{"id":829,"date":"2017-03-01T10:53:29","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T15:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=829"},"modified":"2017-03-01T10:53:29","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T15:53:29","slug":"development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/01\/development\/","title":{"rendered":"Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

On September 23, 2016, Grace (The Girl Upstairs) wrote, How do you develop your writing ideas? When you first get an idea, what do you do first? I really struggle with what to do when I first get an idea.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s uncanny how often the next-up blog question touches on what\u2019s going on in my work\u00a0at the\u00a0moment.<\/p>\n

The manuscript for Ogre Enchanted<\/em> is in my editor\u2019s hands. She emailed me about a week ago that she was reading it and enjoying it. But I don\u2019t know if she\u2019d read three pages or fifty and I haven\u2019t heard since. My fingernails are very short, and my fingers themselves are in danger.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I\u2019m thinking about what to do next, often the hardest part for me. So here is my process as I\u2019m now living it.<\/p>\n

The book that comes out in May, The Lost Kingdom of Bamarre<\/em>, resolves its main problem but leaves a kingdom in disarray. In my next effort I\u2019d like to deal with that, with reconciliation. Since I\u2019m bad at making up plots out of nothing, I looked for historical models.<\/p>\n

On a personal level, we reconcile all the time. The people we love most are often the ones who push our buttons hardest, but we find a way to work it out. For most of us, life isn\u2019t littered with failed relationships.<\/p>\n

But on a macro level, which is what I want, I\u2019m coming up empty with examples of reconciliations between groups. I looked at the aftermath of our Civil War, but we\u2019re still dealing with the ramifications of that struggle. I read about Scotland, where, if I have it right, the Lowlands became reconciled to England for economic reasons, but the Highlands were brought in only by military defeat. I read about South Africa, and there it seems that outside pressure brought about change, which I don\u2019t want to use. Ancient Rome grew by conquest, though its practice of readily granting citizenship is interesting and possibly useful for my purposes. To decide whether or not I can use these, I write notes.<\/p>\n

If any of you can cite a historical example of reconciliation, please weigh in.<\/p>\n

When I\u2019m hunting ideas I don\u2019t always look to history, but I do look around for\u00a0outside sources of assistance. And my usual go-to\u2019s are myths and fairy tales. I read Lang\u2019s Red Fairy Book<\/em>, which I never had delved into before. (Lang\u2019s color-titled fairy tale collections are great, because they\u2019re in the public domain, so we can use them without worry. And there are so many books! A feast!)<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t find anything there for this purpose, although a couple of stories jumped out as marvelous. I recommend \u201cThe Nettle Spinner,\u201d which doesn\u2019t repeat the formula of any other fairy tale I know. And there was a terribly sad one called \u201cThe Voice of Death\u201d about a doomed search for eternal life.<\/p>\n

Though not in the Red Fairy Book<\/em>, I found myself thinking again about both the fairy tale \u201cEast of the Sun and West of the Moon\u201d and the myth of Cupid and Psyche, which seem to me to be in essence the same story, but I don\u2019t know if I can mold either of them into the shape of a tale of reconciliation. Maybe I can. I\u2019ve written lots of notes.<\/p>\n

Another myth keeps coming to mind\u00a0is the tragic \u201cOrpheus and Eurydice,\u201d which I may be able to use, minus the tragedy. In case you don\u2019t know it, here are the bare bones of the story: Orpheus is a master musician. On their wedding day, his wife Eurydice is bitten by a viper and dies. Orpheus, grief-struck, goes to the underworld to play for Hades\u00a0and persuade him to restore Eurydice. Hades, moved by the music, agrees that Orpheus can lead her up to the land of life so long as he doesn\u2019t look back at her until they\u2019re both fully out. However, he can\u2019t resist a glance right at the end and loses her forever. The reconciliation that I\u2019m writing notes about here is between the underworld and the world above, which can be any two opposing camps.<\/p>\n

What I like about this story is its simplicity, the most important quality I look for when I pick a fairy tale to embroider around. My writing impulse is always to pile on complications. If I start with something straightforward, I have a chance of not losing my way.<\/p>\n

(I\u2019ve already used the myth of Orpheus in a poem, in a way that\u2019s entirely different from the approach I\u2019d use in a novel. For the poem, I researched the effects of a viper bite, which are horrifying. I imagined that Eurydice doesn\u2019t want to return to life only to have to die again eventually, possibly by another viper, but Orpheus won\u2019t listen to her, so she sets him up to\u00a0look back.)<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s assume that I pick \u201cOrpheus and Eurydice\u201d to become a book. My next step is more notes. I\u2019ll ask myself whether I\u2019ll write in first person or third, and, if in first, who my POV character will be. If third, omniscient or close focus? I\u2019ll wonder who my MC\u2019s will be, what the events of the story will be.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been evolving from a pure pantser to a vague outliner, so I\u2019ll start listing plot points and, most important for me, how the story might end. I won\u2019t start writing until I have an end point in mind, though I may not know exactly what the outcome will be–whether it will be happy or sad.<\/p>\n

My notes, even at this early point, will be scattered with lists\u2013they are already, about how I might use this fairy tale or that myth, about the state of my world at the beginning of my story.<\/p>\n

When I have a very basic outline, maybe a page, and I\u2019m satisfied with it, I\u2019ll think about an opening scene that will introduce my MC and may set up the events that will follow. When the scene takes shape I will be unable to resist writing. And I\u2019m off.<\/p>\n

You? How do you get started?<\/p>\n

Depending on how you count, here are five prompts:<\/p>\n

\u2219 Try my method. Read or reread ten fairy, folk, or tall tales. Jot down a few notes on the three that interest you most. List ways the stories might go, considering gaps in logic or failures in understanding about the way real people feel and behave\u2013these cracks are spots you can exploit to make a fresh story. Write notes about the characters that are given to you by the story and how you might flesh them out. In your notes, consider who your MC\u2019s may be, because they may not be obvious. For example, you may decide that the hunter in \u201cSnow White\u201d interests you most. Another factor that I haven\u2019t mentioned is time period. Do you want this to be fairy-tale time or an actual historical period or contemporary or future. Explore the possibilities in notes. Write more notes about which point of view to use, first person or third (or even second), what tense. List possible plot developments. Create a short outline. Write notes about where to begin. Finally, write the first scene.<\/p>\n

\u2219 There are several distinct chapters in the myth of Atalanta. These prompts are based on her story. Try out my idea-development method on one or more.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Atalanta\u2019s father wants a son. When he\u2019s presented with a daughter, he dumps her on a mountainside to die of exposure, but she\u2019s adopted and raised by a she-bear until hunters take her in.<\/p>\n

\u2219 There are depictions on ancient Greek vases of Atalanta overcoming Peleus (Achilles\u2019 father and a hero in his own right) in a wrestling match. That\u2019s all there is, as far as I know, so this is a challenge, to build a story out of that image.<\/p>\n

\u2219 This part of her story is the best known, I think. Atalanta\u2019s father finally accepts her and wants her to get married. She\u2019s not interested, so she says she\u2019ll marry only the man who can outrun her in a footrace. She\u2019s victorious time after time until a suitor, Hippomenes, asks Aphrodite for help, and the goddess gives him three golden apples to throw in front of Atalanta, one at a time, to slow her down. He wins; they marry.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Use Atalanta\u2019s story or any other myth or a fairy tale as the basis of a poem\u2013there is a long tradition of doing this. For those of you who are at least high-school age, you might check out some of Anne Sexton\u2019s fairy tale poems.<\/p>\n

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

On September 23, 2016, Grace (The Girl Upstairs) wrote, How do you develop your writing ideas? When you first get an idea, what do you do first? I really struggle with what to do when I first get an idea. It\u2019s uncanny how often the next-up blog question touches on what\u2019s going on in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[272,91],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829"}],"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=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions\/830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}