Rough Draft Writing

Just a reminder to those of us in the US that the time change is coming this weekend!

Also, as far as NaNoEdMo, in the process of making the image above, while I was waiting on it to render (particularly at a size that would be printable, which kept crashing the program I was using), I managed to put in 2 hours of editing.  Now I only have 48 more to go.

March 1 marks the beginning of NaNoEdMo.  We have 30 days to put in 50 hours of editing.  So far?  I’ve done 0.  Ooops.  But I will correct that before long.

Also, today marks the start of signing up for Script Frenzy.  This is the script writing companion event to NaNoWriMo.   I participated in the inaugural event, when it was over the summer and 20K words, but the event has since been moved to April and has been changed to 100 pages of script, whether it be for TV, movie, or the stage.

Since the Script Frenzy is coming, I thought I’d talk a bit about the differences between doing a script and doing a novel.  I found that for me, I didn’t need to change a lot, since a lot of my stuff tends to be dialog heavy in the first draft, at least.  The first thing you’ll notice is the formatting.  Although there is some variation, scripts follow a pretty specific format, with the variations being on the target media.  Essentially, you have what is said by the characters, stage directions, and descriptions of actions.

Anything a character feels or thinks must either be shown or spoken.  For those, like me, who write a lot of dialog anyway, this is an easy format to get used to.  If you’re used to writing a lot of description, however, this is one thing that may prove challenging.  In fact, descriptions should be limited to the required actions.  In other words, be sparse.  Let the actors and the directors determine as much of the action as possible.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t provide directions.  In some cases, it may be necessary to include SOME directions.  But about 90% of what you would write in a novel can be cut out of a script and still get the point across.

To get a feel for some scripts, it may help to look at a few.  You can find some at the Internet Movie Script Database.  If you are getting ready for the Script Frenzy, reading a few that are along the lines of what you want to do can really help you get the feel for the format.

Now, for my friends doing NaNoEdMo, this is only week 1.  Even if you haven’t started yet (like me), we still have a TON of time to get in that 50 hours.  So GET STARTED!  If you haven’t already, a great place to start is to read through your novel noting where you would like to make changes.  Make notes on what you like as well as things you don’t think are working.  When you start going through to make those changes, knowing what you like will help you keep those things intact.  I am doing mine on note cards for this next step.

After you have cataloged your scenes, a great place to start is to look at the overall structure of the novel.  Determine what can be left out, what needs to be moved, and what needs to be changed.  This can be easy to do if you have cataloged your scenes on note cards.  Once you have the overall structure in place, then you can go back and work on all those details that need to be tightened up.

Whether you are preparing for Script Frenzy or doing NaNoEdMo, good luck, and I’ll see you at the finish line!

You would think that with all of the bad weather we have had this month and all the extra time off I’ve had this month that I would have had plenty of time to work on my writing.  Right?

And I did have time.  But I used that time doing other things, like spending time with the family or working on other projects that I have going.  It’s not that I don’t want to write.  I do.  I just find that I have a hard time getting my self to sit down to work on it without something like NaNoWriMo.

Fortunately, next month is around the corner.  Why?  NaNoEdMo.  What’s that, you ask?  National Novel Editing Month.  Though I have not ever participated, I might try to this year.  The objective is to spend 50 hours across 30 days working on editing your novel.  That’s about 2 hours a day with a 20 minute break.  Sounds easy enough, right?

And if that’s not enough to tickle your writing fancy, the following month, April, is Script Frenzy, the script writing companion event to NaNoWriMo.  If you have ever wanted to write a movie, a TV series, or even something for the stage, then this is the event for you.

As for my reading, I have found Anna Kerinna to be a very difficult book to get into.  It hasn’t drawn me in the way most books do, so I have been ignoring it.  I need to get back on track and finish that one.  Only have 900 more pages to go.  Yay.

Good luck with your own writing!

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted… and I’m still not done with my overview.  In fact, I have been working on other projects, and not spending any time on my novel. This next week I will try to do a better job working on my novel and see if I can get the overview finished by the end of this next week.

Never fear though because I have not given up on finishing my novel. Persistence is one of the keys to success, and  though  have not worked on this project for a couple of weeks,I have not forgotten about it.

On the reading front, I am still reading Anna Karenina, although I’m just over 100 pages into it.  It is perhaps one of the most difficult books I’ve ever tried to read. One thing I have noticed about it though, if this book were written today it would be but very differently.

I hope everyone is doing well with their writing projects and I’ll see you next week.

On the nightstand is going to be a regular column I do here about once or twice a month about the books that I am reading.  My goal is to read at least two books a month — fiction wise, anyway — and give a review of them.  I might have newer selections from time to time, but for now, a lot of these will probably be books that have been out a while.  Some are even classics, as I intend to alternate between classic and contemporary works for the time being.  Part of my purpose in doing this is to help me to see things I like about different people’s styles so that I can use them in my own writing.

The first book I’m going to look at is the George Orwell classic 1984.  This book is about what the world might be like in a socialist controlled government.  Set in London, England, the story is about Winston Smith and his struggles as he rebels against Big Brother.

I really enjoyed this book.  I read this book a number of year ago when I was in high school (on my own; not for a class), and I think I got more out of it reading through it this time.  Maybe it is my perspective on everything.  At one point, Winston is reading a book about how society is and why is that way.   It helps to develop a greater sense of the world and why it operates the way it does.

I also like the twist in this book.  Even though I had read it before, and I knew it would happen, I was still caught off guard by it.  For those who haven’t read the book, I don’t want to spoil it for you, but for those who have, I think you’ll know which seen I mean.  It was a bit of an awakening for Winston.

From a storyteller’s standpoint, one thing I got from the book is that you can have a lot going on with the action without having a ton of dialog.  I know I have a tendency with my own writing to be very dialog heavy with my stories — almost to the point of loosing track of who is speaking.  Also, Orwell does a great job of envisioning the world that the people live in and in describing it to us.

Even if you have read it before, I think it is well worth the read.

Well, here we are halfway through January.  I fully expected to be through (or almost through) logging the scenes of my novel by now.  But, I am nearly halfway through.  If I would focus on the task, instead of relegating it to time I’m watching TV or some other task, I could probably get through it faster.  Still encountering many of the same things that I talked about last week.

Now, some of you may wonder what this next bit is about, but I have a message to all those would be commenters.  I want you to know, I moderate my comments.  For a very simple reason.  I don’t want this blog turning into a spammy site where people go to get easy links with comments that have nothing to do with the material posted.  That being said, it really is very easy to get me to approve a comment.  But it does take effort.  Not much.  Just find something in the post, and comment on it.  Make it specific.  Agree with me.  Disagree with me.  I don’t care.  I invite discussions.  On the topics presented.  But if the comment doesn’t contribute, in some way to the discussion at hand, it most likely will get deleted.

Oh, and one other thing… Watch what you’re linking to.  This is a page that might be seen by those who are not of age to see certain types of material, so anything remotely seeming to link to something like that will get deleted.

Just so you know, you don’t have to link to a site about writing.  If you were to ask a question or make a post about something slightly off topic, I MIGHT be inclined to do so if it were linked to something writing related.  No promises, though.

But to all my friends who want to come by and say hi… Don’t worry.  I usually know who you are and your stuff generally gets through.  This rant was more for those who are taking absolutely no effort to even remotely discuss the topic at hand.

Oh, and just saying “Nice post!” won’t get you approved.  Tell me why you liked the post!    It’s really not that hard!

Okay.  That’s out of the way.

One thing I recommend for anyone who wants to be a writer would be to read.  A lot.  And different kinds of stuff.  I know in the past, I have focused much of my reading on fantasy (and, really, I still do).  But don’t ignore other things just because it’s not  your usual fare.   As I’m choosing my books this year, I’m alternating between usual fare and classics.  This gives me a broader base to draw from when I write.  I try to pay attention to style, how scenes are constructed, and even guess what I think will come next.

Starting later this week, I’ll post reviews of books as I finish them.  Often, they’re books I’ve either read before or they might be slightly older books.  Either way, I’ll give you my opinions and even try to point out some things that, as a writer, I like (or in some cases, maybe even don’t like) and what that can mean for my own writing.  Until then, keep reading, writing, and editing!

Well, I have done a pretty good job so far of working on my book this year.  Perhaps I haven’t spent as much time on it as I intended, but I have been making some progress.  I am almost halfway through cataloging the scenes on notecards along with thoughts on the scenes.

One thing I am already noticing is that I have a number of difficult decisions to make about the novel already.  some of them, I have already made, but others I still need to make a decision.  My book is one told from multiple perspectives (though limited 3rd within each scene).  What I have found is three or four scenes that I really like the scene and adds a bit of depth to the world I am creating.  But the characters that are the central focus of those particular scene is  a relatively minor character.

For one of these scenes, the change is simple.  Instead of telling the scene from the perspective of the minor character in the scene, I just need to switch it to the major character.  Problem solved.  But most of the other scenes do not have a major character in them.  So the question becomes are these scenes really needed or can the story be told without them.  In one instance, I believe the scene is needed because it really does affect things in the story.  That scene could probably be expanded a bit.  Another one has a character that starts off as a “Major” player, but winds up being only a minor character, but his actions also affect the story, so that scene will stay.  But a couple of other scenes might could be deleted completely.  As I finish cataloging the scenes, I”ll play with things to decide if I can do the story without them.

Another thing I noted was I have several important minor and a couple of major characters that were never named in the original draft.   I feel these characters will need names.  So that is another thing I will have to do.

One last thing is since this was written in two parts, I have a number of characters who are in the second half (even a couple that appear  in the middle of the first half) that really should be introduced and given some story lines in the earlier parts of the story.

I still have a lot of work to do.  I have even decided that a few scenes (based on feedback from previous attempts) that are needed, but need to be reworked to make them less confusing.

If you are working on your story, you may be facing some of these same hard decisions.  Sometimes, we leave things in just because we feel it has to be there because we originally wrote it that way.  But if we really think about it, those scenes/characters may not really be needed.  We have to make the hard decisions in the interest of the story.

Good luck with you in your own story!

Hello, everyone!  Hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are enjoying the new year!

With the new year comes a new chance to finish old projects or to start new ones.  For me, one of the biggest things I want to accomplish this year is to get one of my novels ready for publication.  This is a novel that I started on over six years ago and have made several attempts at editing.  Every time before, I only got part way through the editing process before I gave up or was distracted by other things.  But this year will be different.  Why?  This blog!  My hope is that by sharing my progress with you, and in giving tips and ideas as I am editing that we both might be inspired to work on our novels.

One of the first things I’m going to look at as I edit my novel is to break it down into the different scenes.  As I go through the scenes, I’ll be looking at what I like about the scene and what I think needs work.  Since I do have a revision attempt or two, I’ll take notes on those and look at some feedback I have on those revisions.  I will be looking for scenes that need to be added and scenes that need to be cut or changed.

Good luck with your revisions and the projects you have planned for this year!

After spending a month of intense effort working on my novel, I’ve been taking a break of a couple of weeks from working on my fiction, and haven’t posted much here besides a few tributes. Monday, I’ll get back into providing some ideas for editing a novel and start working on doing that work myself.

In the mean time, I just finished reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I usually read that this time of year. If you have never read it, it really is a great story (better, I dare say, than many of the adaptations onscreen of the story). It’s a great study on a character story, not to mention a fantastic study on describing what’s going on in the story. It’s a short read and can easily be done in a few hours, or just under a week reading a “stave” a day.

Okay…   I”m a couple of  days late making this post.  I’ve been recuperating from my month long noveling adventure and getting started on catching back up with other areas of my life.   Slowly, I”m getting all that behind me.

First, I want to congratulate all of the 37,450 winners of NaNoWriMo 2010.  You’re achievement is remarkable!  You set out on the first of November to write at least 50,000 words, and you did it!  Some of you even wrote two, three, four, or even five or more times this amount!  I am proud to be one of you this year.

Second, for all 116,830 authors who sat down to write and and wrote at least one word, you are braver than many.  There are ten, maybe even a hundred, times as many out there who have wanted to write a book, but have never even got as far as you have.  This may not have been your year if you didn’t win, but you can come back next year and get that win!

My biggest reason for starting this site was as a way to connect with other writers.  One reason for this is that I have found through doing NaNoWriMo that by encouraging other writers, I find myself encouraged.  As a writer, I would like to have one of my novels published.  To that end, over the next year, I’ll be sharing my progress as I work on editing one of my novels that I have written.

Of the six NaNoWriMos that I have participated in, the first and third have been my best years, I feel.  That was the two years that I wrote the book I have tentatively titled The Storm.  I have taken a few stabs at editing this novel in the past, but have yet to make it through an entire revision.  That will change this year, I hope, through my keeping of this site.

Throughout the year, I will continue sharing things that I am learning on the craft of writing that I feel will help you (and me) to become better writers.  Feel free to join in the discussions.  I enjoy hearing about how others are doing on their projects and sharing in their success stories.

If you’ve had a NaNoWriMo success story that you’d like to share, let me know, because I would love to feature some here on this blog.  Especially if I have encouraged you in some way in that success.

*** Edit ***  When I posted this yesterday, I forgot to give you a way to do this.  So if you’d like to send me a NaNo story, you can email me at gradyp@roughdraftwriting.com and put in the subject line NaNoWriMo story.  ***

Also, I would like to mention that I am taking what I have learned about success from NaNoWriMo, and other places, and building a website to help others learn those lessons as well.  I feel that there are a lot of lessons from NaNoWriMo that can be applied to other areas of our life.  The name of the website is SuccessBuildingBlocks.com.

At the beginning of NaNoWriMo, I shared with you a video I created called a Mind Movie.  These Mind Movies can be created to help you with other areas of your life as well.  If you would like to learn more about making your own Mind Movie to help you achieve your goals (writing or otherwise), you can check out the Mind Movie website.

It has been great sharing NaNoWriMo with you and I look forward to an exciting year editing and getting a novel ready for publishing and getting ready to do this all over again next October and November!

Keep writing!