Novel wordcount, 23 November 2011 - plus the writing process and characterisation
So, the word count isn’t looking too bad on my first dirty draft. I’ve not been feeling great this past week and we’re moving in a couple of days, so in between the cardboard box kingdom I’m building and the moat of snotty tissues around it, I haven’t really had a chance to write much.
Anyway, word count: 34,326
I’m currently weaving my way through chapter eleven, although at this stage the chapter divides are arbitrary (they were more for structure than sense, so some are about 1000 words long, while others are 6000 words long… I’m not overly bothered about making them all uniform in the end, although I imagine some rejigging will have to happen).
I’ve been listening to this:
which is the 30 minute long soundscape-y composition my boyfriend wrote me for my birthday, as an accompaniment to sleeping and also to writing. Everytime I hear it I want to watch The Man with Two Brains (which is where the quote is from.)
I promised in my last proper word count update that I would give you a bit of insight into the way I do characterisation, and also more about the writing process itself.
How to stop worrying and start writing
I realised a little while ago that worrying about writing - are the characters believable, is the dialogue right, has someone else already told this story in a more interesting way, am I a terrible writer, what is the point etc - is really very counterproductive. I’ve completely banned myself from worrying. I just don’t allow myself to think like that - I have a goal, which is to finish this piece of work, and until it’s finished, there’s no mental space for anything other than that.
And how exactly do you do that?
In my experience (which isn’t really that extensive, when you consider the careers of most writers, versus me - I’m only 31 and have only had one book published) there’s only one way of really freeing yourself to write and not worry, and that is by planning and structuring what you’re going to write in advance.
Yes, it’s boring, it’s tedious, it’s mind numbing at times, but if you’re going to attempt a big fat massive project that’s likely to run into the high thousands in terms of word count, you really need to know where you’re going. Well, I need to know where I’m going. There are probably crazy geniuses out there that don’t need that framework, but I really do. And I write much better when I have one. It might not work for everyone, I suppose, but it sure as hell works for me.
With a tight structure, you’re completely safe within the confines of what you are writing to be as free as you want. As long as it’s well structured, it writes itself. Being well structured, of course, means you’ve already spent hours and hours planning how things happen and when they happen (very important) to maximise effect on the reader, and also the payoff. You don’t want to drop too many hints about what’s going to happen later, but you need to introduce aspects of the plot at the right time, or everything falls flat.
I won’t go into details about how I actually structured it, as it’s quite tedious (maybe I’ll save it for another post another time). There is software available to help you plan timelines and things like that, but I just did mine as a numbered list of ‘what happens’ in a word document, separated into chapters.
Sounds boring…
Ok, so yes, it means you spend hours structuring things (boring) and not much time writing to start with, but it works better in the long run. I’ve found when editing afterwards quite a lot of the free-flow stuff I write within my structure is pretty good. Before you start writing a sentence, you know where it’s going - you know the point of that sentence, the point of that paragraph, you know where that chapter is going. Without that direction, I find writing stressful, as you’re trying to navigate to some unknown destination with every word you write.
Writing off the cuff with no pre-determined structure takes ages for me, and I find the end product is rarely very good, because I can’t help but agonise over everything, listlessly, with no goal.
I realise this is making me sound terribly OCD, which I am not. In fact, by nature, I’m messy and disorganised. But so much greater than my tolerance for mess is my dislike of stress. This is why during university I learned to get all my work done in advance - because I found the last minute scrabbling around to hand stuff in horribly stressful. It’s the same thing with writing. I do love automatic writing - when you just sit down with no agenda and no goal, and write whatever comes into your head, but that’s a different beast to writing within the confines of a project.
When I was writing Just Dance, I didn’t really structure the first half of the book at all - and the result was a very stressful couple of months trying to string together all the information I had into some kind of legible format. For the second half of the book, I had accidentally arranged all my research in chronological order. The full manuscript was nearly 80,000 words long, and I remember the writing process being like this: the first 35,000 words, pure torture - the final 45,000 words - blissful.
So, I can’t say that structuring everything will definitely solve all your problems if you’re attempting a similar project. But I bet you it will solve the vast majority of them. The best thing about it is that it allows you to write without worrying about where you’re going - you know that already. So you can just get on with writing.
Characterisation
I don’t imagine for a second there’s any ‘one magic secret’ to writing character. There are a million different ways of doing, each of which will be useful or relevant to a different person. I’ll tell you how I do it - and hopefully some of this will be useful for you. Take and leave what you need, as you should do with any writing technique anyone tries to sell you.
I write my characters based on the things I register about people when I meet them (makes it much easier for me to imagine them as real people). These are the basics:
- Racial/family background
- Their sleeping habits
- A list of things they carry in their pockets/in a bag
Of course, the things I notice about people say more about me than anything else.
My parents are Iranian but I was brought up in the UK, and having a multicultural background has made me aware of other people in the same way. Where are they from, where are their parents from, how long have they lived in the UK, where do all their family live. I’ve had problems sleeping since I was a baby, and so I can’t help but be interested in the sleeping habits of my friends. Also at some point in a relationship with a friend, I will ask for a root through their bag or their wallet. The things you carry reflect how you view the day, how you view your life - practical? Whimsical? etc.
That’s the basis for my characters.
Beyond these initial sketchings, I give mysef free reign to write about them, about their pasts. Where have they come from. What experiences have they had, which drive their decisions and actions in my circumstances? Everything has to come from somewhere. My main character has been living in her flat and hasn’t been outside for the past two years. But what happened to drive her in there, and how come she was coaxed out? These are all things you need to know before you start writing your story proper. Otherwise how can you know people are acting in ways that are true to who they are…?
None of that stuff gets used in the end, really, but it’s the only way I can build up useful pictures of people.
If you have any other methods you use for characterisation or comments on the writing process, let me know! I always enjoy hearing about what you’re up to and how you’re doing it.
