Plot of character? How is your writing driven?

I actually started off writing about inspiration, but I got sidetracked, so I decided to leave that for another day and write about plot versus character instead. Below is what I wrote...

I have thousands of ideas floating around in my head, some of which I write down. These are plots or people by prototypes, which can be expanded as needed. Part of this is due to how I write. I always start off with characters and the plot develops from there.

I find if I have interesting characters, I never have to make things happen, they will occur on their own. In fact, if I get stuck at all I put some or all of my characters in a room and see what happens.

For example, in my NaNoWriMo outline for this year, I started off with a character similar to one I had read about in a news story. It was about a man who's dead body had been lying for months in his flat. Not an unusual story except that the man had not been a recluse. He was in fact an obnoxious weirdo, who was disliked by everyone including he own family.

Most of the neighbours assumed he had been rehoused by the council, His family weren't talking to him and didn't really make a huge effort to contact him. It was only when a workman needed access to the flat to fix a leak that his body was discovered.

This started me thinking about all the horrible people I know and the victim of my NaNoWriMo was born, well died. She, in fact, starts off dead. But her nastiness leads to all sorts of possibilities and without her needing to go over the top in any of her actions. This gives me a large pool of suspects. It's a murder mystery in case you were wondering.

Everything I've written has always started with one or more characters. It's the only way I seem to be able to write. Last year I tried starting with a plot. I did write the 50 000 words, but it was a slog and not one I want to repeat. The result is incredibly bland. There aren't any plot holes, as in my other attempts, but it will send you to sleep quickly.

Not much...

has happened. I haven't written that much more on the plot. I need to, I don't have all the sub-plots yet, I just didn't do much this weekend. Instead I enjoyed a beautiful autumn day with my family. And did some housework.

Now back to writing...

Posting

I don't want to tempt fate or anything, but I'm hoping to start posting twice a week starting next week. The first post will be as is, an update on what if anything I have written towards a book or NaNoWriMo. The second post will be different and on a writing subject, such as inspiration or character vs. plot.

I'm not sure how long this will last, but it's worth a try.

Plot

I've got the plot sort of worked out. No details yet, but a time line and a storyline. I have to work out the sub-plots and other details. I need to also do some research into dead bodies, time of death and that sort of thing. It's a murder mystery by the way. I mention this just in case you haven't worked it out yet.

I haven't got an updated word count, because it's all plot, time line or storyline. Still there is progress and it's not even October yet. And of course I've remembered to post again :)

Eek

I just realized it's almost 3 months since I posted. That's terrible. I just added a note to every Monday's to-do-list from now until November to write a post. In it I will say what I have or haven't done and I'll include a word count no matter what.

Today's word count is 259. That's how many I wrote yesterday. Today I hope to at least double that number.

It's been a very long time...

since I last posted. I went on holiday and did all the usual stuff, but the one thing I didn't do was write. Yesterday that changed.

For some weird and wonderful reason I thought NaNoWriMo was October - stupid I know. Of course it's November. However I had a slight panic attack when I thought it was only a couple of weeks away and I hadn't even thought about what to write.

My exact thought was 'I have no plot or even a single character...maybe that will work...damn complicated though...might work...let's see' and I started to write. OK not a huge amount, just a few hundred words, but it's more than I written in months.

I don't know why I stopped writing. Probably it was because it just seemed like too much trouble. By the end of the last school year I was getting very tired and stressed. Not a real excuse, but I think the break has done me some good.

What it all amounts to is a very complicated plot for NaNoWriMo, which will span 80 years, with five or six separate stories that will weave in and out of each other. Did I mention it's complicated. I have no idea if it'll work, but if it does it could be the best thing I've ever written.

Should be fun to find out. So back to writing the plot summary, which will be in the form of a time line spanning the eighty odd years that the book will span. The actual book will not follow the time line, but the stories will be revealed in flashbacks. Maybe flashbacks is not the right word, still the actual story line will move back and forth through the time line.

Hi, ho, hi, ho, it's off to write we go...

long time, no blog

I've been writing scenes. Quite a few and new ones at that. I've also planned out a timeline, which means it is now easier to write some parts. I'm about halfway through and I am slightly stuck. I'm not sure which scenes should come next. I've been thinking about it for over a week now and I still can't get them in order.

I've decided to start writing the scenes from the first half and see if it all fits together, perhaps then I will see the second half more clearly. Of course the fact that I keep changing the climax of the story isn't helping. A little distance is needed.

update

I added approximately 1500 words last week. Not a huge amount, but not bad either. Currently, I write for just one hour a week. I know I need to write more. I just have trouble getting motivated. I'm so tired in the evenings that all I want to do is sit down and vegetate.

I worked out that if I continue at this rate, I will finish after one year. Better than never, but could be improved.

writing

When I first started this blog, I was worried that I would write here more than anywhere else. In fact it's turning out to be the opposite. I'm actually writing my novel and I hardly ever write here. I never really think about it to be honest.

I suppose that's a good thing, though the purpose of this blog was to give me more accountability. Still my writing has improved no end and even though I'm still not writing as much as I like, I am writing.

Chapter 4 is currently being written. I won't say re-written as I am changing almost everything except the broad out line. Not much is left from the original version. I'm not allowing myself to write anything in narrative summary, which is about all my previous drafts have ever amounted to. OK, so there was dialogue, but not much else.

This version is in scenes with action, dialogue and descriptions - totally different from any previous version. At times I have to force myself to write, but it is working.

I'm bad.....

at writing blog posts. I can't believe it's been so long since I updated. I have done some writing and I can honestly say that the quality of my writing is much improved.

OK, I'm not going to win any awards, but I am writing scenes and not just narrative summaries, which was my favorite way of getting out of the bits I wasn't enjoying.

I am now up to 6000 words of a novel. Here's to many more.

Yesterday

I had a good day writing. Wrote for just under an hour, but got a lot done. I am very happy with what I wrote and how much I wrote. Feeling much better because of it.

An update

I haven't been here for a while. A death followed by a health scare meant I just didn't have the energy to update the blog. Sorry.

Now all of that is over and I'm sort of catching up at work, so it is time to get back to writing or at least writing about not writing. I have my story. I know what's wrong with what I have written. Now all I need to do is make it right....

This should be interesting. I am attempting to get into the habit of writing every day, even if it is only for 5 minutes or so. I would love to write for an hour a day, but I'm not going to run before I can walk.

So time to finish the urgent stuff for work and then I will write. At least one sentence...

Tuesday's report

I forgot to write in my diary yesterday. I think I need to have it with me so I can write in it when I have the time or the inclination, rather than leaving it at home to write in it at 6pm.

However, I did write. I wrote a piece, which is part of my "novel" and I am using as a writing exercise. I'm trying a new way to create scenes. Hopefully it will work, but only time will tell. This method fits in well with my current writing style, so it's not like I have to make big changes. I will however have to go through my current draft and split it up differently and work on the individual parts. This is not a bad thing.

If I can get the individual parts to work, then I can put them back together and make the whole thing work. Well that's the plan anyway.

Yesterday

I didn't write. Well that's not entirely true. I wrote in my diary, but I didn't add to my novel.

What I did do is read about scenes. I found that I keep summarizing scenes and not actually writing them. If that makes any sense.

I summarise what the scene is about, maybe add in some dialogue, and that's it. I'm not describing the scene or moving people, not even allowing them to fidget or breathe. In fact some of my scenes are just talking heads, nothing more and I seem to be having trouble adding action or surroundings.

So I'm going to start some writing exercises in order to help with describing place and time and adding in actions. I start today. I have an hour free in which I will start.

Re-reading NaNoWriMo, I noticed that almost the entire thing is written in summary form. That is sad.

Bad end to the year

I did no writing in December 2010 due to personal reasons. Also, I was sick. Nothing went right.

Christmas was good when it finally happened as was old and new, which means New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Slowly I'm getting back into writing. Very slowly. I've been reading about writing at the moment. Today I need to start writing and I mean more than this post.

I'm thinking about writing a diary. That's something I've never done, but I know several writers who find it very useful. They begin with writing their diary entry and then find it easier to move to their work. I'm going to try this, starting tonight.

NaNoWriMo aftermath

I am so glad the NaNoWriMo is over. I will freely admit that I didn't enjoy it much this year, which came as a surprise to me. I thought I would. However I hated my story, which I think is the reason. The story was easy to write as I had a wonderful, detailed outline, but the story was boring and obvious. I chose it for that reason, so that I could finish a story from start to finish, where the plot didn't morph on the way. It's boring.

The characters, on the other hand, are interesting. They just didn't get to do anything interesting. So what I'm going to try to do is blend this year's characters with last year's plot. It may not work, but it also helps me get round a plot hole or two that I was having problems with.

And I start this weekend. Hopefully. A new outline, then new scenes, and finally a new novel.

Watch this space...

NaNoWriMo

So I finished with 51992 words according to the offical word counter. I din't blog much, because I was writing.

I wonder if next year I will take part and if I do, if I can do this without having to write so much during the last couple of days....

No progress

I'm still at just over 33000 words, which means I need to write just under 17000 words before midnight tomorrow. Definitely doable. OK, I might not finish until late tomorrow, but I will finish. I'll aim for 40000 words today and leave the last 10000 until tomorrow.

33000 words

Not too bad, not the 35000 words I was hoping for, but a lot better than I feared. And tomorrow is another day.

writing

I ended yesterday with just over 30000words. Today I've added about a thousand more and I can't think of a single thing more to write. I'm not feeling very well, but that's just an excuse. I really don't feel like writing. I was hoping to end the week with 40000 words, I'll be lucky to hit 35000 words.

Of course, this doesn't mean I won't reach the magic 50000 words. It just means I have more to do in the last remaining days. That is what I'm good at. I just wish I could be more consistent.

My spelling is improving, but I get the feeling my grammar is getting worse.