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

[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.