First off, Carpelibris, I can\u2019t find the Humpty-Dumpty story. Can we see it online yet? What\u2019s the title? Is there a URL that goes straight to it?<\/p>\n
And now, a reminder: Please post writing successes on the blog. Anything published? Anything won a contest? Any other form of success?<\/p>\n
Also before I start I want to share a sad (in a minor way) discovery I made this week. At one point in Stolen Magic<\/i> I wanted Elodie to say something about a large vegetable, and I was thinking of a pumpkin but I suspected that pumpkins originated in the New World, which wouldn\u2019t do, because I\u2019ve been deriving my fantasy middle ages world from Europe, so I looked it up online and found that not just pumpkins but all squashes originated in the Americas. Whoa! I thought. Didn\u2019t I put squash (not a pumpkin) in A Tale of Two Castles<\/i>? I checked, and I did. Then I went to my book, Daily Life in the Middle Ages<\/i> by Paul B. Newman, to see if it said people ate squash back then, way before Columbus, and yes, it did say that. The book was wrong! How could it do that to me?<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t matter much. This is fantasy. It isn\u2019t even true historical fantasy, since the kingdom of Lepai doesn\u2019t exist on planet earth. But still, I like to find some of my details in the real world. I would say that the lesson is to double-check everything, but I won\u2019t say that. Everything is tedious, and fantasy doesn\u2019t demand it. Yes, I should double-check anything I\u2019m not sure of, or use an absolutely dependable source, like the Oxford English Dictionary, but in the case of squash other than pumpkin, I accepted the accuracy of my book.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re writing historical fiction set in a real time and place, I do think you should be confident of all your details, and if you depart from reality, say so in an Author\u2019s Note. And if you\u2019re writing non-fiction, then everything should be rock solid – unlike my book. Shame on you, Mr. Newman!<\/p>\n
For the large vegetable in Stolen Magic<\/i> I wound up going with a cabbage. I had no idea they can grow so big. Some weigh 130 pounds! There are photos online. They throw off one\u2019s sense of scale. People standing next to these cabbages look like elves! If you’re in the mood, check it out online. Or maybe you’ve grown such a monster cabbage – and eaten a lot of coleslaw!<\/p>\n
Now for today\u2019s topic. On May 27, 2013, WriteKnitRead wrote, I’m having a problem with my book in that though I’m in love with my plot and can see exactly where I want it to go, I can’t actually… write it. I feel like I’m skimming over everything interesting, like description and giving my characters, well, character, in order to write down the plot. I keep telling myself that it’ll get better once I’m through the first draft but my writing is so bland and boring right now I can’t stand it. I feel like I want to give up but I still love the plot, just not the writing. Is it just first-draft blues? Or do I really need to start over?<\/i><\/p>\n
When I said I was adding this question to my list, I also wrote, I’d suggest getting interested in your characters. Then see what happens.<\/i><\/p>\n
Let\u2019s imagine a quest plot. The golden scale of justice has gone missing from the kingdom\u2019s grand courtroom, which is right next to the king\u2019s throne room. Without it, the royal magistrate can\u2019t rule on criminal cases or make judgments in civil disputes. The magistrate\u2019s daughter, Lara, can\u2019t bear to watch her mother\u2019s indecision, her sinking into depression. Moreover, bad people are taking advantage of the situation. Lara decides to find the scale and bring it back – that\u2019s the quest. We plan out these plot points:<\/p>\n
\u2022 the disappearance of the scale and when it\u2019s discovered<\/p>\n
\u2022 consequences of the disappearance<\/p>\n
\u2022 decision to quest and plan to visit the local oracle for starters<\/p>\n
\u2022 overcoming the creature that guards the oracle<\/p>\n
\u2022 posing a question to the oracle<\/p>\n
\u2022 the oracle\u2019s answer, which reveals that the scale has been stolen by an evil magician who lives in a forest fortress<\/p>\n
\u2022 failure to enter the castle of the duke, who owns the sword that is essential to recovering the scale<\/p>\n
\u2022 enlisting the aid of the duke\u2019s eight-year old cousin, Peter, who can sometimes read minds<\/p>\n
\u2022 trying again with the castle, and this time succeeding<\/p>\n
\u2022 sailing across the yellow sea to the island of the wood nymphs, with the sword in the boat<\/p>\n
\u2022 persuading the wood nymphs to follow Lara into battle against the magician<\/p>\n
\u2022 the capture of Peter by the magician<\/p>\n
\u2022 the storming of the fortress<\/p>\n
\u2022 the final battle between the magician and Lara<\/p>\n
\u2022 recovery of the scale and Peter<\/p>\n
Lambs and calves! I\u2019ve written a rough outline!<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s pick one of these bullets: overcoming the creature that guards the oracle. If we regard this as just a step to the next bullet, the oracle, things get boring pretty fast. Lara is told by one of the king\u2019s advisors that the creature guarding the oracle adores bread pudding, so she shows up with two crocks of bread pudding. If the creature will let her in she\u2019ll give it one on her way in and the other on her way out. The creature is mollified; she enters without incident. We can cross that step off on our list, but we\u2019re feeling sleepy, and we can hardly type or write.<\/p>\n
There are two problems here, which you may have guessed. The first is that we\u2019re making things too easy for Lara, and the second is that we haven\u2019t explored who she is and who the creature is. Maybe we have explored Lara\u2019s character by now because we\u2019ve already seen her decide to go on this quest, but we probably haven\u2019t gone into the creature.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s invest some thought in the creature. Here are a few possibilities:<\/p>\n
\u2022 It\u2019s mostly teeth and stomach, and its tiny brain cells are focused on its teeth and its appetite. Lara will never get by it with the second pudding crock. She better give the creature all the food she has on the way in. Then we and the reader have to worry about how she\u2019s going to get out again.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The creature is afraid of only one being: the oracle. After it lets Lara in, it\u2019s consumed with fear of the oracle\u2019s anger. What does it do to protect itself? What are the repercussions for Lara?<\/p>\n
\u2022 The king\u2019s advisor was misinformed or lied. The creature has no interest in bread pudding, but it will let Lara in if she’ll do a favor for it in return. Whatever the favor is (maybe winning the creature\u2019s freedom), it makes her quest more difficult.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The creature adores bread pudding and falls in love with anyone who provides it. The creature starts following Lara everywhere, and sometimes its behavior is problematic.<\/p>\n
By the time Lara reaches the oracle, she may also want his advice on dealing with the creature!<\/p>\n
Then we have to consider the oracle, who he is, what he wants, whether his prediction is truthful or not. We want to cut Lara (or WriteKnitRead\u2019s MC, or yours) a break every so often, generally an unexpected one, but mostly we want to make every step in our plot outline as hard for her as possible, and we want to pave her way with the most fascinating characters we can come up with.<\/p>\n
As we write, we have to develop the setting so we can see (and hear and smell) everything play out, and if we can think of ways for the setting to make matters more difficult, we should. For example, suppose the walls in the oracle\u2019s house are covered with trompe l\u2019oeil paintings. Lara can\u2019t tell the painted stairways from the real until she attempts to climb them. It may take her days to find the oracle, and time is ticking. If the setting contributes to the plot, we\u2019re sure to get interested in it.<\/p>\n
WriteKnitRead, I\u2019m not sure if you need to start over, but if I\u2019ve diagnosed the problem correctly, I do recommend that you go back and expand your scenes. If I\u2019ve entirely missed the boat, please write again to set me straight.<\/p>\n
The prompt today is obvious. Fool around with my outline. Pick one of the bullets and expand it into a scene or scenes. Invent the setting. Develop the character. Make Lara\u2019s quest harder. If you\u2019re ambitious, write the entire story.<\/p>\n
Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First off, Carpelibris, I can\u2019t find the Humpty-Dumpty story. Can we see it online yet? What\u2019s the title? Is there a URL that goes straight to it? And now, a reminder: Please post writing successes on the blog. Anything published? Anything won a contest? Any other form of success? Also before I start I want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}