Recently, I’ve been neglecting the blog because I’ve been pretty busy with writing material for Paradigm Concepts, and because I couldn’t come up with any more topics for blogging. However, Daniel Perez recently asked about some of my work with the Grand Tome of Adversaries, and it got me inspired to write some more.
So, what I’m going to be doing is starting a series of blog posts about writing and publishing.
Writing that Novel You’ve Always Wanted to Write
So, I’m going to start with the basics. The real basics. Like, how do you write a story anyways?
I’ve never really sat down and talked about how I come up with ideas for stories or games. I guess because the process is so close to me now that I never really think about it. So, let’s focus for a second on the whole process. Just how does one write a story or game? When it comes to writing a story, I’ve learned that everyone goes about it a different way.
Scenes
Some people get this really cool scene in their head and they want to write about it. That’s where they start. It’s sort of the situation that you have with books like Souls Raised from the Dead by Doris Betts. (By the way, this is not a horror novel, but rather a spiritual journey novel.)
She came up with her book after passing by a massive truck wreck. It just so happened that the truck that wrecked was carrying a load of live chickens. She said that the expression of the officer at the scene was both profound and hilarious at the same time. Everything was covered in feathers, blood, and chickens running around. The police officer's face was simply one of complete turmoil as he tried to make sense of a situation both awful and amusing. He was almost an symbol of how life works in general.
Just the image of that scene was the springboard for her novel.
Characters
Some people start with characters. They get a character idea in their head and they really like the idea of this person. For example, in The Great Gilly Hopkins, the author Katherine Paterson had this idea of a character who was named Galadriel...after the elven queen from Lord of the Rings – then she started to work backwards from there. For example, what kind of parents would name their kid that? Suppose further that this girl was raised by those parents. What kind of life would she have?
Concepts
Some people start with a concept or tension. For example, someone may write a historical novel where the South won Gettysburg. Or like in the novel World War Z, where Max Brooks sits down and supposes that the world really did get invaded by zombies. These sorts of projects start with a basic idea. Then, the writer takes that concept and thinks of the next logical steps in the chain of events that he or she has set up. What was genius about World War Z was that Max Brooks writes about how such a thing could be possible. For example, how could zombies take over the world if people have things like guns, and artillery, and explosives? How could it spread so widely and so fast? He writes about those things realistically in his novel.
By the way, you have to check out The World War Z website. Click on the link above! Be sure to check out the map with the dramatic readings.
Understand that there's not right or wrong way to start a novel.
Also, you don't have to "pick" one of the methods I described above. Finally, many people use a combination of the techniques I just mentioned. Myself, for example....What I Like to Do
For one, understand that writing fiction and writing games are two different disciplines for me. I'll talk about writing fiction for now.
When writing a story, I usually come up with the characters first. I think of some interesting characters and think about their lives. I think about what these characters look like, act like, etc. Then, I usually sit down and start writing a scene putting these interesting characters into that scene. I try to make sure that the scene I write about it fairly interesting. This interesting scene is usually the catalyst for my story.
For example, I might develop a character who is an adult male with a son. To make things interesting, I'll say that he has a son who is autistic. I think about his life, what that character does for a living, etc. Then, I put that character in a catalyst – like maybe he’s going to be depositing a check at the bank when it suddenly gets robbed. To make it even more interesting, let’s say his autistic son is there. While everyone is getting down on the floor, the main character’s son doesn’t want to get down on the floor. The floor feels cool and strange to the son. And he’s just refusing to get on the floor as these bank robbers are waving around their guns and screaming at him.
That is what I do to come up with a story.
Now, that was just me shooting around in the dark. If I want to really get serious and write a piece of fiction, I also do one more thing. I think about some themes.
Yep, that stupid, ridiculous concept that you learn about in 9th grade Literature Class. I literally think about themes I want to explore in the story. Now, I don’t force my story to have those themes. Instead, I think about the kinds of themes and concepts I’d like to explore with my invented characters and point them in that direction. If they don’t get there…then they don’t get there.
For example, I might think about my main character and his autistic son. I might think it would be interesting to explore the concept of fatherhood in the context of an average guy and a high-functioning, but autistic son. Or I might want to explore the idea of childhood discipline with an average father and an autistic son. To do that, I might dream up scenes wherein the father has a “moment” with his son. And these moments might be one of love, or ones where the father unfortunately has to level some kind of discipline on his son. Again, I don’t force this situations on the characters, but I start with the concept and start writing out a scene. Whatever happens next is a surprise. And I’m always surprised.
In this example, what I might do is have the father talking to the son and trying to discipline his autistic son. Maybe the scene is about how the father is trying to explain to the son that he can’t yell in public places – like the bank. Then, in the middle of the father dealing with his son, trying to teach his son a lesson about the world…bank robbers drop in. So now we have a really interesting situation.
And the best part is, I myself am not sure how the scene will unfold.
That, to me, is the most fun part of writing a story - I never know for certain what I'm going to write about next. Maybe I'll touch on that later.
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