Let's Be Honest.
Raise your hand if you are a writer?
(Hand shoots up in the air)
Raise your hand if you are struggling to even get through writing out a plot?
(Hand shoots right back up)
Raise your hand if you really want help to get through your plot so you can keep your focus? (Jumping up and down waving my hand "ME! ME! ME! I DO! I DO! I DO!")
Well unfortunately I am not the one to ask for help, I am new at this myself, but fear not...I may have someone who can.
I have been struggling to write a book for several years now. Not only is being a mom who stays at home and homeschools a big reason to just put writing off just one more day but I have been realizing that it is because it becomes overwhelming and difficult to really see where I want my story to go. Not to mention my fear of rejection but we will save that for another time. No, it has a lot to do with my focus on the story I want to tell.
Where do I want this story to go?
What is my message in all of this?
What am I really going to fill the story with?
Do I want a sandwich or leftovers for lunch?
See? Focus.
All these questions just make my mind draw a blank and wonder onto something else.
I wonder what everyone is doing on facebook today?
Here I have an awesome idea, at least in my mind, but I can't seem to put it on paper. I can't seem to figure out a system to help me get a simple plot written down to follow, to keep me on track.
My mom, who is my biggest supporter used to tell me to just sit down and write the book. "You have no idea how hard that is," was always my reply. Like most writers out there you know you can't just sit there for hours with your mind blank and expect anything that comes out to be good. Or coherent. If you can't even get your ideas down without completely confusing yourself and going "this makes no sense," then how do you expect to write a story and make it good.
A Tragedy Becomes A Blessing
Several weeks ago I did a really, really bad thing. It is so terrible that it is hard to even type here. I formatted my flash drive that held every word that I had ever written.
Gasp!
I know! What a tragedy! All my work was gone. My story babies practically dead. How was I ever going to remember everything I had written. It was hopeless. I was fighting back tears. I tried several attempts at recovering my work, downloading a few different recovery software programs, but I had to finally realize that I was not getting anything back.
After searching my computer and an external hard drive, I realized not all of my work was lost, just both the novels I had been working on. So in total, about 90% of every word I had ever written was lost. Yes, a good 90%. One novel I had been working on for years, though it also hadn't been touched in a few years, but that is not the point. I did thankfully have it all printed out but what a pain in the butt that is going to be to have to sit there and copy what I wrote. My second novel, which I had just that morning started working on again, was completely gone.
As you can imagine, I was upset. But, unbeknownst to me, it was a blessing in disguise.
How Could Losing It All Be A Blessing?
One problem I always had when I wrote was that nothing was planned out. I always had such a great idea and I would start to write. Then through brainstorming what was going to happen in the book, I come up with an even better idea and then an even better idea and it would snowball until I nearly forgot what I was even wanting to write. Every good idea had to be in my book, had to happen here in this story and not in another some time down the road. I had to have the father be killed, then he is a ghost haunting his daughter, then he is not really dead but alive but nobody knows. Or the girl has to be thirteen and find a magical realm, no, sixteen and she has powers, no, eighteen so she can fall in love and it wouldn't be inappropriate if there are some steamy scenes.
This may not all seem to be a big deal, all part of the writing process, but in the end the orginal idea that I was so excited about gets lost, my paths do not cross right and the story hits a brick wall. That is when I get discouraged and walk away. I lose my drive, my passion.
When I lost it all, it was like a blank slate. I didn't have to feel the obligation from having everything that I had written be sitting there for me to try and make work. I was able to start again from scratch and not feel too guilty if I did the story differently like I would have if I knew hours and hours worth of work was just sitting there.
So, determined to do it right instead of at the seat of my pants and winging it, changing my story with each and ever new whim, I went on a search to find a plot course or article to help me through a new rewrite. That's when I came upon "Creating a Plot Outline in 8 Easy Steps" by Glen C. Strathy.
Right away I noticed that the way I was being asked to write my plot was different from anything else I had ever tried. There was no beginning, middle, and end that I was supposed to figure out and then try to fill the rest of the story in with fluff. It was more in depth and went step by step with each aspect of the story. I found out that this way of writing a plot was called Dramatica Theory, which I will post about some other time. In this series of articles (I found out that "Creating a Plot Outline in 8 Easy Steps" was step number 3 in the "How To Write A Novel" series also written by Glen C. Strathy), Mr. Strathy walks you through each step into creating your plot.
With Dramatica Theory, which was created by Melanie Anne Philips and Chris Huntley in 1993, everything was laid out more. Given to me in steps or stages. Give me specific questions to answer about my plot and the story might come together right. Just say to me "where do you want your story to go?" and I freeze up. Say "what is your protagonist afraid will happen if his/her goal is not achieved?" and more than likely you will get something out of me. That is actually a question that Mr. Strathy asks in his article. It's definitely a thought provoker. So looking at this approach to plotting I found it less stressful and less daunting. Mr. Strathy does a great job at giving you examples of each step and explaining things so that even I can understand it. I firmly believe that I can't speak or understand the complex language of "Adult," though I am one, and the way he explains it all is clear enough for me.
If you are a writer like me that has a hard time really pulling together an idea and sticking with it, without going off onto every single bunny trail that comes along, then you should check out his website. I have made sure to bookmark it on my computers and save the articles on a flash drive (a new one of course) to make sure I have it at my finger tips at all times. This website and series of articles will be well used from now until I get the hang of this writing thing and I hope that it will help all of you too.
So even though I lost so much when I formatted my hard drive, I really gained a whole lot too. I gained a whole new approach to writing that I hope will one day result in a fully written and published book. And I gained new confidence and a new drive to push forward without all my past writings holding me back. Now on to my book.
Who here has tried out Dramatica Theory before and how do you like it? Leave a comment below.
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