{"id":679,"date":"2015-11-11T08:26:22","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T13:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=679"},"modified":"2015-11-11T08:26:22","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T13:26:22","slug":"in-transit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/11\/in-transit\/","title":{"rendered":"In Transit"},"content":{"rendered":"

To all of you who are in the middle of NaNoWriMo, may the wind fill your sails! If you have time or need a break, please let the rest of us know how you\u2019re faring. And here\u2019s the link to Kitty\u2019s NaNoWriMo forum, which she put together particularly for this blog’s writer-participants: http:\/\/nanowrimo.org\/forums\/writing-groups-and-clubs\/threads\/260467<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On July 16, 2015 Abigail wrote, I know you did a post on this already, but it\u2019s not so much story hopping, but losing interest. I have a story called “The Luckbringer” that currently has over 27,000 words. And I haven\u2019t written in it since school ended (early June).<\/em><\/p>\n

Partially, it\u2019s because I\u2019m in a filler\/standstill part in the story. What do you do when you\u2019re at those? I hate them, and sometimes I manage to slog through them, but usually I end up with seven different subplots I started to get it moving. Uggggh.<\/em><\/p>\n

Also, I guess I don\u2019t know where the story is going RIGHT NOW. I know where it\u2019s supposed to end, and what I need to do to get there, but I\u2019m not really sure what to write. Do you write a huge, detailed outline explaining what happens in every chapter? I have a few friends who do that, and personally I think it\u2019s a waste of time and a restriction on your creativity, but I guess it\u2019d also help you out during those filler chapters. What\u2019s your thought on that?<\/em><\/p>\n

And one more thing: When I want to sit down and write (or at least, feel like I should), sometimes I stare at my computer screen for fifteen minutes without writing anything, then go do something else. I\u2019ve tried \u2018tickling the keys\u2019 and writing in a notebook, but it doesn\u2019t help much.<\/em><\/p>\n

To start with, on the subject of outlining or not, please take a look at my recent post, called \u201cPlan or Pants,\u201d on September 2nd, and don\u2019t read just my words. Be sure to check out the comments, because lots of people weighed in. Everyone works differently, and there\u2019s a long spectrum from outliner to pantser.<\/p>\n

Onto filler scenes. I\u2019m not sure, but we might do better if we dream up another name for them, like transition scenes or going deeper scenes, because just the word filler<\/em> makes me sleepy.<\/p>\n

However, sometimes\u2013whatever we call them\u2013they\u2019re necessary, I guess. Please speak up if you disagree.<\/p>\n

So, what to do?<\/p>\n

At the beginning of my prequel to The Two Princesses of Bamarre, tentatively called Bamarre<\/em>, MC Perry is a child in a Sparta-like culture, and she has to be trained in the arts of war. If she were awkward and weak, tension would come easily. She could fail, and she and the reader would suffer. But she\u2019s a strong, gifted athlete. Are you yawning yet? I was, but it seemed essential to completing this world to show what its children have to go through.<\/p>\n

I did a few things, not just to keep myself awake, but also to round out Perry\u2019s character and to advance the plot. I made the other children, except one, dislike her, and I explored the exception.<\/p>\n

Possibly, I could have used the enmity of the other children to create conflict, but their dislike wasn\u2019t going to be a significant plot thread, and I kept it to a minimum. (I tend to over-complicate, so I was wary of myself.) Also, because I didn\u2019t want to overburden this part of the story, I didn\u2019t enlarge much on the new friendship.<\/p>\n

Wrapped up in this example are three strategies:<\/p>\n

\u2219 Truncate. Suspect every sentence. If we don\u2019t need it, out it goes. Switching from showing to telling will help in the shortening. In my example, we can show one sort of training and tell the others, briefly. This truncating can be done both while we\u2019re writing the scene and in revision as soon as we finish. If we\u2019ve introduced seven subplots to get us through, we can consider each one, because there may be gold among them, and then we can ditch the dross.\u00a0In fact, question your entire transition scene. Do you really need it. Can you cover it in a single sentence and move on?<\/p>\n

\u2219 Reveal character. What a character does when she\u2019s disliked may expose aspects of her not otherwise seen. Does she try harder? Withdraw? Comfort herself in other ways? Become belligerent? Whatever choice she makes will teach us and the reader more about her\u2013and will make the pages interesting, even exciting.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Advance plot. In my story, the single friendship becomes important. To come up with ways to advance the plot, think about the main conflict and how your intermediate scene can contribute to it. This has nothing to do with my manuscript, but let\u2019s imagine that Perry\u2019s new friend is going to die (somehow) later in the story. Well, what little thing can we drop into this scene to hint at the trouble to come. Since these pages are transitional, we don\u2019t want it to be a big deal, just a bell that chimes softly. The reader will hear.<\/p>\n

On Abigail\u2019s last question, about being stuck and unable to write, I sympathize. At the moment, I\u2019m figuring out what to write next and I\u2019m not making much progress. But I do believe in tickling the keys. I\u2019d suggest writing off topic about something that matters to you. Rant or obsess (in writing) or describe the latest funny thing that happened in your family or with friends. Don\u2019t make yourself write your story or write about your story until and unless it just starts coming. And don\u2019t do what I\u2019ve been doing lately, an addiction, which is switching from writing to playing a solitaire game called Free Cell. Do not do that! Especially if you\u2019re in the middle of NaNoWriMo, do not do that!<\/p>\n

Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n

\u2219 Your MC has left his old life behind. He\u2019s on a train or in a caravan or a commercial spaceship, off to\u2013you decide where and what. An interlude is needed for the transition. Nothing major is going to happen, but a few small things may. Write the scene. Do not let it go more than five pages, or, if it does, cut it back in revision.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Use the situation I described above. Your MC is learning a new skill and has just made a friend, though no one else likes her. The new skill is the transition part, so let it be something dull, like stringing beads. Make the reader worry just the slightest bit about the safety of the new friend. Again, keep the scene short.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Your MC and another character, you decide who, are in a boat in the middle of one of the Great Lakes. Think big body of water. The engine has died. Swimming to shore is not an option, and if no one realizes what\u2019s happened, they will be in terrible trouble. But for now, the water is calm, the sky is blue. Write the scene before everything starts to fall apart.<\/p>\n

Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To all of you who are in the middle of NaNoWriMo, may the wind fill your sails! If you have time or need a break, please let the rest of us know how you\u2019re faring. And here\u2019s the link to Kitty\u2019s NaNoWriMo forum, which she put together particularly for this blog’s writer-participants: http:\/\/nanowrimo.org\/forums\/writing-groups-and-clubs\/threads\/260467. On July […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[298],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679"}],"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=679"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":681,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions\/681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}