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.

[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.

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

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

[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?

[musingaloud.livejournal.com]

I can get very anxious without planning and organization.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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.