1.2 Progress

[augustphoenix]

And what about today?

On a side note, after some discussions with cypher and others on the comm, I wanted to recommend a few of articles by Holly Lisle that address a lot of the things I've heard you folks talk about. I don't agree with everything she ever says and have modified some of these methods over time, but I found many of her articles practical and helpful (and most importantly: successful) when I was working on my early novels.

Now that I'm coming back to writing, I also find myself gravitating toward them again.

Notecard Plotting (cypher is going to get sick of me mentioning this.)
Setting (Writing) Goals
Creating Conflict
Middles
And, finally: How to Finish a Novel

(And mind you, she's very geared toward writing for publication. Try not to get hung up on that right now.)

Comments

[augustphoenix]

At the moment, I have a set of characters, world-scaffolding, some motivations... I know that there are specific stories of the novel variety within them (at least 4 so far), rather than story, and I'm trying to figure out which parts of these people fit into which story.

So what I've been doing each day is asking a question, and trying away on it. While I don't always find the answer, I always seem to find something interesting...

[kitana]

I like the idea of asking questions of the characters/plot and seeing what kind of responses come up. I think I'll try that if I hit some snags on the road of development.

[augustphoenix]

Yeah, it's not stuff like "what's your favorite breakfast" or "what's your favorite color" (which are also valid, but not what I'm looking for), but "Why did you do that if you knew it had potential to destroy your world?" "So how are you going to find your wife?"

Sometimes their answers surprise me and open whole new doors.