 | 21 Dec 06 |
Some writers can write scenes out of order, then put all these odd scenes into some semblance of sanity and have a completed book. Some people write the ending first. Or they see a scene in the middle of the book and write that, then go back to the beginning.
Me? I write linearly. I go from Point A to Point B to Point C, etc. Or I should say, Chapter One, Two, Three, Four . . .
Two examples to share. First, in SPEAK NO EVIL I thought I saw the ending. I was getting near deadline and I didn’t want to forget it. So I wrote it out–nearly 50 pages. Then went back where I left off and wrote the “right” way. Problem was, by the time the characters got to the supposed ending, they looked at me and said, “Are you out of your mind?”
Well, um, maybe.
So I scraped that ending and had to do it all over again. I hate that.
In FEAR NO EVIL, I had a major revelation more than halfway through the book. Well, okay, more like a major panic that everything I’d written wasn’t working because a major plot point was so miserably screwed up. But a couple hours later the solution hit. Could I just start writing with the solution in mind, to go back and fix the messed up scenes later?
No. I went back to the beginning and fixed every miserable scene that needed fixing. Because I write linearly. If I don’t thread it in from the beginning, I can’t keep moving forward. It’s like when my husband sees a tilted picture on the wall. He can’t NOT walk by and straighten it.
Sometimes I’ll come up with something I’d never thought of before. For example, in THE HUNT Miranda Moore was the sole survivor of a serial killer. She’d been tortured. But I sort of glossed over a lot of it, until she was getting ready to get into the shower. Then she looked at herself in the mirror and saw her breasts. They were severely scarred. And then everything hit me. It was there in the story all along, but I had to go back and pull out those nuggets and polish them a bit. It made so much sense, but I didn’t see it at the time. Thing is, I couldn’t just jot down a note like, “insert scene about Miranda’s disfigurement” and continue writing. I had to do it right then and there.
Take revisions. I love the way my editor writes in the margins and sends me back the entire manuscript. I have her editorial letter, with the overall story problems, which I read a couple of times and internalize, but never look at while revising. It’s the margin notes that do it for me. I have the big problems already figured out in my mind.
But I CAN’T edit a scene in the middle of the book. In SEE NO EVIL, there was a problem with the love scene. I understood what the problem was, but I couldn’t just hop in and fix it. Why? Because in the revising subtle changes to character occur. If I wrote that scene out of order, I wouldn’t be holding true to the characters. And, in fact, it isn’t until I start editing–from page one–that I gradually reshape the characters and the story. What happens at the beginning truly effects what happens in the middle, in bed, at the end. To rewrite the ending (or the sex scene) then go back and “fix” the beginning, I’m forcing my characters into a mold I created.
What happened to that sex scene is that I THOUGHT I needed to write something more conventional because my editor didn’t like the less conventional scene I wrote. If I had gone that route, I would have had to scrap those 15 pages. As it turned out, I did write something a little less conventional, but it worked so much better than the original scene or what I had envisioned when I read about the scene problems. And it’s true to character.
This process actually helped when revising FEAR NO EVIL. Because I was on a very short deadline (a week for revisions) I sent chunks of the book (about 100 pages each) to my editor as I finished them. If I hopped all over the place, I would have given her the entire manuscript–on-time–but with no chance of her reading the revisions.
Linear writing doesn’t mean necessarily a simple or linear story. It’s simply the process of getting the story out. And by no means is it the right way or the only way. It’s the right way for me. I know successful published authors who write the sex scene first, or the ending, or a pivotal turning point. I have a friend who writes completed out of order then puts the book together when she thinks she has all the scenes done.
My husband, who writes speeches and op-eds, will outline first–a word or phrase for each paragraph or section. Then he starts to flesh them out. He’ll start at the beginning, then go to the end to make sure they match, then fill in points in between. He works and reworks and moves things around. You might think, oh, this is because it’s an op-ed. But I used to write them, too, and I still wrote from beginning to end.
What about you? How do you write?
BTW, I have a post up today on Romancing the Blog called Tune In or Tune Out about television viewing.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award winning author Allison Brennan has published fourteen romantic thrillers with Ballantine, plus a novella and four short stories. She lives near Sacramento, California with her husband and five children. Recently, RT Book Reviews said, “A master of suspense, Brennan does another outstanding job uniting horrifying action, procedural drama and the birth of a romance — a prime example of why she’s tops in the genre.” For fun Allison enjoys wine tasting, swimming, playing video games, and—of course–reading. Her most recent release is CARNAL SIN, the second book in the Seven Deadly Sins supernatural romantic suspense series. Her Lucy Kincaid series will launch in January, 2011 with LOVE ME TO DEATH.
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I write very similarily to your style, Allison. I can’t just jump in at any spot. To me that would be akin to flailing about in the water rather than actually swimming.
To each their own though. If it works, use it!
by Meretta ~ American Title Finalist December 21st, 2006 at 7:26 amAllison and Meratta, I’m the same way. I usually have an idea what will happen at the end (or what I want to happen, which isn’t always the same), but I would never write the scene out ahead of time. Even if the basic idea remained the same, it wouldn’t reflect all that I’d learned about the characters.
by Edie Ramer December 21st, 2006 at 7:38 amAside from the HEA, I have NO IDEA what is going to happen in a book when I sit down to write*. Heck, if I knew I wouldn’t be interested in writing it. Writing is discovery for me. I’m entertained as I do it.
You can put me down as another linear writer. I start in scene one (or what I think is scene one, frequently it turns out to be a “pre” scene and it gets cut) and write from there.
*This is turning out to be a major problem now that I’m in the world of “selling on proposal”. Any advice?
by Kalen Hughes December 21st, 2006 at 8:13 amThank heavens poetry doesnt’ have to be written linear, I’d be in deep doodoo.
While much of my stuff is written linear, and I pray they all finish up linear, oft times I write a line in a stanza, and then go forwards or backwards.
When I critique it is totally linear. I like having the whole manuscript. I know a lot who will crit a chapter at a time, and I can give an opinion on whether it works, but I can’t tell you what is a matter with the little nuiances of your storyline unless I have the whole thing. I’m funny that way.
by Cele December 21st, 2006 at 8:57 amI’m also a linear writer. On occasion, to jumpstart myself in the middle of a book, I would jump a little ahead to a scene I thought I saw clearly. It was there as a placemark. Often, when I caught up to it (and this was never too far ahead) things would have already changed and I would end up either rewriting the scene or dropping it altogether.
One exception to this is when I have scenes from another point of view. I can sometimes jump ahead with these, if they’re linear for the CHARACTER. In my latest book, I had a man up on the mountain, and he had his own subplot going. So I was being linear – with him.
In the same book I had a revelation about a third of the way through, something that would significantly change the ending. Fortunately, the way it shook out, the stuff before needed only a little bit of changing, because my subconscious must have been leading me in that direction the whole time. So I went back through and reread and slightly reworked that section, then went forward from there.
Usually my book will be what it is, and I won’t make enormous changes the second time around. So I just write it and it grooves one path (and gives me alternatives for other paths if I need them). Then I reread the book, and write a Big Picture Draft. That’s where the big changes are made, if there are any. In one book I spent three months on the Big Picture Draft, and had to reorient everything around an additional suspect and new scenes. In the book after that, I did the Big Picture Draft in two days. Depends on the book, I guess. The book where I didn’t do extensive Big Picture stuff was the most recent one, and I think that’s because my revelation on changing it came so early on in the first draft.
Allison, I’m always fascinated by your descriptions of how you write. It helps illuminate my own way of doing things. Thanks.
by J. Carson Black December 21st, 2006 at 9:05 amKalen: advice? DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT. Give them a story that sounds like you THINK it’s going to happen. You probably have a sense of your characters and their conflict. Just put that all in, be vague if necessary, and when in doubt throw in a dead body . . . whoops, wrong genre
Seriously, my editor told me not to stress about sticking to the synopsis, they don’t care, it’s only so I can get paid. (My first contract I got a partial payment on acceptance of proposal.) For SPEAK NO EVIL, the book is NOTHING like the synopsis I “sold” it on. And I changed the hero in SEE NO EVIL from the blurb I put in for that book. So seriously, they just want to know that you can put together a story.
If you’re going to the same house, and this is your option book, definitely don’t stress. 3-5 pages and just hit what you think are the high points (in SPEAK I killed off people in the synopsis who ended up living; I had a different villain and a completely different story arc.) If you’re going to a different house writing the same genre, go ahead and do the same thing–your agent has your sales numbers and that’s all they really care about. If you’re going to a different house and a different genre (which I don’t think applies to you right now because you’re establishing yourself), then you might want to write some of the book to see where it’s going, then write the synopsis. I did that with THE KILL–I couldn’t write a word of the proposal until I had 150 pages written in the manuscript. And STILL the story ended completely different than I thought it would.
by Allison December 21st, 2006 at 9:06 amJake, it seems we write similarly, though even with my secondary characters I don’t write them outside of the overall book.
I’ll admit, I only do one draft now. I rewrite and edit as I go. I NEVER thought I’d be able to do this–but because of my schedule I forced myself to do it and have found that it helps me tremendously. (Hey, we can change! No, Karin, I still won’t plot.) I tend to get stuck a third of the way through and then I go back and edit/rewrite the beginning. Sometimes two or three times! So “first draft” is really a misnomer because I’ve massaged every scene at least once after writing it.
by Allison December 21st, 2006 at 9:13 amI know how I do it, but it’s hard to describe. Allison you are more linear than I am, but I’m pretty linear. See? That doesn’t even make sense, LOL!
by Jen December 21st, 2006 at 9:19 am[...] I have a blog about Linear Writing over at Murder She Writes today. Also, I talk about television at Romancing the Blog with Tune In or Tune Out? [...]
by Allison Brennan - The Offical Website December 21st, 2006 at 9:39 amAllison, glad to know I’m not the only writer going from point a to point b. I would read all these blogs about writers writing all the good stuff then adding filler later. It is like a movie in my mind. I can’t come into the theatre in the middle of the picture, and I can’t start the story anywhere but the beginning.
by Amanda December 21st, 2006 at 10:35 amI write just the way you do, Allison. From beginning to end. I do this with short nonfiction (and long, for that matter. I really wrote a lengthy book-length business report, Laboratory Industry Strategic Outlook 2007 and the publisher kept bugging me, asking, “We’re interested in the data on M&A’s, how’s that section going?” And I’d be forced to say, “Hey, I’m working on chapter 3. I’m not worrying about Chapter 6. I gave you my writing schedule, why don’t you look at it.” But I’m not an outliner.
Best,
by Mark Terry December 21st, 2006 at 11:17 amMark Terry
http://www.markterrybooks.com
Thanks, Allison. I decided to just start writing (gotta have those first three chapters anyway) and see if that shakes “the plot” loose. LOL!
by Kalen Hughes December 21st, 2006 at 11:41 amI write fairly linearly, but for me, like you said about your character seeing her reflection in the mirror, I sometimes just don’t KNOW what’s going to happen until I get there. It was there, waiting, in the story, for me to write it, but until I reach the need to tap into it, I don’t have a clue.
And for anything I write, it’s this way. There’s stuff there, burning up the back of my brain, but I can’t figure it out until I get to the point where it’s necessary.
by Candice Gilmer December 21st, 2006 at 12:11 pmLinear here.
by Karin December 21st, 2006 at 1:23 pmAmanda, great analogy! I *see* my story as well. And I might *think* I know what is going to happen, but I never do. The characters also up and do something I don’t expect, or stop talking to me when I force them to do something they wouldn’t do.
LOL Mark. When I worked for the Legislature, I often got questions like this. I’ll be working on Project A and my boss (bitch) would come to me and ask, “Where are you on Project B?” And I’d say, “I’m on A.” And she’d say, “But B is due on Friday.” And I’d say, “It’ll be done by Friday.” Grrr. Drove me batty.
Kalen, DON’T STRESS. And don’t look at the synopsis again after you write it. I don’t (not after the fiasco in writing THE KILL). I only recommend this if you’re NOT a plotter. Plotters would have a nervous breakdown if they couldn’t look at their outline, even if they don’t follow it.
I completely know what you mean, Candice!
I suspected that about you, Karin
by Allison December 21st, 2006 at 1:50 pmAllison, I am definitely with you. I SEE the story. And likewise, I SEE big things ahead for you. I love your logic and thinking. I envy it, really. I can’t SUM things up like you can. I can only tell silly stories about locked cars. I hope there is a market for that…
Seriously, girl, you are the bomb. I can’t wait to see what 2007 brings for you. And I will be there cheering you on.
by Natalie December 21st, 2006 at 10:01 pmMy writing is linear, too. I can’t just pound out a rough draft either. I have to fix things as I go along. If I hit a snag, I can’t continue until I work it out.
I tried using an outline with the book I’m working on now, but the characters keep surprising me. They refuse to follow the outline, so I gave in to them and just write.
I just wish I could write as fast (and as well) as you do, Allison!
by Joyce Tremel December 22nd, 2006 at 6:27 amI also write linearly
but I can also leave myself notes as I go, IE. sex scene goes here…does that DQ me? 
by Amie December 22nd, 2006 at 7:14 amI’m completely with you, Allison. Another linear writer here. That’s why when I get a “simple” revision, it can make a huge impact. I look at it like dominoes. Knock over one and the rest follow.
by Monica M. December 22nd, 2006 at 9:51 am