Chuck Wendig on finding your characters

Yet another great post from author Chuck Wendig, this time about how he gets started on a new book:

...I suss out the characters wants, needs, and fears. What does the character need to keep going? What does the character want — whether consciously or unconsciously? What will drive him as a goal throughout this story? And finally, what does he fear? Obstacles in a character’s path are critical, and some of those obstacles must be bound up with the character’s fears.

Finally, I do a little three-beat character arc for the character. Three words or sentences that are meant to indicate the state of the character across the story — beginning, middle, and end.

Poor cat down on his luck wants to see a change in this country –> elected president, way over his kitty head –> once again a poor cat but now knows the intimate details of the democratic process and oh did I mention he nuked the middle of our own country into oblivion.

The three beats could be fairly succinct — consider the simple mythic arc of Maiden –> Mother — > Crone. Or, as per the vampire in Double Dead, Predator –> Protector –> Penitent. When conceiving of Miriam Black’s arc in Mockingbird my only three notes were: Selfish Vulture –> Pecking Crow –> Reluctant Raptor.

Read the whole thing here!

There's some really useful/inspiring stuff in this post; I'm planning to give it another read soon and adjust my own process (questionable, at best) to include some of his methods. I'm particularly intrigued by his four-act structure and making a list of "tentpole" and "holy shit!" moments that absolutely must happen in your story.

Week Eleven: Massacred!

Week Eleven's completed challenge can be found here!

Reading about that NPR contest inspired me to present this story as a voicemail message, so I think I'm going to submit it in the next day or two. If you have any feedback/suggestions, they would certainly be welcome!

Reflections and Week Twelve's challenge coming soon...!

Ira Glass on slogging your way to the dream

The last time I watched this was before I had started this blog, and now it seems that I am doing with this blog exactly what Ira recommends. 

Interesting...

All short-short stories considered

A cool short fiction contest from NPR that I'm only just finding out about:

Here's the premise: Write a piece of original fiction that can be read in about three minutes (no more than 600 words).

[...]

Here's her twist for Round 10:

Write a story in the form of a voice-mail message.

"It doesn't have to be crazy, but it could be crazy. By nature, first person — basically, a soliloquy or a monologue," she tells Guy Raz, contest curator and host of NPR's TED Radio Hour.

"It could start out, 'Hey, it's me, I'm glad you didn't pick up,' or it could start out, 'You don't know me, but ..." It could be any number of dramatic scenarios which will unwind in the three minutes," she says.

Read the rules in their entirety here!

Hugh Howey talks process

From Hugh Howey, bestselling author of Wool (the science fiction series you haven't heard of yet but will):

Reading is the best lesson on writing. It’s like listening to music over and over again until you learn how a good song is supposed to sound. I think I “write by reading” the way some people can “play by ear.” When I’m writing a rough draft, I can tell that my words suck. It’s painfully obvious. When I go back to revise, I take those sucky words and I keep rearranging them until they stop sucking. Eventually, the words flow and convey meaning in a manner that I’m tolerant of. With the next pass, more of these spots are sanded down until they don’t trip me up. Enough passes like this, and my stories start to read about as decently as anyone else’s. I just stick with it until I don’t hate it. I bang on the keys until a tune pops out.

Read the rest here!

Week Eleven: So it turns out there was an actual massacre...

Internet research revealed some colorful history behind Massacre Pond, which is where I assume Massacre Lane gets it name (being so close to the pond and all):

Now a peaceful destination in Scarborough Beach State Park, Massacre Pond (formerly called Black Point) was once the site of a horrific scene and is now haunted by a restless spirit. The bloody ghost of Richard "Crazy Eye" Stonewall has been seen by several visitors at the pond where he was buried in Oct. 1697. Mr. Stonewall's wife and infant son had been killed by Indians, and he avenged their deaths by joining the military and killing every Indian he found.

What's interesting to me is that it's named after the "massacre" of two settlers by a displaced native people, not the massacre and further displacement of all said native peoples. 

But anyway. A different perspective:

By October, 1676 Scarborough, a town with three settlements of more than 100 houses and 1,000 head of cattle, had been destroyed -- some of its people killed and others taken captive by Native Americans.  These settlers tried repeatedly to rebuild but peace was impossible.  In 1690, the town was abandoned due to Native American uprisings, with inhabitants going to Portsmouth and other settlements further south.

The second settlement of Scarborough is regarded as dating to 1702.  A fort was erected on the western shore of Garrison Cove, Prout's Neck.  Other stockades were at Spurwink and Blue Point.  The Hunnewell House was known as the “outpost for the defense of Black Point.”  Richard Hunnewell, and eighteen other men were killed in 1703 at Massacre Pond.  This incident took place after peace negotiations had been made.

(Link to the rest here.)

So I suppose nineteen people is somewhat more of a massacre, but it being historically accepted that the Native Americans got a raw deal, I'm surprised how sympathetic to the settlers these accounts seem to be. 

And yet another perspective:

In 1681 a second garrison was erected at Black Point about a half mile north of Great Pond (later known as Massacre Pond), because the "neck" was too far away to be accessible to the settlers in time of trouble. Troubled peace broke into open hostility again in 1690 when the French in eastern Maine joined forces with the Indians and destroyed the settlement of Falmouth. Anticipating enemy advance on Scarborough, the settlers fled to Portsmouth and beyond and town records were taken to Boston, where they remained until 1720. It would be twelve years before settlers returned to Scarborough.

(Link to the rest here.)

The French did what? I grew up in South Portland, just north of Scarborough. How bad is my history that I didn't know this at all? 

So. This is all very interesting. But what to do with it...?

Week Eleven: Massacre Lane, Scarborough

I think we're officially in spring semester of Freshman year now—I need to do a writeup of that like I did for Fall. Soon, okay?!

So this one, I think, was something I observed during either my first or second summer as an ice cream truck driver. (And before you ask—yes. I have tried to write about this experience. A great many times. There's nothing there.) It's an actual street (or "lane"... what is the difference?) in Scarborough, Maine. 

My intent, maybe, was to write a faux history of how it got its name or, more likely, something about how banal suburban life can result in a massacre... of dreams. (I was 19 years old with a penchant for cliché, alright? We all start out this way.)

Maybe I'll begin with some research and see where that takes us...

Reflections on Week Ten

[Read the completed story here!]

This one was shockingly not at all difficult for me. Is it that Microfiction Week detonated all my blocks and barriers, or did Dean Wesley Smith's advice inspire me to better discipline, or both? Whatever the case, I seem to have a much easier time with nonfiction than I do with fiction. Writing Week Five's story (once I knew what to write) was also a great experience. 

I drafted this a bit differently than the others: probably for the first time ever, I put no pressure on myself for this thing to make sense. In my half-hour each morning I would just try to capture a few moments or feelings I remember having during my year as an adjunct college professor. These little scenes were in no order whatsoever, and I didn't have any idea how each of them (or any) would fit into a larger narrative. (In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott advises trying to describe only what you could see in a one-inch by one-inch picture frame. Without realizing this at the time, it's pretty much what I was doing here.)

Once I had over 2,000 words, I printed it off and cut each vignette into a separate strip of paper. Then I launched a hostile takeover of the kitchen table, as can be seen below:

[Yes—those scissors are pink.]

I know I've read a few times that this is a great way to revise a story, but of course I've always been too much of a procrastinating perfectionist control freak to actually give it a try. I'm glad I did—I was pretty easily able to group the slips by chronological sequence and emotional throughline. Several of them didn't fit anywhere, and that too was quickly apparent. And some others were created in revision to bridge gaps. 

I'm pretty happy with the end result, but kind of sad that I had to stop. I didn't touch at all on all the plagiarism (unintentionial and the other kind) I encountered, or the challenge of teaching non-native English speakers something I barely understood myself. At some point down the road, once I have some distance, I'll probably revisit this piece and expand it, maybe even submit it somewhere. 

Anyway, give it a read and tell me what you think!

Week Ten: Educated!

So a little later than promised, but I'm doing this for you, okay?

[That was a joke. Obviously this is all for me.]

Read the completed challenge here! Reflections and Week Eleven's challenge tomorrowish.

How to be a professional writer

Awesome post from Chuck Wendig about how to make a living being a writer:

And so, I figure, it’s time for some general tips on not just being a writer but, rather, being a professional writer. Further, being a professional writer who can do more than just buy an annual steak dinner with your earnings.

Here we go.

Speed: Learn to write with some zip in your fingers. A thousand words per hour is a good base level and not at all difficult to achieve.

[...]

Time: Learning to write well and with some speed means this takes time. Do not expect to be one of those “overnight successes,” a creature as rare as a Bigfoot riding a unicorn on a saddle made of leprechaun leather. A writer’s so-called “overnight success” is just the tip of the iceberg exposed, while the rest of the writer’s time and effort and narrative R&D exist in a massive glacial mountain beneath the darkened waters. Just because the writer appeared on the world’s radar doesn’t mean that poor fucker hasn’t been working his fingers bloody for quite some time.

No, Really, I Mean It: This can be a slow process. It was about a ten year journey to go from “freshly-minted, ruddy-cheeked penmonkey” to “battle-hardened full-timer with stories wound into his bloody beard-tangle.” Be ready to invest the time and effort.

Read the rest here!

Much of this advice is reassuringly similar to Dean Wesley Smith's, right down to the writing speed of 1,000 words per hour. (Though the advice later in the post about self-publishing is wildly different.)

No one in any of my dozens of writing workshops has ever suggested that I try writing quickly, but man oh man has it solved a lot of my problems re: being a procrastinating perfectionist.