Today at school I got the impression that some of you are hitting a literary wall. On Day 1, you burst out of the gate, wrote furiously, and now you've stopped and you're asking - "What's next?". This is a critical time, in my opinion, because it's when most people give up on writing a novel. They've run out of ideas, they've nothing more to say - or so they think. What's actually happened is you've written the idea you had in your head when you said "Wouldn't it be cool if I wrote about ..." And then you wrote it and you think you're finished. Well, if you were writing a short story, maybe, but if you're writing a novel, and there are at least 25 of you that are doing just that, you aren't finished. Not even close. What you've done is dumped onto paper the words and images floating at the top of your creativity. Now that those ideas are out of your superficial memory, you need to dig deeper.
This is where your creativity kicks in. If you push yourself, you're going to start thinking about chapters you hadn't even yet considered because you couldn't get beyond your initial idea for a book. Now that those initial ideas are on paper (or in electronic format), push them aside and work on another aspect of the story.
Here's the next step:
You have a protagonist, right? (You better!) Well, where there are protagonists, something has to antagonize and create conflict, or there's no story. So, what does your protagonist what? And what's making your protagonist upset? What's stopping her from getting where she wants to go? What's frustrating him and making him want to punch a wall?
Remember that an antagonist can be an idea or a perspective.
Man vs. self - is your character's pride causing conflict within his heart?
Man vs. nature - is snowy weather slowing down the traffic that is working its way through the mountain pass?
Man vs. man - is your protagonist's desire to become a musician in direct conflict to the father's desire he become a football player instead?
Figure out who the antagonist(s) is (are) and develop the story from that perspective.
Request - leave a comment to this blog and tell us briefly about your novel. We can better help each other if we know the topics of our writing group.
Great minds can help each other create great books. Let's do that.
Ok...I feel really lame saying this, but im not realy srue what story Im going to do. I have two ideas. One is half-way done. It's the one I was telling you about last year Mrs. P...if you want to read it, it's posted in pieces at monkeylikemind.blogspot.com pretty muhc it's about this girl who fell in love it with a guy, who didn't like her back, and she goes ballistic. She moves to Cali then Cambridge and then Washington stat (i had this idea before twilight cam out..so im not copying anything) and then she lives by herself, until one a day a young girl knocks on her door and reminds her of her past....kinda cheesy, but hey what can i say?
ReplyDeletethe 2nd idea is about this girl who's been hurt deeply by family and friends. She strives to be perfect at all times, and she pushes herself constantly. When she enters high school for the fist time, she meets a whole nwe group of people who show her how to live life for herself, but her mother finds out, and she almost dies. It's pretty much her journey from trying to be someone's image of perfect to realizing that she's perfect because of all of her flaws....
Which one do you think is better?
and right now, on the first story, i have 11650 words
ReplyDeleteBoth ideas are interesting to me but I prefer the second one. So many of us have felt the need to be perfect. My experience has shown me that people drive themselves to perfection to be accepted by others. They live their lives watching and waiting for approval of others. Instead, what should matter most is that the person finds herself acceptable TO HERSELF just the way she is.
ReplyDeleteWHo says we have to be perfect anyway? Flaws make us human. They make us compassionate and caring. We are not little emotionless machines but people who make mistakes, get sick, cry and love. Once we redefine perfection from being "perfectly perfect" to imperfectly, passionately flawed, we will finally love ourselves for the beautiful people we are.
It's an important lesson many people never learn.
I'd say write the second one. I think the story is beneficial, interesting and timely.
Does the mother really die or was that a figure of speech?
The working title could be "Perfect" or something similiar.
Write the most emotionally charged part first. Feel your character's pain and cry with her. Then you'll know your readers will be moved as well.
Well I'm trying to work with a pair of characters I've put into so many situations before. Jace (I swear I picked it out in January before Jace started coming to our school! :)) and Maris. Best friends? Best enemies? I wasn't sure. And then I mixed them into my favorite type of story...a little bit of drama, a little bit of you-wont-know-what-happens-until-it-happens, and a little bit of magic. :D
ReplyDeleteI'm so touchy about my story that I'm constantly tweaking it and it's driving me insane.
First, my story is called The Clan, and The Clan is from our world, intruding on theirs, trying to take their magic to rebuild our decaying one. I know exactly what I want to happen, but I'm only eight thousand words in and I'm nearly to the 1/4 mark in my story. Should I try to add in places or just keep going and cross the bridge when I arrive?
Amanda..ur idea seems cool. Keep writing and you'll figure it out :) It's easier to finish the story and add details later...trust me..
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks Mrs. P. The mom doesnt die, it was the girl. Like when her mom found out, she got really angry and the girl almost died. But she doesnt
Hi, Amanda:
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rukmani but I need clarification. What do you mean "add in places"? Do these locations have a specific purpose and further the story? If so, work on them because you'll be inspired to write more prose. If you are merely naming them at this point, you can call each one "Place #1" etc., or actually come up with names. Here's a website that generates names for stories. It is probably a database with various first and last syllables that mix the two randomly to generate a new name. Check it out.
www.seventhsanctum.com
***DISCLAIMER*** - I cannot guarantee the links on the site won't lead you into sites that are inappropriate for your age group. I suggest you use the name generators on the home page and that's it.
Also, Amanda - I urge you to draw a map of your world. Remember how Obert Skye created the land of Foo? He sketched out the land of Foo, complete with streams of water and mountains. It helped him to create his characters and their conflicts because the mountains and streams were antagonists.
Just a thought...
I think she meant add in details...but I'm not sure. What did you mean Amanda? And Mrs. P, you can tell people it's me. I just put Rukmani on there for the heck of it. It's Anisha btw :)
ReplyDeleteHi, Anisha:
ReplyDeleteI knew it was you but thought you wanted to protect your identity.
Glad that you visit this blog everyday!
BTW - I put your name on my classroom's whiteboard with all the other NaNoWriMos. If you want me to update your word count daily, email me or post it here.
Have fun at school tomorrow...