Happy Anniversary: Looking Back and Looking Forward

As I was perusing the blog today, I noticed that it's been a year since we got this craziness going!  Our official anniversary was the 13th of this month, but we'll celebrate it a few days later because I definitely feel it's worth celebrating.  Firstly I want to congratulate everyone who has been a part of this blog, the admin, the writers, the editor, and the readers.  I know that for me, Detangled Writers has been a source of pride, enjoyment, and education.  Taking a look at our contributor profiles, I see a group of people who I hold in high esteem.  These women have taken time out of their lives to share their thoughts and knowledge with the writing community.  Some of the goals we wrote in our profiles might be a bit outdated by now - some things might be all done and checked off, some things may have been set aside, while others may be in progress.  I invite the contributors to create fresh goals lists and provide an update.  Tell us about your writing; what projects do you have going on, is writer's block bugging you, are you having trouble finding time for your craft?   Also, let's talk about what goals we have for the blog in general and how we can become an even better support network for each other.  

 

Old Goals for Amanda LaFantasie (Skoora)! 

1. Time Management 
2. Keeping the Creative Juices Flowing
3. Finishing what I start...
4. Grad School and everything to do with it!
5. Characters - working on characterizations

I accomplished part of number four by applying to and being accepted to an MFA program.  I am currently working toward completing my masters in creative writing at Pine Manor College.  Number five can be removed because, for me, the writing itself is what generates character and plot and trying to work on those independently is possible but not really a goal.  As far as the first three goals, I would keep one and three on my list!  Number two is less of a goal for me and more a goal for the blog.  My new list, a much more specific list, would look like this:

New Goals!

1. Time Management
2. Finish Death Man (my current novel in progress)
3. Work on short stories for Workshops
4. Read craft books and fiction novels
5. Attend an AWP conference (Seattle 2014)

Some goals for the blog would be to see some more blogs on hot topics such as fanfiction writing, romance versus erotica, elements of craft, literary definitions and analyses, and even book reviews and discussions.  I would love to see more vocab words!  Everyone is encouraged to post vocab builders and word exercises.  If people have personal blogs where they share writing pieces, I would like to see entries detailing the process, successes, and failures they had with the project and then a link so we can read your work.

I hope that everyone who is part of this blog is as proud of it as I am.  This post brings our total to 148 published blogs for Detangled Writers.  Here's hoping that by this time next year we have upwards of 300!  Thank you to our contributors and readers.

An Update & Possible Genre Change

Tomorrow I leave for my second residency at the Solstice MFA program in Boston.  My first time around left me with a whirlwind of ideas as well as a fantastic bunch of writers to count as friends and comrades.  This time I head back with one semester under my belt, a yearning to catch up with my Boston buddies, and a strong desire to learn as much as I can.

For the first semester I read twelve books and wrote around fifty pages (more than that but fifty semi polished pages) for my Dystopian novel.  This novel does have the potential of being marketed as YA but I'm not going to push that at all.  However, this time around, I have a list of several YA books that I want to read and I am suddenly inspired to work on a very clear cut YA story.  I actually wrote out this story in screenplay format several years back.  I never finished the screenplay but I did chart out the entire ending up to the 'FADE OUT' via long notes.  One reason I'm wanting to rekindle this story is because of the strong female lead (and I don't write many females even though I am one), and another reason is because it's already plotted.  This plot may change here and there but the fact that it is plotted will help me write out scene after scene and also give me a chance to really tackle writing a synopsis. 

In order to work on this however, I would need to change my major from Fiction to Young Adult Fiction.  From what I understand this is totally doable and that it's only in my third semester that I have to decide on what genre to graduate out of - some people switch in their second semester and never go back, but I think I will return to Fiction a better person for having honed another side of my literary interests.  

Amanda LaFantasie (Skoora) 

Guided Prompts

So I have a fun idea to get away from the blank page syndrome (a.k.a. writer's block, a.k.a. I-dunno-how-to-start-this-really-cool-idea).  Looking back at my writing history I realize that I write better (or at least more profusely) when working off a prompt.  This is why Role Play story writing is so successful.  Each time you interchange with a partner, it is essentially them giving you a prompt.  For any of you out there that might not know what Role Play (RP) writing is, it is just as the name suggests.  You write (in third person) the experiences and thoughts of a single character performing an act or a series of acts and then you have a writing partner have their character react to what you wrote.  It's a fun back and forth that is not only great writing practice but wonderful at helping you build and develop characters.  One of the reason's it's so fun and so successful is because you are kept wondering what your partner will write because that is your next prompt.

Back when Yahoo!360 was an active site (may it rest in peace), I used to write a few short segments based on prompts I found on sites like Writer's Digest.  One such story was about a person receiving a text from an unknown number.  I pumped out a generous amount for such a tiny prompt and had thoughts to even take it further.  Now, when I say 'prompt' it doesn't necessarily have to be 'It was a dark and stormy night when Mrs. Winters went outside to look for Pooky and found...' like that.  I mean even a self prompt like 'what would I do if I won the lottery.'  Things like that to get the juices going.  And this brings me to the point of this blog post: guided prompts.  If you have an idea and you want to write about it but aren't sure how to get started, try prompting yourself into scenes.

I have an android piece that I am itching to work on and so far I have about five different beginnings, all of which I despise and I know that it's because I'm putting too much pressure on myself to make it 'perfect' and I'm not letting myself just relax and write (which is kind of the point of writing, right?).  So what I'm going to do is give myself specific prompts.

Idea: Dystopian Android Tribe

Prompt: Leader of Android Tribe comes across a dead human.  What does he do?

Prompt: Androids find a baby and attempt to raise it.

Prompt: Androids think of themselves as 'living,' how do they react when someone tells them they have no value and are just pieces of machinery?

Prompt: Show the androids breaking or following the three laws of Robotics.

Prompt: Do androids really dream of electric sheep?

Prompt: It was a dark and stormy night... wait... no, I meant: one of the androids falls into disrepair, how do the androids react to the 'death' of one of their own?

These are all scenes that could potentially work themselves into the book, but the real purpose of these prompts is to get me somewhere in character and plot development and, ultimately, to get words on the page.  I will most likely be answering some of these tomorrow and posting them on my Gurgle Burp blog.   I know that the idea as I've written it is very vague (trust me I do have a bit more of a plan in mind than just that), but if you have any prompts for that idea, please post them and I will attempt to answer them as well!  Prompts are fun, dang it.  They shouldn't just be used to generate ideas, they can also be employed to fuel ideas that are already hatched and eager for development.

Amanda LaFantasie (Skoora) © April 2013

Simple Plot Advice: Conflict

I got to thinking about plot today and thought about the simplified breakdown of man vs. man, or man vs. time, or this or that and etc.  And I thought about something I learned in screenplay writing.  First of all (and this should be something most of us already know): conflict creates plot, conflict drives plot, conflict is plot.  How do we get conflict?  That's the fun part.  You figure out what your character wants (short term or long term or both, or even what he wants right this moment) and then you prevent him from getting it.  This works for drama, comedy, supernatural, horror... anything.  It's like tequila.  It just works.

This is Bob.

This is what Bob wants.

In this chapter, Bob, a divorced construction worker, wants a pack of cigarettes.  So now you have point A and point B and the most important thing is to add obstacles (external and internal) between those points.  Some examples of external obstacles would be: no mode of transport to the gas station, no money to buy them, forgot ID at home, gets hit/run over by car, walks in wet cement and gets stuck... you get the idea.  Some examples of internal obstacles could be: is agoraphobic, has to quit smoking or his new girlfriend will dump him, he can go to the store but he has to call his ex to give him a ride and he loathes her... stuff like that.  The best obstacles are part internal and part external.  Observe: his ex shows up and drops off their child because she's going away on a romantic vacation with his construction buddy, he gets kidnapped by a group of radicals on the way to the gas station, he comes across a suffering animal and has to choose to leave it there to die or turn around and take it home.   This is all very basic stuff (but if anime has taught me anything, it's that you have to go back to your basics if you want to move forward!) and so now we've totally screwed up Bob's chances of getting his cigarettes.  Does he ever get them?  If he doesn't, what is his larger goal?  If he does, then what happens to him, and, more importantly, what happens to the cigarettes?  What choices does he make to overcome obstacles?  Those choices are what make for character development.  

This stands between Bob and his nicotine.  Poor Bob.

Another visual, simpler even, is the man climbing a mountain.  You are the evil god (the author) who decides to pick on Tom (the character).  He climbs a little; you make it rain.  He finds a dry spot to hide in; you put a bear in there waking up from hibernation.  He waits till the sun comes out; you have made sure he has mud to climb on.  He is close to the top; you break his leg.  He is about to give up; you show him a glorious rainbow.  He stands and continues climbing; you present him with a crevice too far to jump over.  Now you watch and wait and see what he does.  You might let him reach the top because you are an evil god, but not without mercy and, honestly, you have a real soft spot for guys like Tom.  That's why you made him to begin with, right?

The thing is: even if all your character wants is for the cute boy in class to notice them, you have to make each and every obstacle as important as a life and death decision.  And deliver the conflict in interesting ways that propel the character and the audience deeper into the story.  That will create excellent conflict and excellent plot.  I've always found that the squishy pleasant stuff takes care of itself - that the characters will make up, make love, make merry well enough on their own without you having to plan it too much - so rather than focus on giving them leeway, focus on messing up their lives and do it in ways appropriate to the genre, style, and setting of your story.  Then sit back and watch your characters grow.  Now I just need to take my own advice.

Amanda LaFantasie (Skoora) © 2012

Discussion Question- a plotter or a pantser?

Are you a plotter or a pantser? A plotter is someone that outlines their novels before writing them. A pantser rides by the seat of their pants and waits for their characters to tell them what happens. Which one are you? And does it work for you and why?