[Anah] Week 28: Writing the Midpoint

Back after a brief hiatus! The first image will give you a glimpse of what the exercise this week is about, the second is my work on the exercise this week.

[Dianne] Weeks 21-24: Building Scenes and the Scene Sequence

Whoops! We were so caught up in finishing preparation for a couple new stories that we completely forgot to post our exercises this past weekend. So here are mine...

This week is Firsts/Lasts, the first and last time the character did some important thing, and we decided to choose two each to write about. For Nico, I chose his first and last kiss (before the start of the story), and his first and last runs in the ambulance.

First Kiss:

The first time Nico kissed a boy, he was thirteen years old. The other boy, Miguel, was older than Nico by two years. He had dry, chapped lips and the first dusting of stubble on his jaw. Eagerness tangled up with terror inside Nico's gut and he barely managed to pull away from the kiss before he threw up all over their shoes.

Last Kiss:

Nights out with his friends had become a release valve for the stress and pressure that built up under Nico's skin each time he climbed into the ambulance. His last night on the job, they took him out for a going-away-party sort of thing. He saw the bottom of way too many pitchers of beer and all he can remember about the man he kissed was that he had dark eyes, soft lips, and they barely made it into the bathroom stall before his hands were in Nico's pants.

First Run in the Ambulance:

The first time Nico went out in the ambulance on a real job, not just a ridealong, it was looking to be a quiet night. He drank his coffee from a paper cup and thought about whether he should buy a travel mug if he was going to be doing this every night from now on. He'd just opened his mouth to ask his partner, Darnell, what he thought about the idea, when the call came in. An hour later, Nico's clothes were spattered with someone else's blood and his shoes were spattered with his own vomit.

Last Run in the Ambulance:

The last time Nico went out in the ambulance, last night of his two-week notice, he still didn't have a new job lined up. His mom had already made a list of work he could do around the house until he found something: fix the leak in the kitchen sink, paint his sister's room, things like that. She'd been letting him stay there a month already, after the lease on his apartment was up and he didn't resign 'cause he didn't know what he'd be doing after he quit his job as an EMT...and he still didn't know. But the radio crackled to life and then he didn't have to know. He just had to do his job one more time. Save somebody's life, or try to.

[Dianne/Anah] Weeks 17-18: Plotting with More Than One Protagonist

This week's task is to make a POV grid, a table that explains from whose point of view each scene will be. I was, I have to say, not looking forward to this exercise. Not because I didn't think it would be useful (I actually love the version of this exercise that shows up in The Weekend Novelist Rewrites the Novel) but because it meant rethinking the outline.

Anah can tell you: I hate rethinking the outline. I want the outline to work. I don't want it to be wrong. Ever. :P (Anah: She takes it very personally. It's true. This is why I wait until we're nearly done the book to point out plot flaws. I have to work up to it. Also, she can't kill me that close to a deadline.)

Chapter.Scene	Scene Name	Setting	Timeline	POV
1.1	Total Chaos	James's House	Day 0	James
1.2	The Interview	Maddy's Office	Day 1	Nico
1.3	When Can You Start?	James's House/Swimming Lessons	Day 2	James
2.1	Moving Day	Mama's House/James's House	Day 4	Nico
2.2	Alive Below the Waist	James's Office/Backyard	Day 8	James
2.3	Playing Frog	James's Backyard	Day 10	Nico
2.4	Bedtime	Vali & Bianca's Rooms	Day 10	James
3.1	Finding the Dog	Driving/Vet/James's House	Day 14	Nico
3.2	Dinner Party and After	James's House	Day 20	James
3.3	About the Dog	James's House	Day 21	Nico
3.4	Not Just the Nanny	James's Backyard	Day 30	James
4.1	Day Off	Nightclub/Cab/James's House	Day 35	Nico
4.2	At the Hospital	Hospital/James's House	Day 36	James
4.3	Homecoming	James's House	Day 39	Nico
5.1	Waking Up Alone	James's House	Day 40	James
5.2	Getting Ready for the Date	James's House	Day 45	Nico
5.3	Out Together	Restaurant/James's House	Day 45	James

[ANAH] Weeks 1 & 2 Redux

From Write to Work, Work to Write So, Things I Learned From Doing This Exercise AGAIN.  Not to capitalize so much.  No, really, I learned that I didn't know nearly enough about a character I was "leaving to" Dianne.  That's a bad habit of mine largely borne of not wanting to step on her toes.   I don't assume about anything she's got going on because I want to let her have her say.  I was raised to believe that I was a conscience-less steamroller who never let anyone have any say.  Some of that may be true because I have ADHD and a slightly largish brain, but it's rather buggery when it comes to leaving blanks in my mind for Dianne to fill in as we go. Other things I learned is that having a migraine is a full-time job.  I'm barely able to keep up and this is the first go-round.  Speaking of round, I think our next section is on circle-plots.  I did, all humour aside, learn what a bloody burden it is to have my brain trying to outgrow my skull.   The Story So Far: If this exercise of writing things down (preferably on large pieces of paper with lots of colours) is the only thing I take from this book, I'm ahead.

[ANAH] Weeks 1-2: Plotting Along A Straight Line

Already, this process is awesome. I can't believe I didn't do this before. I love it. You can click through to see the results, so far, of my attempts to do this for Together for the Kids. I'm looking forward to seeing how this turned out for Dianne. I want to do one of these using Nico as the focus. I think that'll really help enrich my understanding of the story.

The Big Picture

What it took me a long time to grasp is that even if I have an idea, I only have an idea... it's like having an egg and thinking that the shell is the whole egg. The shell holds a wealth of potential. Whether I break it open and cook with it or nurture it and hatch it, I don't know what I have (and I can't work with what I have) until I understand that there is something inside that I don't yet know.

When the authors of WE/N say that messiness is king in this process, they are talking my kind of game. I love to use all kinds of paper, including sketch books (they come in the most amazing sizes and proportions), to lay out my ideas. An 18"x24" sketch book frees up the hands and mind. I have even bigger ones--the huge pads of paper used in teaching and workshops are also wonderful.

If you have a process that you find reliable, putting it out on a huge sticky note can be a great way to keep it in view and to remind yourself that you've committed to the work. They have ones the size of this huge easel pads. And, awesomely, you can use smaller sticky notes all over it. If, like me, you're hooked on those, this is a great way to use your collection.

The Story So Far: Anah discovers that she doesn't know nearly enough about how SHE writes (much less about WRITING) but there's hope for her yet.

[DIANNE] Weeks 1-2: Plotting Along a Straight Line

Reading over the description of this process, I wasn't so sure I was going to like it. And then I got into it... and liked it so much I did it for a second story!

I've looked over Anah's process post and, wow, this assignment was perfectly designed to highlight how differently we do things. I started laughing right away, because finally someone other than the two of us will be able to see how insanely differently she and I think about things... and yet somehow we make it all work.

Anah's plotline was James-centric, but I actually put both Nico and James on my plotline. I also noticed that she and I see the 'climax' of the novel at different points. I suspect we'll have to talk about that and figure out how and why we're thinking about it differently, and where we need to place the emphasis.

The Story So Far: Dianne discovers that the outline isn't the only valuable tool she needs in her writing toolbox.

getting started

it's our first weekend! i'm sick and can't find the book in my filthy office, you have the book and probably a list and are also getting us a website. ...sounds like we're starting off right.