Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

My goal was to finish my book by the end of January. I would have easily done that if I had not taken the time to write that short story. As it is, I have three and a half scenes left to write.

And if this were a normal week I would be able to push myself and still get it done before the month ends Saturday night.

But as it turns out, I'm busy. I've got a couple of freelance jobs that are conspiring to take away any spare time I might otherwise spend writing. And I don't want to rush these final scenes because, as you might imagine, they are crucial. I want to get them just right.

I don't mind, though. I'm very happy with the short story I wrote and I have confidence it will be accepted for the anthology. And by the end of the first week in February, I will have a completed manuscript. It will be the end of a 15-month journey, but soon I will be able to say that I wrote a novel.

The journey won't be over, though. Not only will I need to go through the copy editing, formatting, designing, and everything else for the final product to see the light of day, but the story won't be finished. I will need to start in right away on the next book.

Bear with me. We're almost there. Remember my stack of thirty-one remaining index cards? I'm now down to three. It's frustrating not to have the time to knock it out this week, but it will soon be done.

In February.

Dang it.

So close.

Write right, Wright p3: Cracking A Scene

Before I write a scene I have to spend some time thinking about how I want to approach it. I may know what's going to happen next in my story. I may have my little index card in front of me that tells me who is in the scene and what the scene needs to accomplish (the "plot point") but that doesn't mean I have the scene figured out yet.

I call it cracking the scene: figuring out the hook that allows me to execute the plot point in a way that is interesting to read, true to the characters and logically flows from what has come before. I have cracked scenes in several different ways but usually the first thing I do is find a way to make it as exciting as possible.

For example, when my index card told me "Lucas joins the army", I ended up with a scene depicting Lucas surrounded by bad influences, falling to temptations, resisting arrest, getting beaten by enforcers, thrown into shackles and pressed into military service against his will. In other words, I believe I took the simple note about the plot point and punched it up considerably. And at the same time, commented on the character of Lucas by showing what sort of people and situations he allows himself to be around.

But punching up the action is just one aspect to cracking a scene. The primary choice I believe a writer has to make in presenting a scene is choosing the POV. I'm writing in limited third person, so who is going to be the point-of-view character for a particular scene? My answer is informed by two factors: 1) Whose POV will be the most interesting? and 2) Is there a character whose POV is revisited regularly through the course of the book?

In addition to POV, the choice must be made when to pick up the action of a scene. Should it start in a quiet moment? Should it start in the middle of action? Should it start in the middle of conflict? Should it start with a line of dialogue or a descriptive passage? There will be no consistent answer to these questions, nor should there be. The variety of presentation will make the story better.

Sometimes, if I'm stuck on how to open a scene, I have a trick that usually helps me out. That is, focus on one of the five senses. What does a scene sound like? Or smell like? What's the POV character's reaction to it? That's usually enough to get me started. Hopefully, it succeeds in pulling readers into the scene, helping them to visualize.

Looking back on what I've written, I can point to another emerging pattern in my style. That would be one of symmetry in structure. Whatever I open with, I try to revisit it at the end of the scene. I find this usually provides a pretty solid spine for the scene. For example, I opened one scene with a character studying the night sky, he turns away and other things happen but I end with him commenting on a constellation. I think I've heard this concept called "callbacks". Stuff like that seems to put a nice little bow on the end of a scene, providing a complete miniature reading experience.

Cracking a scene. I start with a plot point note on an index card, then make a series of decisions (regarding action, POV, starting point, sensory hook, closing callback, etc.) and before I know it I have what I consider to be a pretty strong scene.

Sidetracked

Well, here we are at the midpoint of January and I have not written a word on my novel since the middle of December. As planned, I took the last two weeks of the year off for the holidays. During that time, I read a novel written by a friend, perhaps more accurately an "online acquaintance", of mine: "Dreamer's Syndrome" by Mark Bousquet from White Rocket Books.  My intention was to pick up writing my novel again in January, but a funny thing happened:

I accidently wrote a short story. 

I don't feel at liberty to say too much about it quite yet, but to say that I have high hopes of it being published in an anthology sometime later this year. I was privy to the brainstorming behind the idea of the anthology but had no real interest in contributing a story. Nonetheless, some ideas began percolating in my head even though none of them ever solidified into stories. However, one night during my regular late-night "pondering time", a completely new idea popped into my head and within a few minutes I knew I had a story. 

The next day I did a little research on the internet in regards to the setting. From that, my story really came together. And while it may not be perfect, I have to say I'm personally kind of excited about it. So cross your fingers, with a little luck it can be chosen for inclusion in the anthology and one day, years from now, I could even get a royalty check for, like, $1.25 or something.

But that story's delivered. Sorry about the detour. I didn't mean for that to happen, really. I return this week to my novel. I just read back over everything I wrote in November and December and it all still works for me, so that's good.

Next: I really will look at Cracking a Scene.

State of the Book

Here we are in 2009. After a couple of months of intense writing and tremendous progress, I took the last two weeks of the year off as I celebrated the birth of Christ with my family.

As of January 1st, my novel is clocking in at 80,109 words. I started this journey in late November of 2007 and the end is truly in sight. It is my goal to have it finished by the end of this month.

Once I have it done, we'll begin the "post-production" process of copy editing, procuring artwork, designing and formatting, et. al. While all that's going on, I'll probably get started right away on the sequel.

The new year brings an additional challenge to my finding time to write as I look to launch my own wedding video business as a sideline venture. But I'm so close now, I surely must see this through.

Next: Cracking a Scene