Into the Basement
With Trajectory on track for a September 1 publishing date, I started work on my next novel, a horror story entitled The Downstairs Man. I'd been working on the outline since October of last year, and finally felt ready to dive in a few weeks ago. I expect the first draft to be completed sometime around September or October.
In between working and writing, I try to get some reading done as well.
One of the books I managed to squeeze in was Stephen King's On Writing (Scribner, 2000), which, in addition to being somewhat instructional, is really a short autobiography. He tells the story of how his life influenced his writing, and of course, he tells it very well. There is, too, some good advice. One of the things that really resonated with me was his comment that every story begins with a situation. "The situation," he says, "comes first. The characters come next." Plot is something he likens to a jackhammer. It's a crude way of getting to a story. The characters are where the story comes from.
I have to agree. In the fiction I've had published, this is precisely how the story came about. For Trajectory, it was a long, circuitous route getting there, because when I first started working on it, I believed that working out extensive outlines, detailed character bios, and doing massive mounds of research was the way to get the story told. This is just not true. It is, in fact, the way to destroy the creative process and the story all in one shot.
It's easy to fall into the research pit. Research should be used to fill in some holes - that's all. The stuff that isn't holes is the doughnut. That's where the story is. It's also easy to fall into the character analysis trap. This is fictional research. Why spend a hundred hours creating fake bios for characters when you could just be working out their details through the story you're telling?
I had the instinct, when starting The Downstairs Man, that I should not over-plot or over-outline the story. So far, I'm about a third way through the first draft, and this is a fantastic writing experience. The characters reveal themselves through the situation they're in. New connections and insights do, too. This happened on the last version of Trajectory, too - the one picked up by Anarchy Books. And when they happen, those mini-revelations are exciting and invigorating.
In between working and writing, I try to get some reading done as well.
One of the books I managed to squeeze in was Stephen King's On Writing (Scribner, 2000), which, in addition to being somewhat instructional, is really a short autobiography. He tells the story of how his life influenced his writing, and of course, he tells it very well. There is, too, some good advice. One of the things that really resonated with me was his comment that every story begins with a situation. "The situation," he says, "comes first. The characters come next." Plot is something he likens to a jackhammer. It's a crude way of getting to a story. The characters are where the story comes from.
I have to agree. In the fiction I've had published, this is precisely how the story came about. For Trajectory, it was a long, circuitous route getting there, because when I first started working on it, I believed that working out extensive outlines, detailed character bios, and doing massive mounds of research was the way to get the story told. This is just not true. It is, in fact, the way to destroy the creative process and the story all in one shot.
It's easy to fall into the research pit. Research should be used to fill in some holes - that's all. The stuff that isn't holes is the doughnut. That's where the story is. It's also easy to fall into the character analysis trap. This is fictional research. Why spend a hundred hours creating fake bios for characters when you could just be working out their details through the story you're telling?
I had the instinct, when starting The Downstairs Man, that I should not over-plot or over-outline the story. So far, I'm about a third way through the first draft, and this is a fantastic writing experience. The characters reveal themselves through the situation they're in. New connections and insights do, too. This happened on the last version of Trajectory, too - the one picked up by Anarchy Books. And when they happen, those mini-revelations are exciting and invigorating.
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