writing blah blah blah

[pauraque_bk]

So I'm writing kind of a novel. Or testing my ability to write one. I have it planned out enough that I think I can at least get a book's worth of material written, whether it's actually any good or not, and I'm writing it a little bit at a time and giving it to _hannelore to read. Like NaNo, but without the speed element. There are a couple of things that are hard about it.

The length makes it challenging because I usually do short stories, not so much because I like the form, but because when I try to write things that are long I get distracted or bored and give up. But I'm envious of people who write long things, because there's so much more time and space to explore what they're doing, to make arcs and watch them play out, and see the characters change over a period of time. It's not that I haven't wanted to try that, I just find it hard to motivate myself to try. Having a trusted person waiting to read the next part seems to help. Guilt is a good motivator... Approval is a good motivator too.

It's also hard because it's not fanfic. It's based on something, but loosely enough that it doesn't quite fit the fanfic category to me, particularly because I made up the characters.

As everyone in fandom likely knows, making up characters from scratch is really hard and most people are bad at it. Fandom is overflowing with opportunities to watch people fail at this.

I feel like I know essentially how to write good prose, or at least prose that some people like. If pressed I could probably get pretty technical about it... It's not magical, it's a specific process, and if I'm not usually very conscious of it, that's mostly because I'm just used to it.

But I'm just lost with how to make up characters that are interesting, and that some people will care about. You definitely can't try too hard to force it, we know what happens then.

I think I flourished really well in fanfic because it provides you with the characters already. And maybe you could say, well YOUR version of this character was different, and you took it in your own direction. Sure, but the existing character was there as a jumping-off point for me, and something that the reader could relate to and say "yes, I recognize that, I'm already interested and invested in that".

So yeah, I'm just trying to practice until I get something. The characters in what I'm writing now... I'm still trying to figure out what their deal is, and struggling with it, and trying to make it mean something without a "canon" as such to reflect and twist and interpret.

I'm using my usual writing process, which is to make a vague plan and then just write a LOT of crap -- anything I can think of -- some of which will eventually be distilled into something that is hopefully not crap. Some of it is stupid and will never see the light of day. Some of it is not stupid, but just not relevant or interesting enough to make it in, except perhaps as a passing mention, or unspoken background, or something I write through and then realize in the middle of the scene that it needs to go somewhere completely different.

And -- tangent -- this is something I haven't written before, characters developing a gradual intimacy, and a friendship, and a sort of marriage. So I'm writing to get a feel for what that's like at different points in time. Habits, ordinary days. I go through fits of writing variations on a theme, or similar scenes. This week I was writing them having arguments... About money, about sex, about who was supposed to take out the trash. About the temperature of the house.

I don't know! I hope this is doing something. I missed writing.

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

This is so exciting to hear about--ITA in all the things you're saying about character creation and the difference from fanfic. But I think even if this never became a finished or published novel, it's probably going to be an excellent learning process that *will* improve your ability to write characters or teach you things.

[bardsmaid.livejournal.com]

I agree with the comment above: no matter what becomes of this writing effort, it's going to teach you a lot. Each effort is a stepping stone to better, more effective storytelling.

It's interesting to see other fic writers' take on characters. I didn't ever consider that canon protagonists would relieve me from the labor of coming up with characters; I was simply eager to peer in through those shadowy doorways the XF panned past too quickly for my liking. But OCs pop into my longer fic all the time. My main problem with them is that if I'm not careful, whatever their personal story is will keep me from making progress along the main plot road I'm traveling. For me, OCs are a lot like those tiny sponge shapes crammed into little capsules that you can find at the more unique toy stores (the kind that swell up into a duck or a dragon or whatever when you soak the capsule in water.) Once I open the door, characters just sort of spring into three-dimensionality... even when the only thing I was looking for was someone to fill a simple plot need. But no, they never seem to come that way; they arrive with suitcases and furniture and immediately set up housekeeping.

I think one of the reasons this happens, though, is that I never try to deliberately fashion a character; I just work to set aside my preconceptions and be open to whoever or whatever may come. (As is posited in the XF episode Milagro, I firmly believe that characters choose authors.) And when a character approaches me, I try to make a little space for that character, shine the light on them and wait to see what they'll do. Because my experience is that every character comes with a story to tell, and if you step back and simply listen, they'll tell you that story. And the story the character brings is invariably better than the one I could have made up myself.

At this point, as you're fumbling your way through the beginnings of this project, I'd say just be open to whatever direction it may take you. Sometimes our starting point ends up having been just that--an initial spot that, in a serendipitous or even ricochet fashion, sends us from one idea to another until we finally stumble across that story that really wants to be told.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

I think writing extensively on one group of characters seems to be the hardest predicament of all. I think a wise person said that what if you are writing is interesting to you, then it's likely it will be interesting to others. Daily life seems hard, especially since some of our day-to-day routines can be boring. So, how do these characters deal with boring situations? Who will procrastinate and who will be on the ball?