Next month we’re going to talk Beginnings: decide on the promises you want to make to your readers in your story. Then outline according to those promises.
Original outline (using short story structure from RMFW 2014 panel with Betsy Dornbush) for the first story I'm working on:
Story Problem
External - Need to secure right of passage through Panamanian territory/airspace.
Internal - Crippling shyness? Sent along to learn to deal with others.
Character - Protagonist - Cabin Boy
Character - Antagonist - vs Eclipse? Spanish? Unsympathetic Captain?
Character - Local Native authority
Character - Albino Eclipse crew leader
Inciting Incident - Crew sent to secure treaty for airspace rights for the next period. Protag’s father initially supposed to lead the expedition, but pulled out at the last minute.
Obstacle - But I don’t want to be a cabin boy! At least, not under this other captain. This is going to suck…
Tough. You’re going anyway
I don’t like this guy.
I don’t like you either, brat, but we’re stuck with each other.
Call to Action - Locals are not in a negotiating mood - it’s the season of the eclipse, and that takes priority.
Obstacle - They demand cabin boy’s participation in the eclipse ritual or else the deal is off.
Point of no return - Cabin boy left with locals - crew to stay away during the eclipse, return afterwards. If ritual succeeds, all will be well.
Obstacle - Failure. Cabin boy runs away from his captors, catches up with his crew.
Black Moment/Dark Night - Crew unsympathetic - everything’s riding on this. He’s turned back over to the locals.
Final obstacle overcome - Ritual is largely symbolic, but very important - keep up appearances. Man behind the curtain? Locals know perfectly well what causes eclipses, after all.
Moment of peace - treaty secured, sense of accomplishment.
***************************************************
Promises Made:
Adventure Story
Interesting location - Panama Colony AU
Interesting characters for protagonist to interact with - Local Indigenous population
Action oriented plot - need to work on this, as the interior is getting top billing
Coming of Age? Character development, at least
Interior dialog vs. External dialog - conversations with other characters to show growth over time.
Make this a little more secondary - as noted above, this is positioned as an action story.
Conclusion: I need to develop much more detailed outlines before I start writing.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Out Of Excuses 2015 - The Writing Excuses Cruise
Part of the reason I've been working through the Writing Excuses exercises for Season 10 is because I signed up for the 2015 Writing Excuses retreat, which took place in September on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. I had kind of hoped to have something ready to actually show to someone, but that didn't happen - I'm still working through a few things with regard to actually producing writing.
And that's one of the big things I'm taking away from the conference - suggestions on breaking through some of my emotional barriers and developing a regular writing habit. I've done all the analysis that I really need to, and I know precisely why certain behaviors pop up regularly, and the only way to really combat them is to simply get my butt in the chair, put my hands on the keyboard, and get words on the page. Big thanks to Mary Robinette Kowal - I got more done this past week than I had in the previous month and a half,
Perhaps I should start more toward the beginning, though. My wife and I met Mary on a Steampunk Cruise two years ago, and renewed our acquaintance on a second Steampunk cruise last year. We started listening to Writing Excuses as a result, and have been applying various lessons learned to our own efforts to learn how to write creative fiction. While we've also been enjoying local events (the Writing tracks at Mile Hi Con and AnomalyCon, the Pikes Peak Writers' Conference, and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Gold Conference), When we heard that Writing Excuses was also doing an annual conference, we decided that we'd sign up the next time one was announced.
And then we found out it was going to be on a cruise ship. Score! After the two Steampunk Cruises, my wife and I have found that we really enjoy cruising as a vacation, and having been forced to transfer our third Steampunk Cruise reservation to a different cruise experience (long story involving a job change because of this...), we found that even just going by ourselves gave us a great chance to get away from it all and get some writing done. Now we'd have a whole cruise devoted to writing, learning about writing, talking with other writers, and so forth. Exellent!
And it certainly was. As noted, I've been less productive lately than I like to admit, and I didn't get a lot of writing actually done on this trip - but on the other hand, every one of the classes gave me something to think about, and I could tell the difference as I was reading on the flight home. I can see where the tension is getting ratcheted up, where the pinch points and midpoints are being set, and where the subplots are interleaving with the main plots. In the writing that I have done over the last few days, I can see where I need to punch up my dialogue, where further description would help, and how I need to demonstrate my protagonist's perceived lack of agency as the thing he really wants to change (since he's evolved from a whiny, spoiled brat into a more sympathetic character that still has a long way to go).
I also learned a few things on a personal level as well. It's gradually getting easier for me to fake being an extrovert. I still use alcohol as a social lubricant, but I'm finding that, especially at sea level, the amount of alcohol it takes to actually lower my filters is much higher than I'm generally comfortable drinking, so the booze actually is more useful as something to talk about than it is as a crutch for my social anxieties. This is a good thing, I think. I had a marvelous time chatting with people at meals, and getting to know writers from various backgrounds in various genres. The two Steampunk Cruises put us in touch with some folks who have become dear friends over the years since we met at sea, and I look forward to having the same thing happen with my new friends from the Writing Excuses Cruise,
And that's one of the big things I'm taking away from the conference - suggestions on breaking through some of my emotional barriers and developing a regular writing habit. I've done all the analysis that I really need to, and I know precisely why certain behaviors pop up regularly, and the only way to really combat them is to simply get my butt in the chair, put my hands on the keyboard, and get words on the page. Big thanks to Mary Robinette Kowal - I got more done this past week than I had in the previous month and a half,
Perhaps I should start more toward the beginning, though. My wife and I met Mary on a Steampunk Cruise two years ago, and renewed our acquaintance on a second Steampunk cruise last year. We started listening to Writing Excuses as a result, and have been applying various lessons learned to our own efforts to learn how to write creative fiction. While we've also been enjoying local events (the Writing tracks at Mile Hi Con and AnomalyCon, the Pikes Peak Writers' Conference, and the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Gold Conference), When we heard that Writing Excuses was also doing an annual conference, we decided that we'd sign up the next time one was announced.
And then we found out it was going to be on a cruise ship. Score! After the two Steampunk Cruises, my wife and I have found that we really enjoy cruising as a vacation, and having been forced to transfer our third Steampunk Cruise reservation to a different cruise experience (long story involving a job change because of this...), we found that even just going by ourselves gave us a great chance to get away from it all and get some writing done. Now we'd have a whole cruise devoted to writing, learning about writing, talking with other writers, and so forth. Exellent!
And it certainly was. As noted, I've been less productive lately than I like to admit, and I didn't get a lot of writing actually done on this trip - but on the other hand, every one of the classes gave me something to think about, and I could tell the difference as I was reading on the flight home. I can see where the tension is getting ratcheted up, where the pinch points and midpoints are being set, and where the subplots are interleaving with the main plots. In the writing that I have done over the last few days, I can see where I need to punch up my dialogue, where further description would help, and how I need to demonstrate my protagonist's perceived lack of agency as the thing he really wants to change (since he's evolved from a whiny, spoiled brat into a more sympathetic character that still has a long way to go).
I also learned a few things on a personal level as well. It's gradually getting easier for me to fake being an extrovert. I still use alcohol as a social lubricant, but I'm finding that, especially at sea level, the amount of alcohol it takes to actually lower my filters is much higher than I'm generally comfortable drinking, so the booze actually is more useful as something to talk about than it is as a crutch for my social anxieties. This is a good thing, I think. I had a marvelous time chatting with people at meals, and getting to know writers from various backgrounds in various genres. The two Steampunk Cruises put us in touch with some folks who have become dear friends over the years since we met at sea, and I look forward to having the same thing happen with my new friends from the Writing Excuses Cruise,
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