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something not-so-bad. she said guardedly.
On the basis of my observation of the circle of writers I personally know pretty well, I will venture a generalization: we're a superstitious lot. The reason, I think, is because the writing process is often so opaque. Opaque is hard for people who like to have control over their lives. In my case, add to this the fact that I was raised by a father who grew up in rural Italy, where superstition is an art.
Italian Americans call it maluch, which is southern dialect for malocchio, or bad eye. The evil eye. I'm tempting fate by writing about this, you see. Thus the cornuto, because here goes anyway.
Today I forced myself to go through the entire Queen of Swords manuscript and make a list of every scene. I did this by setting up a style which I formatted in a small font, bright red, justified right. I made a short title for a scene that covered the basics, and applied the style. Like this:
POV Hannah: Rattling Gourd and his view of the world
Hannah.... ....... ....... ........ .... ......... ..... ... ....(scene goes on for 1.5 pages)
POV Jennet: street vendors, dealing with Rachel, and her own memories.
In the evening Rachel sought out Jennet (scene goes on for 2 pages)... .... ........ ........
Because I included an outline level in the formatting of the style, I can now switch to outline mode and see only the list of scenes. I then went though my chronology (which is crucial when writing a big, involved book like this with a lot of backstory and metastory) and put in dates so I could see how the narrative moved (or stalled) over time.
And a few things jumped out at me right away. Missing scenes (some of them quite interesting to write); missing POVs. A plot twist that was kinda sitting there without development. A character who was trying to get my attention. And best of all: where it was that my characters were going to run into Andrew Jackson, the why and how of it. That was something that had been worrying me. I have a very clear picture of Jackson on the December morning he came to New Orleans by way of the Bayou St. John, the men around him, the place he stopped for breakfast, and where he went when he got to the city. What I wasn't sure was, if I could convince any of my people that they needed to interact with him. Hannah detests the man, and Luke doesn't much like him either. The other characters are wound up in their own problems.
However, the answer was sitting right in front of me. Once I stood back and took stock of the whole situation, it all fell into place.
I made a list of about twelve scenes to write straight away. Four to be inserted in earlier parts of the story, and the rest following from where I stopped today.
May 28, 2005 05:40 PM
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Comments
We ARE secretly sisters... I LOVE the outliner function. Even better than a fresh hit of Office Supplies. That's even better than a Table of scenes [vbg]
Yours in geekitude, R
Posted by: robynbender at May 28, 2005 06:46 PM
Secretly? Surely everybody realized this long ago.
Posted by: sara at May 28, 2005 07:02 PM