The Writer's Toolbox: My Own Most Used Tools (Part 1) · 1:48am Nov 11th, 2017
For those who aren't long time readers, a few years ago I talked about the concept of a Writer's Toolbox -- that is, gathering writing advice and tips, but also random other information and concepts that you can use as inspiration, as guidelines, or as the solution to problems when writing. These are your tools, and they might be wide ranging things you use every time you sit down to write, or they might be a specialized doohicky that you aren't even sure you'll ever use, but you know it and could use it if that specific scenario called for it.
We gather these tools from all over, and I love to trade them with other writers. Ones that I've posted about before are linked from my Blog Index.
Now, usually when I talk writing advice, it’s in a theoretical kind of way -- I try to draw it into broad ideas and let you guys figure out how to use it. In general, I think this works best because everyone writes in very different ways.
But I’ve noticed there are some specific things I do when I’m writing something that are really cornerstones of my process, and I’ve also noticed they’re never mentioned in guides on how to write. I have no idea how common these are, but it took me a while to fall into these habits and if someone had mentioned them I would have found them sooner.
So, what I want to do here is go through my writing process. This is going to mostly focus on long fics, because my short stories are a lot more variable, but those different processes are usually whichever parts of this I happen to need for that project.
I’ll be showing off examples of my actual drafts and outlines from Lost Time and some conversations with editors from Sun and Hearth to illustrate what I mean and what I do. While this might not be useful to as many people as theory, I’m hoping that even if you have a pretty good system of your own you’ll at least find it interesting. And if you don’t write but have ever wanted a look at how the word-sausage is made, this is your chance.
The Note Doc
This is the first step in writing for me. Well, technically the first step is “have something I want to write” but this is the first step that actually involves putting words to paper. I’m referring to it as “the note doc” because it almost always ends up being called “<Working Title> notes” unless the fic is short enough that it also turns into the rough draft.
I take the idea I’m liking, and I just start writing whatever I like about it. It might be the exciting climax, a funny exchange between the characters, a description of something that I want to see if I can describe properly, a scene that really perfectly defines a character. I try to keep these roughly in order, and they’re usually scene sketches (which I’ll get to next) rather than properly written scenes.
Also, since this document is essentially scrap paper, I might add actual notes: backstory of characters, the first scribblings of an outline, attempts at a description of the story, etc.
The purpose of the notes doc is:
- To see how long this story holds my interest.
- To let me remember things that were good enough that they popped into my mind right away.
- To get me started on a rough outline to see where the scenes I want to write fit in.
- To give me a “good parts version” of the story that I won’t mind looking at five times a day for weeks on end.
Generally I work in the notes doc until either it becomes too long for me to keep track of, or until I make up my mind that I’m actually writing this thing and start turning the sketches into actual scenes.
So, what are scene sketches?
A scene sketch is something close to the absolute bare bones of the scene. It’s not an outline, it’s written in prose and dialogue, but it’s just the things you need to see what a scene is going to look like.
At this early point in writing, it’s especially useful. For one thing, I might not even end up using the scene, or I might find in the sketching that it needs to be written entirely differently. Sketching saves me the time and trouble of writing a lot of words that I already know I might end up not using anyway. For another thing, it lets me make sure I have a handle on character voices without much effort.
For me, this means a lot of unattributed dialogue, and not much else. Since I know what scene I’m writing, I already know the location and characters and situation; I don’t need the setup paragraphs that the reader will eventually need. I also usually know my characters well enough to know who’s talking, though from time to time I’ll attribute something if it’s ambiguous.
What I usually need to see is how to convey the information that the scene needs to convey. How much I can get across and have the conversation feel natural, does the scene need more in order to feel like a full scene, what order would characters address things, etc. I can at least estimate how long I’m looking at it being; for me a sketch is usually ½ to ⅔ the length of the finished scene, depending on how much the characters are active or noticing things in the scene.
As an example, this was one of the first things I wrote in my notes doc for Lost Time. It ended up in the second chapter in the fic, where you can check it out completed if you want to compare.
“If this is a prank, it ain’t funny.”
“I was about to say the same thing! What’s going on?”
“You really think it’s 1005?”
“Yeah, because that’s when it is!”
“Dash, that was fifteen years ago.”
“AJ… stop it. This really isn’t funny.”
“I ain’t laughin’. What’s the last thing you remember?”
“I asked you out. You were just starting zap apple harvest, and we made a date for the meteor shower. Then I started to fly away, and a weird wind kicked up, and next thing I know I’m laying on the ground and that kid is looking at me.”
“I--I remember that, I think. I remember the meteor shower, that was our first date.” “Rainbow Dash, we been married for eleven years now.”
“Applejack… those foals who keep calling me mom…?
“They’re ours. Apple Leaf, Cider Splash, and Orchard Sky. You are their mom.” “You... don’t remember your own foals?”
“I-- How-- We’re both mares!”
“Well if you wanna get all technical about it, I had Leaf and Cider, and you had Sky two years ago. But you’re their mom, no questions about that.”
“I have foals? Three foals? What about the Wonderbolts? How do I have time?”
“You left the Wonderbolts eight years ago, not long after Leaf was born.”
“I left the Wonderbolts? Why would I do that?”
“You wanted to spend more time with us.”
“So I went nuts?”
“Dash, I think you gone nuts now. You’re missin’ fifteen years!”
“This can’t be happening. This can not be happening. It’s… it’s a dream! Princess Luna! Help!”
“Keep it down, the kids’ll hear ya!” “It ain’t a dream, but we gotta get you to a doctor.”
“A doctor will fix it, right? I’m not stuck like this?”
“Course they will. And if not, we’ll head straight to Twilight. We’ll get you patched up before supper.” “I-- uh, I reckon we shouldn’t tell the kids? It’d be awful scary thinkin’ their own mom don’t remember ‘em.”
“Why are you asking me? I don’t know anything about kids!”
“Okay. We won’t tell ‘em until we know what we’re workin’ with. Let’s just tell ‘em we’re goin’, and pretend nothin’s wrong.”
“Okay, got it.”
That’s 365 words and the finished version of that scene is 803 words, which is about what I would have estimated given that I needed description of the room and some in-depth reactions from Dash. Notice there are a few lines that are already separated into two quotes; that’s where I knew I was going to need to pause with a tag for the flow.
AJ’s accent is kind of a cheat for knowing who’s talking, as is a two character dialogue. But even with other characters I only rarely lose track of who was supposed to say a line, and if I do forget it’s a good sign that either the character voices aren’t strong enough, or that it doesn’t really matter and I can give it to the character who has the least dialogue (Fluttershy. It’s always Fluttershy.)
Whose Story Is This?
So, I have my notes doc and a bunch of sketched scenes. Time to figure out what I’m writing!
Sometimes I think I know that from the start. With Lost Time, I knew it was Rainbow Dash’s story and I knew the basic idea. That’s not always the case; sometimes a fic will start out with more of a concept and there are a couple of ways I could write it, with different POVs that would bring different themes, focuses, and therefore different scenes I’ll need between (or instead of) the ones I’ve sketched. And sometimes, on thinking about it, I realize that what I thought from the start wasn’t the right way to go.
Before I outline, I need to nail these things down, so I usually ask myself a few questions:
Where is the most character growth? Where is the most conflict? Where is the most action? Where are my climaxes and who has the biggest role in them? Who’s the first to notice the conflict? Who’s the one who realizes how to resolve it? Which characters have a strong themes, and which one would be most interesting?
If I’m really on the fence, I might sketch a few scenes from different versions and see which one catches my interest. I also might start to bother the hell out of my friends at this point, explaining the options and getting multiple opinions (more on that in part 2.).
Once I have a final decision on whose story it is, I know the character arc and themes. I can nail down tone and the length in a general sense (short story, novella, novel) and start my outline.
Outlines
I’m very weird about outlines. I have quirks that show up big time when outlining: I’m married to the three act structure, and my chapters and acts have to be balanced; same number of scenes per chapter, same number of chapters per act. If there are POV changes they also have to be balanced, and if there are flourishes like flashbacks they have to come at regular intervals.
...And then I throw away the outline about halfway through. I mentioned once to Axis of Rotation that I outline every story I write that’s over 10,000 words or so, but I’ve never actually written the story I outlined. I have a second-guessing-the-third-act problem that goes along with my writing-the-third-act problem.
Anyway, my outlines look like this (also from Lost Time):
Chapter 2:
Dash wakes up, thinks this is a dream. AJ notices she’s acting weird and pulls her aside, and explains it’s not a dream.
- They work out that Dash has somehow forgotten the last 15 years.
- Dash is freaked out, she’s not ready to be a mom, she wants to be a Wonderbolt, and she’s weirded out being married to AJ.
AJ agrees that they can’t be exactly married with Dash in this state, but she needs her to pretend for the kids, at least until they see Twilight.
- There’s no reason to upset them if Twilight can reverse this.
As they’re leaving, Cider points out that Dash was supposed to take her to get goggles for flight camp.
- AJ tells her to get Leaf to take her.
- Dash asks if he’s going to be able to know how to get them.
- Leaf points out that he picked out Dash’s pair last Hearth’s Warming. She said she liked them.
- Dash tries to cover and fails, Leaf is suspicious.
- “That kid is onto me. What’d I say?”
- “Rainbow, that kid is your son. And he knows more about flyin’ than you do. He can talk about flight goggles ‘till the fruit falls from the trees. And we all know Cider’s got less chance of bein’ a Wonderbolt than I do. If that girl’s cutie mark ain’t in farmin’, I’ll eat my hat.”
- “He’s an earth pony, why would he know about flight goggles?”
- “He’s been goin’ to Wonderbolts shows since he was born, to see you. Then after you left, you’d always take him. He loves it, wants to be a flight choreographer or somethin’ or other.”
- “Um… he can’t fly.”
- “You always said he’ll be the best one ever.”
- “Oh… sorry.”
- “That’s okay. You didn’t know.”
They go to see Twilight.
Twilight does some tests, and finds she can’t restore Dash’s memories because Dash doesn’t have them. She somehow jumped from 15 years ago to today.
- Dash’s current mind probably switched places, assuming the magic was localized.
- Dash assumes they just need to find some magic way to switch them back.
- Twilight points out that’s one way it could work. The other possibility is that it’s Dash’s older self who controls her body in a fifteen year loop, and Dash has to go on from here.
- But Twilight will work on it.
If you’ve read Lost Time, you might notice the first scene isn’t exactly how it happens, and an important piece of information is missing from the outline of the Twilight scene, which happens to be central to the climax.
...remember what I said about how I’ve never written the story I outlined?
Anyway, another thing to notice is that only the second scene in this chapter includes random dialogue in the outline. That’s because the other two scenes were already sketched out, so I already had the important dialogue. That dialogue there was something that popped into my mind, and I didn’t feel like sketching the whole scene because I was trying to outline right now, damnit.
Actually Writing
Once I have enough scenes sketched out and an outline to show me what goes in between, I start writing.
At this point I start another doc for the fic itself. I typically do write this part in order these days, though I hop back to the Notes Doc and add future scenes when I feel like it, and often I’ll leave a scene as a sketch until I absolutely have to finish it. It’s not unusual for fleshing out some sketches in the middle of the story to be the last thing I have to get done in order to show it to people.
At this point, I’m figuring out what didn’t work from my Notes Doc and outline. I can start to see if some plot or subplot doesn’t flow from one scene to the next, or if the actions of characters in the scene don’t work with the way I sketched it out. Scenes get extra stuff for an introduction or dialogue gets cut. Sometimes a scene gets smushed together with another scene or cut entirely.
This is where I really have to keep in mind the concept “murder your darlings.” Often, I’ve written something in the Notes Doc that I love, whether it’s dialogue or a description or a whole scene, but it’s not going to fit in the story, and it has to go. It stays in the notes doc forever, in case I find someplace else to use it in this story or the next.
I typically write until I either finish, have a bunch written and I’m afraid my prereaders won’t read it if I dump more on them, or get so nervous about the fic that I have to get the prereaders started.
This leads to what I’m going to talk about in part two: The Social Game; or How to Make Your Best Friends Sick of Your Story in Three Easy Steps. Coming tomorrow!
Huh. I use basically all of these, though I call scene sketches "dialogue skeletons." Good to see other peopel use the same methods; I must be doing something right.
This is pretty close to my own method. Including the thoughts you expressed on "mostly unattributed dialogue."
So hey I wrote fics almost exactly the same way you do! And also 4722657 and 4722670! Neat! Except my outlines are almost never in complete sentences.
Interesting, I did not notice this. I suppose that means either it's working or I'm unobservant. Guess which one I prefer?
Looking forward to the next one :)
heresy
I feel a need to share. :B Because I just started outlining these scenes in this particular way and I think it's funny and people need to see. Also, it's a propos to this conversation! :V
This outline is just filled with emoticons, I don't know what happened c.c
Notes Docs are also "How do I spell this darned name" and URL links to wiki pages with stuff on it, particularly for my 1940 story.
You're SO much more of an outline writer than I am. I'm a pants'er (like Brandon Sanderson likes to say) I think The Lazy Dragon had (checks) one line of notes. I literally wrote the whole thing from beginning to end in one session. (Then edited it in bits and pieces for around three, and the wife made the suggestion about having Lazy's brothers show up to raid his completed village). Same thing for Drifting Down the Lazy River and The One Who Got Away. A paragraph or two of notes at best, but then again, those are both fairly straight stories with few sharp corners or intricate plot lines. (Admittedly, I'm not bright enough to get too complicated)
This brings us (of course) to complicated stories with nuanced plots. Notes. Lots of notes. Outlines. Thrown away notes and rewritten outlines. Vast sections of red-lined text in notes kept only because it's good writing and might be used later I don't know. Web page urls. Character lists, spelling, relationships to other characters. Family trees (ok, mine look like stubby bushes, but still...) Little niblets between chapters. "Remember, Bob is dead, but Fred doesn't know it until next chapter. George only has four rounds in the pistol here, having shot twice already" etc...
Yeah, NaNoWriMo is making me note and outline Sweetie Belle - Hogwarts Exchange Student. I have new respect for JK Rowling's note system (particularly after having seen her messy notebooks in a tv special)
It's easy to underestimate the usefulness of asking yourself questions like these. I say that as someone who rarely has the patience to do it :D
I think there's a tendency to want art to be this magical process, where a kind of unending inspiration fills you and the art just flows out, with a minimal amount of "side work" to do. That's certainly how I'd like it to be. I appreciate blogs like this that go into the nitty gritty, the systematic processes, and just plain ol' work that a creative effort requires. It brings things back to reality, but also, in my opinion, makes them more attainable. After all anyone can make an outline or a notes doc or ask themselves questions about their story. But finding that special strike of inspiration that causes you to spit a beautiful work of fiction out in a matter of days, or even weeks? That's nebulous magic. How does anyone do that? They don't, because it's something that happens to you, not something you do. And who controls what happens to them?
Anyhoo, for the few writeoff entries I've written, my note doc and outline tend to be one and the same. But with those you're already starting with a prompt. It's a different jumping off point than eating a cheeseburger at McDonald's when a funny conversation between Celestia and Luna suddenly pops into your head.
I'm curious, which do you tend to figure out before the other: how your story starts, or how it ends?
4724832
I'd say usually I figure out the beginning first, though it totally depends. I typically start with an idea, which is something like "Rainbow Dash gets stuck in the future and has to take care of her future family" or "What if Princess Celestia was secretly dating an immortal Smart Cookie?" From there, as I sketch out scenes, I'm looking for an actual plot, often in the form of the question the story will eventually answer which generally suggests the beginning. But sometimes, the idea I'm starting with is the ending already, and in those cases finding the plot becomes looking for a question this cool ending can be the answer to. (How to do a Sonic Rainboom pops into my head as one that happened that way.)
The Note Doc is great. One nice thing about Scrivener is that you make a "note doc" out of index cards, and each index card has a title, its index-card contents (what you see on the index card display), AND an associated document. So you can write bits on index cards, then start writing scenes inside the index cards, and shuffle the cards around later. You never have to "leave" the "note doc"; you write the whole story "inside" it. You can view the entire document at the level of the index cards, or as all of the documents appended together.
You can also put another set of index cards inside an index card, instead of a document.
4727249
I do love Scrivener. The only problem I currently have with it is that I tend to do a good bit of writing (especially notes doc stuff) on my phone or Kindle these days, with half an eye on Trixie. Scrivener's synching capabilities with android devices are clunky to non-existant.
But if you do most of your writing on one computer, Scrivener is great (or yWriter if you're on a shoestring budget. It does most of what Scrivener does, but not as pretty and for free.)
4724985
Totally didn't forget about this. It depends for me too. I used to always be an ending-first guy and struggled with beginnings, because whatever idea I had I would just draw it out to some kind of conclusion as I thought about it. But during the writeoff I frequently thought up the beginning before reaching an ending.
4727249
If Scrivener is so great, mister, then why aren't you posting more stories???? >:[