Putting Plots in a Pile

I didn't do a lot of writing in August. Writing adjacent, sure.

What I did was read through my vampire novel-in-progress and list out what happened in each chapter and each scene. The purpose of this was to have a nice, easy to skim summary of the plot, because there are some scenes I need to rewrite. See, they were just hastily chucked in there as a means to an end. I needed to get from Point A to Point C and something had to be Point B. Just things like, I need this character to learn this piece of information, and these characters need to be over here for this next thing to happen. But I don't much care for them, so they're going to be changed. And I just wanted a nice overview so I could see how each change would cascade and affect later scenes.

So that was August. I mean, that was a few days in August.

But on to September.

Color-Coded For Your Convenience

I'm not going to forget to post in October. I'm going to sneak in at the very end of the month.

So where are we?

Oh right, I'm going to rewrite my vampire novel next month, and I'm woefully unprepared.

I've been trying to fill in some of the plot gaps with… something. And I've realized… not quite a solution, but perhaps a path to a solution. There are some characters that just disappear for big chunks of the book. This realization led me to go on a quest for my colored pencils at one in the morning, but I think I'm onto something.

Turning Backwards?

So, I forgot to write a blog post for a few months. Big surprise there. Honestly, I thought I had just written one, so it couldn't possibly be time for another. Time is meaningless.

How's the writing going, you might ask. A reasonable question. Surely I must have been doing something all this time.

Well, I have decided that I'm more than likely going to work on the second draft of Cold Blooded during NaNoWriMo in November, because maybe a deadline will help me keep going. So all I need to do is finish my outline between now and then, and I'll be all ready to go.

What's that? I have to actually work on my outline to finish it?

Oh. Oh no.

More to Life Than Just Death

Well, I'm back to working on my vampire novel, Cold Blooded, apparently. Sort of. It's mostly like backstory stuff, that will then have an impact on the main plot. Namely, I've written a little Wikipedia-style article about a fictional punk band, as well as working on some songs of said band. 

Am I going to actually need this in the novel? I don't know. Maybe. I have… some thoughts. But if nothing else, it's helping to develop the protagonist's history. And it's easier than figuring out the plot. 

Because, yes, my plot still has holes in it. 

Ideas and Index Cards

Here I am, skipping whole months again. I took a bit of a break from writing. I didn't even do Camp NaNoWriMo in July.

But what I did do, was buy a corkboard.

Beginning at the End

Sorry, I completely skipped May. I thought I'd done a blog post more recently, and apparently I was wrong. I hadn't had much to say because I wasn't making any progress on the novel.

Until now.

So, I've figured out the climax of the story. I had this vague idea about it, but I didn't know where it was, or how the characters got there, or how they got out once it was over. But I've got it now. And to be honest, it was kind of obvious. Maybe it's cliched, but we're going with it anyway. It's much better than nothing.

See, I've been trying to outline this book from the beginning. I have most of Act 1 (the first quarter) plotted out, and the beginning of Act 2. Then it's just the major plot points with a lot of empty space around them.

More Stuff Here

My post-it note outline for Cold Blooded is going pretty well. I've been having ideas, filling in blanks, figuring shit out. It's also making me a bit nervous.

There are points at which Des' new human friends find out what he is (a vampire, if you're just joining us). The first (friend A) was a few scenes before the midpoint, and the second (friend B) was at the midpoint. I moved friend A's discovery a little later, to the midpoint. Then what about friend B? Oh, I moved that a quarter of the book earlier to the First Plot Point.

And this concerns me. Like this plot is a precarious Jenga tower and if I move the wrong piece, the whole thing is going to come crashing down. I had briefly considered Friend B not finding out at all, and now I pull this shit? What am I doing?

When Inciting Is Not Exciting

I'm starting to wonder about my inciting incident. Is it the thing I think it is?

I've seen many times that in a murder mystery, the Inciting Incident is when someone dies, or the body is discovered. So that's where I had it.

And then the First Plot Point is when the main character is irreversibly pulled into the adventure.

The thing is, my first murder doesn't really… affect anything? It happens "off screen" and the main characters hear about it via a news alert. It creates a bit of atmospheric tension (just the tiniest bit), and fewer people are going out and buying ice cream.

And then my First Plot Point was where the main character ends up getting involved. He gets in a direct confrontation with this serial killer. And then he discovers a body. Now things are starting to happen. I think. That's where I left off.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

So listen, I'm sort of famous now.

I mean, not like, really. But kind of.

Here's what happened. I wrote out a story, a true story of a local murder, not something I made up, and I sent it to a popular true crime comedy podcast. And my god, they read it. They read words that I wrote, and those words were heard by several million people.

And now, all I can think is that I want more of my words to reach more millions of people. Guess I'd better get that novel finished.

So what's stopping me? Mostly me.

Falling Much Further Behind

I've had some sequel ideas lately, which might not seem super helpful right now, but it's actually helping me figure out how things should happen now, so they can happen a certain way later.

The downside of looking ahead is that I'm realizing just how many words I need to write and it's looking more and more impossible. To give you an idea of what I'm dealing with…

Assuming a finished length of 80,000 words, which is basically the low end of acceptable, that means a major structural beat occurs roughly every 10,000 words. So the first beat, The Inciting Incident, where shit starts to get weird after all the "normal world" set up, happens 10,000 words in.

Names Are Hard

The July edition of Camp NaNoWriMo is coming up (in—plot twist—July) and I, of course, have started thinking about what project I want to do. My intention at the beginning of the year was to start brand new, short projects, as a break from toiling with my novel. But I haven't been doing a lot of toiling lately. In fact, the main thing I've been doing is fucking around. Every now and again I'll write down a thought that may or may not fit into the narrative somewhere. Things like, "Do vampires take fall damage?" and "How do we feel about accidental murder?"

So I think maybe I should use Camp NaNo as a kickstart to the actual novel writing, with the hope that daily word goals will get me going. The issue is that I was hoping to have a full outline before I started actually writing, for once. Which I do not yet have.

The Story Continues?

Sequels.

You might say, "Why are you talking about sequels when you haven't written a first book yet?" Because I like to get ahead of myself, that's why.

When I first imagined and wrote the rough draft of Cold Blooded in 2016, I was adamant about one thing. There would be no sequel. This was it. There was no other place for the story to go.

But. I may have been wrong. See, I have all these ideas that I thought of between the rough draft and now, that I thought I would integrate into the next draft. But a lot of them, well, there's just no place for them. I can't make them fit into this plot I already have.

Screaming Fruit at Water

Right now I'm trying to lay out all of my scenes for Cold Blooded. I'm going to need a lot of them, judging by how long my scenes tend to be, and how long this book needs to end up. I'm talking like 80 scenes, which, frankly, seems like a shit ton. I'm basing this off of what I learned from this blog post. I tend to write very short scenes, probably because I refuse to describe anything that doesn't look like a crime scene. But that means I need about 10 scenes before I even get to the inciting incident. Or less, longer scenes. Either way, this is all just setup. For an 80,000 word book, I need about 10,000 words of setup. Does that sound boring? I think that sounds boring. But what do I know.

My system right now is just figuring out the basic progression of events. So I have three things to determine for each scene:

• What needs to happen? How is the plot going to be progressed in this scene? What characters and elements need introduced?
• Who needs to be there? Technically, this is who else needs to be there. As the novel is in 1st Person POV, the main character is there by default.
• What could go wrong? Not necessarily what will go wrong. Just because things could go sideways at a given moment doesn't mean they will. But I want to keep my options open.

Organizational Challenges

Where have I been? Well, that's a valid question.

I've been mucking about with this revision of Cold Blooded for… quite some time, with very little progress. Well, little visible progress.

I have a plot outline… outline. Or a template or whatever. I got it from Helping Writers Become Authors. It has all the plot points and everything, and where each major event is supposed to happen. Okay. Super. I have some of my plot points, from my rough draft, stuck in there, where they feel like they should logically go.

But then I have all these other things, and I have no idea where they fit. 

Squiggly Lines

Here's what I've been up to lately. I built a fire of creativity, and I stuck every iron I had into it. I have this new story I'm planning for November, and I have at least three old stories I'd like to revise. I have all this stuff, and I'm not really doing anything with anything on a daily basis.

I need to pick one project and go with it. My next NaNo novel is the obvious choice. Everything else can wait until December. Cold Blooded (the vampire one) will probably be the first revision project, because it has the most usable material to work with. After that is done (yes, done, not just half-done and abandoned), then The Long Road (the road trip one) and Cape Nowhere (the Victorian X-Files one) can get their chance.

But in order to make any of these stories really work, I'll need to do some planning.

The Triumphant Return of Steve

This post is unique. It may not look it, but it's very different from anything I've ever done. It was written entirely on a smartphone. That's right, I've finally joined everyone else in the future.

You know, Fifty Shades of Grey was written on a BlackBerry, I've heard. And look how that turned out.

I certainly type a lot slower using this tiny keyboard, so I'm not going to be using this all the time, but it's a little something different and... what's the adjective form of novelty? Oh. It's "novel." I'm an idiot.

Well, speaking of novels, I guess, I might as well tell you all my upcoming plans.

Where to Start

I'm back on The Long Road. Maybe I never really got off of it. Maybe I'll always be here. Maybe no one ever gets out.

But that's not why we're here. We're not aiming to get off the road, we're trying to get on it.

I've began this story twice. And both times, it began just before our heroes set out on their trip. And both times, I've had to slog through some boring shit to get them on the road and started on their adventure. I get caught in a dialogue trap, where everyone just talks and nothing happens. It's like… conversation quicksand.

It's one thing to have dialog that enhances what's going on, and propels the plot forward. But this… it's not that. Much as I like Tony's coffee story, it's not really contributing to the story as a whole.

So I've come to the conclusion that the story needs to start later.

Monsters and Mayhem

I have a lot of things in my head.

I've had a few random ideas for my current story, involving time travel, human sacrifice, the usual. I also have this gnawing in my brain, in my very soul, to finish The Long Road.

I don't know why that story is so important. I mean, every year, I sit down to write a NaNo novel, and I say, "This will be the one." The Great American Novel. The story that's going to change the world, even if it's just my little corner of it. It's the story that will make sense and I'll be able to show it to everyone without cringing. Every year, I say that.

And every year, I write a pile of complete nonsense, with a few good gems sprinkled throughout, the needles in my haystack.

Playing Games

I haven't written more of my rom-com, and that's okay. Everything I've been working on lately has been full of deadlines. First it was NaNo in November, then it was that serial story I had to add to every week, then it was Camp NaNo in April, where I felt guilty every minute I wasn't trying to revise. I put all this pressure on myself, then I start to hate the project I'm working on because I have to work on it.

I know, I know, if you want to be a "real" writer, you have to treat it like a job and write all the time, on a schedule. But see, I have a job. Writing is supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be my escape. Yeah, sure, I want to get something published one day, but not at the cost of despising the finished story for all it put me through.

That said, I have had several thoughts about this rom-com, and the sorts of things I'd like to see happen.

No Turning Back

So I didn't write a post on Saturday. You might have noticed. I only noticed at 12:30am on Monday.

Now, normally, I'd write a post, backdate it, and pretend it was there the whole time. But not today. Today I thought I'd just move on and start writing Wednesday's post.

And here we are.

I intended to spend 30 hours revising my story in April. I did not. I thought it would be easy. It was not. Sure, that's just one hour a day, but I'm lazy and not particularly motivated. I want the book to be done, and be good, but it's so god damn hard getting there. Since, you know, I'm lacking 60% of my plot. And everything I do write is crap.

On the bright side, at the very, very end of Camp NaNo, I may have finally figured out the most important, most burning question in my revision notes: Where the fuck are they going?

I realized, it's not the final destination that matters. I mean, yes, they should have a plan, maybe they're going to… St. Louis or something. But that's not what's so important. That's not why they keep going.