Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Plodding Away at Plotting

OK, so bullets, plotting or pantsting? Not looking for someone to change my mind, I am just genuinely curious about how other people work.

Well, I am a methodical plotter in life so I don't see that changing in my attempt at writing. I have a notebook that holds all my To Do's for the foreseeable future. At present it is 83 items long. This does not include repeating tasks like dishes, laundry, school work, etc. They are on a separate list. What I am beating around the bush at saying is that I got a lot of plotting done or at least planning to plot. I don't really remember how, but a while ago I found Larry Brooks StoryFix (now in 2.0). He recommends something he calls story architecture. He also has books about Story Engineering and Physics which I haven't gotten to yet, but will probably read soon. On his blog Larry has a 10 part series on story architecture. I found is writing stile to be sometimes vexing because it felt like he was talking down to people who disagree with him, but the information has already been very helpful to me. I especially liked the 1 page writing tool.

So where is my point? My father always told me it was on the top of my head, so I wear a hat. Just kidding, mostly. I took a break to watch Big Hero 6 with Rowan and there it was. The story structure was present. My notice of it made my thoughts a little distracting, but it was fascinating to "see" it and it kinda smacked me in the face. I would also like to say that I really enjoyed the movie even if it got a little violent with me. No spoilers here, but I am glad we purchased it.

Thanks for all the well wishes for my cousin Drew. He is doing better and it is looking like he may be heading home very soon to continue his recovery. I was thinking that they would have to keep him longer, but he seems to be making good progress.

ROW80 Rundown:

1. Write 500 words per day on any project.
Monday and Tuesday: Combined because I forgot to check when I finished on Monday or when I started Tuesday was a whopping 2082 words. Most of them were questions that have yet to be answered, but I think if I have at least identified the questions I need answered then I am heading down the right track. If I'm not, maybe don't be too harsh when you tell me because I am excited about this shift in focus that allowed me to spend much less time on the Facebook and more on prewriting stuff.
Wednesday: 715 words on this post

2. Blog at least every Wednesday and Sunday.
I keep this goal because it is the only on I seem to be able to hit more often than not.

3. Check out at least 10 posts from each new ROW80 linky before the next one comes out.
I made it to 5 so far and plan to check out some more once I am in bed. Technically it will probably be after the linky comes out, but hey sometimes mostly there is as good as it gets. Yay for the convenience of having the interwebs on our phone in the palm of our hands.

4. Use Twitter at least once per day.
I have been doing this, but not with original content. There is a lot of awesome stuff out there to retweet, though.

5. Post on my author Facebook page at least 3 times per week.
That's it! I am putting the hammer down on this goal and not stressing myself out about it for the rest of the month. I will only post on my author Facebook page 2 times per week when I put out my ROW80 check-ins.

6. Read 1 book per week.
I was steadily getting closer, but have made no progress on this front for the past few days. It was interesting to notice that there have been 4 references to The Picture of Dorian Gray in the past 3 days. Coincidence? The jury is still out.



photo credit: Pixabay

10 comments:

  1. I was gonna say the same thing as Cindy, above. You're handling a lot right now, and, as she said, any progress is good progress. :-D

    I'm so glad your cousin will be going home soon! It's so good to hear he's doing that well. :-)

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    1. Me too! He's home, walking and unbelievably grateful for this second chance. Yay again for progress.

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  2. This all sounds like good progress. Story architecture is a big deal, so figuring it out is also huge. Carry on.

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    1. Carry on indeed, that will be my new motto. Of course I think I am quit late hoping on that train.

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  3. I'm pantser at heart, but occasionally I find I need to plot stuff out. Awesome progress!

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    1. The first time I ever tried to write a novel I had only heard of NaNoWriMo 3 days prior to it's start. I did the pantsting thing and it did not work for me. I am always impressed when I meet a pantster because I believe it takes courage to trust yourself enough to just go at it.

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  4. I'm a recently converted plotter after being a panster for over 20 years. I'm plodding through outlines right now and it feels like SO MUCH work. Then I remember when you pants, there's so much editing and rewrites that have to happen - so this is probably saving time.

    Awesome word counts! Keep it up.

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    1. Wow, people are creatures of habit. I am very intrigued to know what made you try outlines.

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