Showing posts with label organization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organization. Show all posts

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Inky Linky Love 08.20.2011

Everyone was too busy with WriteOnCon to notice my lack of a post this week, right? :P I'd seen WriteOnCon around the blogosphere before but had no idea what it was. I was totally missing out! Once I found out how awesome it is, I deprived myself of sleep in order to go through all the vlogs and articles from last year, haha. Here are my favorite posts from this year's WriteOnCon, as well as some other blog posts I enjoyed recently.

 WRITEONCON
  • Jodi Meadows on How to Write a Synopsis: love her idea for a verbal diarrhea pre-drafting synopsis!
  • Taran Hudson on Pacing: her Chapter Sandwich is a good trick for making sure there's lots of tension and excitement
  • Kendra Levin on Your Own Hero's Journey: how to balance your writing with everything else in life
  • Carrie Ryan on Revision: great tip about starting with the big picture before looking at detail
  • Martha Mihalik on Building Believable Romance: love her point that romance doesn't have to be stated directly
  • [Vlog] Lisa Schroeder on Novel Beginnings: great point about being intentional with your starting point
  • [Vlog] Lindsey Leavitt on The Debut Year: omg she's so adorable!
PLOTTING
  • Marina Cohen wrote for Let the Words Flow about how thinking = plotting. I feel so much better about all the time I spend daydreaming!
  • Jennifer Hubbard talks about why middles are marvelous. I think openings and endings are incredibly difficult for me, too!
  • Patricia C. Wrede says you need to know where you are in order to determine if you can get to where your destination. Great analogy for plotting and knowing your story.
CHARACTERIZATION
SETTING/WORLDBUILDING

In other news, I've realized that I should've spent more time plotting and planning before diving into Camp NaNoWriMo. I make a terrible pantser. But participating forced me to think about my project more and I've made a lot of progress in figuring things out (if not actual word count), so I'm glad I signed up! 

I keep thinking up potential plot events and scenes, but because I hate how everything feels like a muddle in my head, I bought a ton of note cards and sticky notes in order to storyboard the plot. I'm hoping that organization and getting the structure down first will provide a smoother writing experience down the road. I'm excited to see how it goes! I'll blog more about whether the note card method worked for me once I've gotten a chance to try it out.

Oh, and here's an interesting post from Slate about how to write faster. Are you a Beethovian or Mozartian drafter? I bet you can guess which one I am!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Novel-Writing Game Plan

It's finally here! A bit belated, but at least I got it done. I meant to write an introduction, but that introduction turned into my post on why I need a master plan. So this time, I'll jump right in. Here's how I want to approach writing my first novel:

1. Create a vision

More and more, I'm learning to appreciate the value of having a vision. I always thought I wasn't an ambitious or passionate person, but maybe that's because I didn't really know what I want. How can I get anywhere if I don't even know what my destination is? That's why I'm going to write down my dream of what I hope to accomplish, so I have something to aim for. A guiding star, so I know which direction to take. I'm not sure, yet, how detailed this vision will be, or how well I'll be able to realize it, or how much it will change with time. But this is where I'm going to start.

2. Commit to a story

Remember what I said about putting things on to-do lists that I've already finished? Yeah, this is one of them. I've accumulated lots of different story ideas over the years, and I know I need to stick to one of them — so I chose one. Once I'm done with my vision posts I'll talk more about how I get ideas and how I decided which one to pick (the reason is kind of ridiculous — but you'll see). I hope I can stick with it. I tend to like keeping my options open, which can turn into commitment-phobia, but this time I want to see it through to the end.

3. Brainstorm more brilliance

At least, I hope there will be some brilliance involved. :P Sure, I have tons of ideas, but they need to be developed before there's enough material for a novel. I need to know more about the plot, setting, and characters. I'll be asking myself a lot of questions, coming up with answers that fit with my vision and with the specific story idea I chose, and trying to weave them all together into something that sounds good to me. There will probably be a lot of free-writing and list-making in this stage. Plus a lot of being frustrated with myself for not knowing the answer...

4. Organize an outline

I do enjoy scribbling ideas down by hand in notebooks and having files of random bullet points and snippets of scenes, but I like having my ideas neatly organized even more. I'll be taking my jumble of thoughts and sorting, trimming, and reorganizing them until I can see the big picture with all the pieces where they belong. I like plans and strategies, and having an outline will help me keep track of plot elements and character arcs. Structure is important, and I want to be sure to think ahead so I don't write myself into a corner.

5. Write!

This part scares me. So much. What if I can't make it past a few thousand words? What if my outline doesn't work and I get stuck? What if all I do is open the document and then proceed to surf the web instead of actually working on it? What if I do write something but it's absolutely awful? What if it turns out I'm not cut out to be a writer because I secretly hate writing?

I don't know how I will handle the writing part. I never wrote more than a few brief scenes before. I also never had a complete outline either, so maybe that will help. I don't know. I think I will need word count goals and schedules but I think I will probably fail those and then feel discouraged and not want to write. And I will probably want to edit as I write. Well. I'll worry about it more when I get to that phase. I'm sure I'll be struggling with this a lot. At least that means I will have material to blog about, hm?

6. Repeat 2-5 with a new project

OMG IF I EVER FINISH I WILL BE SO ECSTATIC. When I'm not beating myself up because I think what I wrote is a pile of crap, that is. I'll let myself celebrate a little and resist the urge to dive back in and fix stuff by distracting myself with a new story. I hope I make it to this part.

7. Revise first novel

I'm actually looking forward to revision. How cool is it to be able to read a book and fix all the things you think are wrong with it? I will be so happy to let my inner editor run rampant (though I should probably remind her to be kind, as I don't want me to be too discouraged). I have no idea how much work I'll have to do at this point but I think it'll be fun to see what I've written and try to improve it. Or maybe I'm being delusional and I will actually want to bash my head against a wall and tear my hair out if I make it to this stage. Huh. I guess we'll see.


So, there you go! A general overview of how I'm planning to go about this writing project. Although I did leave out one important element in this plan (there's a brief mention, but nothing concrete). Well, probably more than one, but there's one specific thing I'm thinking of. I don't have a good track record regarding that aspect of planning, so I sort of dread thinking about it. But it's important, so I guess I'll force myself to talk about it in my next post. Can you tell what it is?

If you notice anything else I've overlooked or have any advice or words of wisdom for me, please share! I'm open to suggestions for revising my plan and I would love to learn from your experience. :)

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Planning Ahead

I have a love/hate relationship with organization and planning. Deep down inside, there’s a girl who would love to throw out the clutter, sort and color-code what’s left, make Excel spreadsheets for everything, and follow a perfectly scheduled agenda filled with just the right balance of productivity and relaxation.

Unfortunately, she doesn't get her way often because I’m just so incredibly lazy. And I've sort of trained myself to stay that way. For example, I actually have a decent tolerance for messes — I'm good at ignoring things or assuming apathy, because if I notice and care, I might have to do something about it. (I'm a big believer in the conservation of energy; that's why I'm so fond of sleeping.)

But every once in a while, I'll be ambushed by a sudden onslaught of energy and motivation. That's when I do things like alphabetize books on my shelf by last name of author and then check that the spine of each book is exactly the same distance from the edge of the bookshelf (with a ruler, of course, so it's accurate). Or reorder the clothes in my closet (well, once I move them there, anyway) seasonally and by item type, then catalogue it all in a spreadsheet along with attributes that include brand, color, length, care instructions, occasion, and how frequently I wear it.

Thankfully, these episodes are brief, and soon things devolve back into organic chaos. I try to do some light organizing here and there, but I basically allow entropy to run amok until the next time I'm overtaken by the urge to bring order to my surroundings. (I was particularly susceptible during midterm or finals season; funny coincidence, that.)

For a long time, that's how it went with my writing. I'd think about it from time to time, perhaps write a character study or jot down a few plot points in a burst of creativity, only to forget the project soon after. Since I wasn't all too dedicated and had little idea what I was doing, I didn't make much progress beyond a lot of daydreaming.

So now I'm going to try something different. I'm going to leverage my organization and planning skills to map out a strategic plan of attack on my novel project. Hopefully, breaking down my goal into smaller steps will make it seem less overwhelming. Plus there's something so satisfying about completing items on a checklist (why yes, I've added completed items to my to-do list before, just so I can cross it off — it's important to reward yourself with that sense of accomplishment!). And knowing what's next will keep me from feeling lost and help me make things easier for my future self.

Of course, having an awesome master plan doesn't guarantee success. I still have to carry it out, which is... not my strong suit. I'm hoping that blogging my progress will provide accountability and force me to remember my goal instead of brushing it off. (You guys will help, right?)

I'll be unveiling my game plan in my next post. It's more of a general overview, actually, so I'll probably have to come up with sub-sections with detailed checklists and a better schedule and... well, I'll worry about it when I get there. Stay tuned!


Where are you on the messy/organized spectrum?

Monday, May 16, 2011

8 Steps to Writing an English Paper in One Night

You may think it's odd I'm blogging about writing English papers as I am no longer in school, and what I want to write are novels, not more papers.

The thing is, I know very little about writing novels. Sure, I've read hundreds of novels and tons of blog posts, articles, and books about how to write them. But I’ve never written one.

What I have written a lot of are English papers. (I get points for sticking to "write what you know," don't I?) I hope that, by analyzing how I write academically, I can get an idea of the best writing process for me as I dive into my fiction project. I probably have a ton of bad habits I need to fix, and being aware of what they are would be the first step.

This is how I write English papers:

(Disclaimer: your mileage may vary; results are not guaranteed and you're responsible for the outcome should you try this at home.)

1. Pick a topic

As soon as I get the list of prompts, I cross out any prompt based on books I didn't buy for the class. (The best way to save money on textbooks is not to buy them, right? I think there was a semester or two when I didn't buy any textbooks. Somehow, I survived.) Then I eliminate prompts that look like too much work or too boring or whatever. Eventually I settle on a topic. Then I figure I've done enough work for the time being and forget about the paper until a couple days before it's due.

2. Read the source material and find all relevant passages

This is when being a fast reader comes in handy. I can (and do) read several full-length novels in one day, so I know I'll have enough time to read whichever book I've chosen to write about. If I've already read the book, it does make it easier to note all the sections related to the prompt, but I can do it on my first read through as well. I like to highlight and dog-ear every instance to make them easy to find. I tend to do this a day or two before the paper is due.

3. Collect potential quotes

The day before the paper is due, I'll complain to my friends that I have a paper due the next day and haven't even started (I can't believe they put up with me either; my friends are so nice!). In the afternoon I review my source material, and after dinner I start compiling the most useful passages in a Word document. This becomes my "brainstorm" file and it's where I outline the paper. Since it's still early in the evening, I feel like I have lots of time left. So I take plenty of breaks to play random flash games. It wouldn't do to overwork myself now, would it?

4. Make observations and organize the quotes accordingly

The previous step shouldn't take all that long, but time flies when you procrastinate. Eventually, I notice how late it's getting and make myself analyze the passages and find patterns and connections. I start with concrete details and build my paragraph ideas from there as I link together passages that support the same point. As before, this is accompanied by surfing the internet and whining to friends.

5. Come up with a thesis

By the time I finish it's probably around 11pm. Then comes the toughest part of the entire paper-writing process for me. I look at my potential topic sentences and try to think of an argument that ties them all together. This is hard. It has to say something interesting and compelling about the text or author that can be logically supported by the observations I've already made.

It's so incredibly difficult that I agonize over my lack of ideas, certain I will never be able to start writing my paper. I decide I will most likely fail the class. So I go look at something funny on the internet to make me feel better.

After a good laugh, I stare at my screen. A lot. And change my status to "I NEED A THESIS!" so all my friends know how tortured I am. And whine some more to make sure they didn't miss my subtle hint. And then let my conscious mind take a break with Bejeweled so my subconscious can work on the paper. And then blank out some more at my brainstorm file.

Around 1am (or midnight, if I'm lucky) I finally type out my beautiful, brilliant thesis and wonder why I didn't think of it sooner. To celebrate the amazing progress I've made, I let myself procrastinate some more by watching YouTube videos.

6. Outline the paper

Once I get my thesis, everything falls into place. I look at the material I have and rearrange the order to fit the thesis. I make sure the outline flows logically from one point to the next so my transitions would be smooth. I write out my topic sentences and decide which quotes to keep. Then I'm ready to start writing.

7. Write

Most of my paper assignments were in the 5-7 page range. From experience I know that, including time spent on procrastination and the inverse relationship between efficiency and sleep deprivation, I should budget about one hour to write each page.

By now I'm not so worried; the hardest part is over. I know the basic writing mechanics and I know what I want to say, thanks to my outline. I just have to churn out the words.

I write and edit sentence-by-sentence, making sure what I've written makes sense and says something useful before I move on. If I can't think of a good way to phrase something, I'll write SOMETHING GOES HERE and skip to the next section. But that doesn't happen often as I'm simply transforming my outline into prose. I already know what every sentence is supposed to say, whether it's the topic of a paragraph, analysis of a specific line, explanation of a quote, or a transition to the next point. Since I have a thesis, the introduction and conclusion write themselves.

But thanks to my terrible habit of procrastinating, I'm writing at a time when I'd normally be sleeping, so my brain isn't exactly operating at its optimum. I have to be careful that I don't start writing nonsense as my brain turns to mush. The longer I stay up, the harder it becomes to form a coherent sentence. Minutes pass by as I squint at the blinking cursor, trying to remember how I'd intended to finish the half-written fragment. I can't think straight at all — it takes too much effort to remain lucid.

I can't afford to get writer's block, so I don't. But I do let myself take a nap. Around 5am, I get so tired I let myself lie down and close my eyes. I always worry I'll oversleep and miss my class, not turn in the paper, and fail the course, but the thought is so horrifying I wake up every few minutes to check the time. I always get up in time to finish my paper.

8. Check it over and turn it in

I complete the paper about half an hour (or less) before class starts. I make sure I didn't inadvertently leave SOMETHING GOES HERE in my paper. I quickly reread my sentences and tweak them a bit, but the changes are minor. I don't have time to do an in-depth line edit, and much less any revisions, so I print out the paper and hope there aren't too many typos or awkward sentences. Even if there are a few careless mistakes, I tell myself it's the content that matters. I try not to be more than half an hour late to class, then finally hand in the paper.

And then it’s over! Yay! I struggle to stay awake during class and bolt out the door once it ends. I go home, stumble to my bed, and fall into a much-needed and blissful slumber.


This process works for me, for the most part. It's not perfect and sometimes my papers turn out to be less than stellar, but thankfully those B+ and A- grades were in the minority. The one time I got a C on a paper, I was absolutely appalled, but I talked to the grader and worked my butt off on the second paper and the final, so I still ended up with an A in the class (whew!).

So I'd say my habit of staying up all night to write English papers generally works ok for me, though I can't say how well it'd work for anyone else. (Don't try this and expect to get a good grade if you usually spend days writing multiple drafts of your essays.)

Anyway, that's how I write English papers. In my next post, I'll talk about what issues I'll need to work on as I tackle writing a novel (I bet you can already guess what some of them are).


How about you? How did (or do) you go about writing academic papers?