Hmmm....a Process Post

[j_cheney]

I don't usually do these, because I don't know that anyone is really interested in my process, but I thought you might be interested in taking a look at what a weird-mobile I am...and the PB epic is providing a lovely chance...

So, how do I write a "Historical Fantasy-Romance"?

Well, you gotta start with the historical part.

Yep, that's most of my research (a couple of books already went back to the library). You can see that I did some work on-line, borrowed a horse-racing book, bought a book on Saratoga Springs (low on fact, high on pictures), got out my 'costume' folder (Imogen's going to be wearing that dress in the lower right hand corner on race day) and made copious notes.

And then I had to get my characters in my head...
I have a rather bizarre system for this because I'm not very visual. I don't really remember what people look like, so I find pictures of them. In fact, I've been cutting pictures out of magazines, catalogs, and books (yes, I've done it, but not irresponsibly) since college.

I have them all neatly filed by type:

(this is where you say, "What a freak!")

Therefore, here are the major players and settings for this story:

Please recall that there are a bunch of pics of Saratoga Springs in that book. I couldn't find a pic I liked for Paddy O'Donnell, so I'll have to fudge him. (I also didn't include Hammersly's picture....becasue I forgot and left it on the tray. Oops.) I'm not a big describer in the first place, but since this is a 'romance' there generally has to be more description.

Finally, I have the outline:

I should point out that this is the post first-draft outline. I use this to make certain that all my loose ends tie together, so that I have certain bits of information surfacing where I need them, and I make a side list of things I need to research further.

This is the outline after all that is done:

There are sloppy notes next to certain scenes, one scene is crossed out....but I may put it back in. It's generally a mess.

From here? Well, I'll start at the beginning, and re-work each of the 28 scenes to make it fit properly into the whole. This story is getting a bit more process that some others because of its 25K length, 9K stories don't get quite this much work.

So, off to pull some seeds out of seedpods, sprinkle them, and mulch over them.

Thought you might find this amusing. Do you do any of those things?

Comments

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

I love to hear about other people's writing and pre-writing processes, so thanks for sharing.

I've been wanting to set up some files for clippings and photos and such, but just haven't gotten around to it. Seeing yours inspires me to work on a nice system for the new year.

I outline and make notes and then re-outline, like you do. determine how many chapters, the lengths of them, rearrange, all that good stuff.

Sadly, for my NaNo projects, I didn't have time for all that and had to go with plot points and the fact that these stories have (in broad details, not the finer points) lived in my head for a while.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

A lot of time the first draft gets writtn wihtout morre than a sketchy outline....just a few dozen words. This type of outline comes after the first draft....

[snickelish.livejournal.com]

I'm really bad at visualizing people, too. I know of writers who go looking for pictures of people that match the appearance of the character in their head, but most of the time my characters don't even have an appearance to match to. Your method of having a file of people sounds like a good idea.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

So there is a method behind my madness! Mwahahaha!

I can usually find a picture that's close to what I want in my files, although it's much harder to find good pictures of men and children. And sometimes I resort to Google Images, although that can get you to places you don't wnat to go....so I do it only as a last resort.

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

Wow, neat.
I suck at visualising people and describing them (but I have never actually tried to manage a romance...).

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

People who read romances usually want descriptions that go beyond what is actually needed. You have to describe clothes, for instance, in more detail. (I know this because I've read romances. It appears to be standard.)

[musingaloud.livejournal.com]

I have some--a few--pictures I've saved here and there, but I see now that a strong organizational system is what I need. Definitely. I love organization. So I'm curious about others' outlines, because I have an aversion to them, but yet I feel I could really benefit by developing a system for myself. Is yours (this one in particular, I understand each one could be different for each story) separated into scenes?

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

What I did with this outline (and it's important to recall that this is the AFTER outline) is go through each scene and write down the major things that happened in each scene. Above each scene is a day #, so that I know when I am chronologically--this covers a 2 week period.

In this iteration I'm trying to make certain that certain revelations and actions are paced properly. For instance, I didn't have a major character give his name until scene 5, but I realized that he needs to give it in 4. Not a huge difference, but this helps me see how things lay out timewise. You can see how many notes I made on it, all things I need to set straight.

I'm glad to know that I'm not alone in my need for organization.

[musingaloud.livejournal.com]

I can get very anxious without planning and organization.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I do understand ;o)

[raebryant.livejournal.com]

Very cool! I like the resources and visuals, too. My problem is that I leave it all in a pile. You are much more organized than I.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Nah, this is the appearance of organization. Not real organization. ;o)

[rcloenen-ruiz.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. You are organized. I'll confess to being a totally disorganized writer. I think I need to borrow your outline method. It looks really neat.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Well, that's the after outline. Before, there sometimes isn't even one....

It's just for me to get things straight. ;o)

[dandyfunk.livejournal.com]

When I outline, I usually do it by hand, on scrap paper or index cards or just one big list. One story I did an entire 11x17 sheet with scenes and events and stuff. Mind maps are good too.
But I never type it up. That makes it too real. Because I ignore stuff in my outline all the time.
I never use pictures, but most of the stuff is in my head. If anything, I draw things on paper to make them real.

Great space pictures for inspiration (or backdrops) can be found at:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

One funny thing, for my WotF story, I knew exactly what Gina looked like, down to her name plate, but the illustration Robert did was from Gina's POV, so everything that was not fixed in my mind was in the picture.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Someone else's illustrations are always strange, aren't they. Not necessarily bad, just not what you had. ;o)

And to be perfectly transparent, the outline was done after the story was written. Before I wrote the story, I had a handful of sentences on a single sheet of paper.

This outline is for tweaking purposes, and makes clear the pacing of the story. I went through the completed first draft, wrote out the major events in each scene, and 'voila!'--the outline.

My WOTF story had almost no description, which posed a problem for my illustrator. But I'm happy with his results anyway. Oddly, the characters look much younger than I had in mind--but the illustrator is much younger than I am, so I shouldn't be surprised that his brain would filter the characters that way.

[satimaflavell.livejournal.com]

So do you decide to write a story in a certain historical period before you have the characters? I can't start until I have a character and a situation pop in my head. The next thing to come is the end of the story. So to figure out how to join th two toegther I start writing, and somewhere along the line during the first draft I will so all the things you've mentioned. But I couldn't do them before I started; no way!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

At times I do start with the characters. The story I have coming out in Beneath Ceaseless Skies next month was started by two magazine photos and 2 concepts I wanted to work with (a family fighting evil together, and 2 types of dragons). I ended up with 7 stories generated by that initial prompt.

I think the answer is that I am inspired by various things: sometimes characters, sometimes an event or story, sometimes silly little glass globes (long story).

But....but...when I actually get to the writing part, I have to have the historical period already laid out in my mind. I think my process just comes in a slightly different order than yours. Each if the 'historical' pieces I've written, I did tons of research before I typed....

Whatever works, I guess! ;o)

[satimaflavell.livejournal.com]

I should have mentioned, I guess, that when the character arrives dragging a situation a along with her/him, the historical period is part of that situation. Something like "What if a guy at the time of the first crusade got stranded in Marseilles and a dragon promised to take him home provided he kidnapped the portreve's daughter?"

Well, no I haven't ever actually had that one pop up, but you take my meaning:-) The next step, if I know anything at all about the place and time in question, is to start writing to see what happens, and as I go I make notes about needed research. If I know nothing about the place and time I either a. persuade the character to change to another place and time or b. start researching:-)And research includes pix of characters, sketch maps etc as well as historical facts.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I'm expecting to read the crusader/dragon raid on Marseilles any day now ;o)

[justin-pilon.livejournal.com]

Wow, amazing! I'm feeling like a very very lazy writer right now. I do keep notes, of course, which are scattered across numerous notebooks which are in turn scattered across my house... somehow that works. But this filing system, simply amazing!

My outlines also remain pretty loose, similar to Satima. Novels are a different creature though, I need much more outlining for those.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is a novelette, which makes it good for process demonstration....not too long, not too short.

DOn't feel lazy. Everyone uses a different method ;o)

[wolf-dude64.livejournal.com]

I never thought to find pictures that correspond with my characters. I may have to try that one. I do write character descriptions and keep a master character list. I also do research pretty much as you do and keep notes and printouts of different aspects of the culture, etc. I don't typically outline, but I do keep a running plot summary by chapter, and a timeline of the events to ensure it all adds up chronologically. Oh, and I develop maps of the country, world, etc.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I'd have to say my maps are usually sketchy at best, but in this case, I can just download one off Google Maps....the sattelite view was very helpful.