When I write a novel, I lean on notes. This post is a description of how I use them. Maybe you\u2019ll find something helpful here or a method you want to stay away from. Or maybe you already do just as I do.<\/p>\n
At the start of a writing session (on my computer), I always open both my manuscript and my notes, and I toggle back and forth. If the story is going well, I don\u2019t write many notes, but if it\u2019s not, writing them is proof that I\u2019m still writing and not just goofing off, even though my story isn\u2019t advancing.<\/p>\n
If I\u2019ve written an awkward sentence in the manuscript, I copy it into notes, rewrite it, copy it in notes again and again, so I don\u2019t lose a version, till I\u2019m satisfied or till I decide the original wasn\u2019t bad after all or till I think I just have to live with what I\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n
To come up with a character name or a place name, I list possibilities from a baby naming book or an atlas or my own arcane sources, then arrange and rearrange the list, narrowing my choices.<\/p>\n
In the mystery I\u2019m writing now, Elody, my heroine, is an aspiring actress who\u2019s been given the chance to perform at a feast. Thespians in the kingdom of Lepai draw on fairy tales and Greek myths for their plays. When Elody wasn\u2019t sure what to perform, I listed options for her. After consulting my mythology book and a few books of fairy tales, I found a fairy tale that had parallels with the main story I was telling, which gave Elody the chance to paraphrase Hamlet and speculate that her performance might \u201ccatch the conscience\u201d of the villain. That was fun, but I never would have gotten it without notes.<\/p>\n
A minstrel sings before Elody\u2019s turn comes. I didn\u2019t write a complete song for her, but I made up the refrain. Here are my notes for the refrain, to give you an idea. Out of the notes I pulled what I needed:<\/p>\n
Be he huge
\nBe he fierce as a beast
\nbe he three trees tall
\nbe he broad as a bushel of barrels
\nbe his teeth as sharp as daggers
\nhis eyes as piercing as pikes
\nhis head as hard as iron
\nhis fists as
\nI will vanquish him
\nI will tame him with my love
\nHis strength will save me<\/p>\n
Be the giant
\nthree trees tall
\nand three trees wide
\nwith teeth as sharp as daggers
\neyes as piercing as pikes
\nhead as hard as iron
\nfists like battering rams
\nfalling as fast as hailstones
\nMay he roar and rampage
\nI will vanquish him
\nI will tame him with my love
\nHis strength will save me<\/p>\n
face as terrible as
\nface as ugly as entrails
\nface as frightening as
\nvolcano
\navalanche
\nrock slide\/frightful
\ndeath
\ndisease\/dreadful<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve let you see the repetitions because that\u2019s the process. It\u2019s messy.<\/p>\n
When I\u2019m far along in a novel, I often get confused, so then I list plot threads in notes to remind myself of everything I\u2019m juggling. Sometimes I list future events as far ahead as I can see. This is like outlining, except that my future events never cover the whole span of a story.<\/p>\n
If a plot idea knocks on my brain and the story isn\u2019t ready for it yet, I put it in my notes and highlight it with the yellow highlighter on my toolbar, so I can find it again. Occasionally, I copy the highlighted bits into a separate document, to avoid hunting through 135 single-spaced pages – really! – of notes to locate them.<\/p>\n
At those happy moments when I\u2019ve figured something out or done a nice piece of writing I celebrate – in my notes. When I\u2019m bummed and convinced I\u2019ll never finish my story, I complain and moan and carry on. Sometimes I use bad words. If my books were people, notes would be their journals.<\/p>\n
A novel that doesn\u2019t give me much trouble won\u2019t have 135 pages of notes, but I doubt I\u2019ve ever gotten away with fewer than fifty. When the notes are longer than the book, the book was a miserable, horrible, uncooperative monster, like Fairest, The Two Princesses of Bamarre, and the third Disney fairy book, which even now doesn\u2019t have a settled title, although I finished writing months ago.<\/p>\n
Notes, however, are never miserable monsters. They are freedom. In the manuscript itself go the shaped sentences, the chosen words, the paced chapters. In notes go the incomplete thoughts, the lousy ideas and the good ones – the eggshells of writing. A finished book is a cake with chocolate or blue or whatever-you-like icing and the title written on top in perfect handwriting. Notes are the messy kitchen where the cake was baked. No cake without the kitchen, and I – or you – never have to clean up afterward. Hooray for notes!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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