Writing From A Plan
Hi everyone,
So yesterday, I planned out my scene. Today, I started writing it. It’s a midpoint scene which is a big beat, so I’m in no rush to finish it. I’ve learned that major plot points take time. And care. It’ll take me a few days to write it.
I’m trying something new. In addition to following my plan, I’m trying to fold emotion into the scene as filtered through the setting. I’m using Donald Maass’s craft book: The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface, which I highly recommend. He has exercises peppered throughout the book (about 34) which ask questions of your MC, and for me these questions always spark creativity.
I’m doing a blend of exercise 3 and 4. In essence, I’m trying to infuse my MC (Ashlin) into my setting. I’m trying to filter what she sees through a specific emotion set.
At the beginning of the scene her emotions are negative, mostly in the ‘afraid’ category—if you boil all emotions down to four broad categories (mad, sad, glad and afraid). So she’s nervous, on edge, stressed, pressured and feeling very inadequate, and on top of that she feels lonely and very much a fish out of water. By filtering the setting through her biases and life experiences, I’m trying to get across, at least, a hint of those emotions.
I used the “I am not” from the Donald Maass exercise, in an attempt to make her observations of the setting push her to feel more of a fish out of water and more inadequate.
Eg. I’m not a fighter. I’m not brave. I’m not welcome etc. I made a long list and just cherry picked a few.
The full scene is quite action packed, so I think it’s important to take a moment for her to reflect here. That’s why I have chosen to do this particular exercise for this scene. This is a major point in her story, and I want her to see where she is now because she will be different after this set of scenes. I want to contrast the before and after.
My MC (Ashlin) is in a magic boarding school for gifted magic users and she has, as yet, no magic. Hence her feelings of inadequacy. In this midpoint scene, the world outside of the very insular boarding school leaks in a little. It’s only the second time the reader encounters the outside world, so I want to make sure that Ashlin has an opinion on what she sees and that it’s clear to the reader how she feels about it.
What’s important here, I think, are the details. Her observations can’t be general, not if I want to convey emotion. Observing small details slow the reader down. It makes them pay attention and using this detail, it’s possible to sneak in emotion through the character’s thoughts and observations. So I tried to be as specific as possible. Tomorrow, I’ll look back at it and be more specific if I can. Zoom right in on what she’s looking at.
I just worked on the introduction to the scene today. I intended to write to the break into act two, but I’m not quite there yet. It took time to work out what details Ashlin would notice and what emotions it would trigger in her and why. It turns out she has a lot of feelings about this, so I’m still working my way to the end of act one.
I’ve put a lot on the page, so I’ll have to delete later, but that’s my process. I overwrite, then cut back. I don’t write by word count but by goal. Since I’m an overwriter, using word count as a target is counter-productive for me.
I do keep count of my words. Mostly, to make sure I don’t go over or go over too much. I’ll finish the rest of act 1 tomorrow, but I’m happy with the details I’ve found that Ashlin would notice, and I’m happy with where it led her thoughts. I have her nicely, I think, in a negative space, for her growth later.
See you tomorrow.
Happy Writing,
Joanne
