down the roof it gets moved to the back of the queue.  The loudest idea gets written right?   

Every now and again I read through my file.  It’s always a surprise.  Some things I don’t remember.  At all.  I would suspect someone else put them in but most people know not to mess with my writing.  Some things I wonder why I bothered saving.  Some things I get excited about all over again.  The only consistent thing is that it’s interesting.  Like an outside view of how my mind works.  

 Not that I want to know how my mind works.  It’s kinda scary.