Quick Question
I’m working on my Cerebus post now – expect it some time this evening, with a Pet Sounds one tonight, and the next part of How We Know What We Know tomorrow. But I’ve got a question:
I’ve got a pretty good idea for an interesting science fiction novel, and I’ve been planning to serialise it on here. But working out the plot, I’ve hit a brick wall. I’ve got my protagonist, my antagonist, a big mystery, several smaller mysteries, the conflict between protagonist and antagonist and the cause of that conflict. I’ve got a theme, and a science fiction idea I actually think hasn’t been done before. What I haven’t got – and what I can’t see any way to get – is a way to satisfactorily resolve the conflict.
Now the way I’m planning on structuring this is as twelve independent short stories, each of which can be read on their own, but which fit into a wider framework, with at least some jumping around in place and time rather than being a strictly linear story. Think of it like a TV series with a ‘story arc’ but independent episodes. But for this to work I would *need* to have the principal conflict come to a head in about the ninth story, and I’ve hit a brick wall in my planning there.
Should I start writing and posting these stories – at a rate of roughly one a week – and hope that I get an idea within the two months or more it would take for me to get to that point (or that an idea falls out of what I write in that time), and take a chance on leaving the story unfinished, or should I wait til I’ve got everything worked out?
I’d say wait until it’s together to start serializing (serialising) . That way you have the whole story.
ANDREW!! What a question!
Of course you WILL get an idea, this is how this works, this is the fun of it, this is the magic! May I even tell you how many songs I’ve written at the airport? Can I even tell you? The stuntmen say, if you don’t get the butterflies don’t do the stunt…so Andrew you are getting the butterflies…
So are you going to do the stunt or aren’t you?
Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. You don’t know how it’s going to work itself out. You’ve got everything done except the beat of the heart, and the clock’s ticking. Weren’t you the one who asked for Pop-Drama? Well here it is.
I have total confidence in you. No joke. Get crackin’. It’d be absurd not to.
I agree with the man Plok, basically because I think that’s part of the process of writing good shit, that it is to some extent holistic, naturally-formed… maybe don’t serialise if you think it’s something needs to be worked through, but yeah, I don’t trust – ach, you know how people moan about TV series (Lost, most particularly of recent) on the basis that “they’re making it up as they go along”? Well, I think of course they are, that’s how it should be done (to a large extent, anyway.)
In the Seventies, Gerber made up every single little thing he wrote, issue-to-issue. Never knew what was coming next. I like to think that was what made reading his comics so gripping, and eyt with the strong sense of an open world.
John Byrne plans EVERYTHING, but loses the heart for it. I know which one I’d pick.
i always thought the best way of writing was to plan it out in advance (usually using index cards, because they’re easier to shuffle around and change the structure that way) but this book i’m currently 175,000 words into has proved to me how wrong i am
what’s worked for me this time, is this. when i’m done, and when i’ve done a decent first edit then i’m aiming to serialise my book in proper charles dickens pamphlet style (literally, as in i’m going for pastiche of that period for the pamphlets)… BUT i need to finish the thing first and then during the first edit actually add a proper plot. you don’t really NEED a plot when you’re writing a first draft, i’ve found. what you need is a sort of sense of vague direction and then a willingness to suddenly take a narrative leap which can happily ignore that previous direction
i’ve always worried horribly about the plot, but that’s nonsense i think. i can work out the plot when i’m done and re-edit the whole thing later. in the meantime, i’m just enjoying stretching out and seeing where i go…
the .. “High Modernist” move might be to have the complete idea completely complete prior to setting out. my prejudices run, however, to “What would Giordano Bruno do?” (yeah, i know that Joyce was one of Modernism’s defining voices, but he *welcomed* accident, ‘specially in the Wake ..).
anyway, like Shakespeare/Bowles/Etc said: LET IT COME DOWN.
If you have enough to write, then write. Finish a story, or two. If they’re solid, post and keep going. The rest will work itself out in the writing process.
I find that the more I know about where the story is going, the less I want to write it – it’s like it’s already “done,” for me.
If they’re designed to be somewhat standalone stories, there’s no reason that you can’t post as you go – it’ll work out, and in the event that it doesn’t, the standalones will, you know, stand alone.
You have to know how it will finish in order to unite them all. But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t write several, and then re-write if necessary when the ending comes to you.
Writing a reply on this subject – see facebook inbox.
Start the serial!
Either start writing what you can or put the whole thing off and don’t think about it for a while. If you’re stuck for an idea the worst thing you can do is try really hard to think of the idea you need. Sometimes I get inspiration when I’m writing; sometimes writing the easy bits helps me to think more clearly about the hard bits; sometimes the answer comes to me when I’m doing something mundane and not even thinking about writing. I’ve had so many good ideas while out walking or doing data entry or just listening to music. I usually work in short periods of 30-45 minutes with 15-30 minutes rest between them, partly to rest my arms but also because it’s good for my brain. Sometimes I struggle to find the right words during a work period but then the perfect sentence forms in my mind during a rest period when I’m just lying down or looking out of the window.