I used to believe that my best writing happened while under pressure and without a plan. Pick a prompt, jump on a first line, go.That strategy still works for small projects, but when I approach a longer, more complex story – like a novel – I find some planning helps.
During the last several months, before I kicked off with the first paragraph of a novel I wanted to write, I tampered with outlines and notecards and concept maps, trying to wrap my head around the heart of a story (this particular novel requires research and a definite sense of direction). I also spent time with my characters.
In the past, I would begin a story with a fuzzy vision of a main character, his or her name, a hint at what they wanted. But this time around, I dug deeper. I gathered a pool of resources for character development and probed into the lives of a few people the novel would spotlight.
If you peruse Twitter or Facebook or your favorite author’s blog, you’ll find plenty of character worksheets. The questions on the worksheets vary, but they all read like an application. I’ll print off these sheets from time to time, especially when they come from an author whose work I appreciate, but no one sheet or exercise works well for me. Maybe they’re too rigid for this panster at heart. So, instead of relying on one specific form of character development, I pulled ideas from a few different places and gave myself a variety of prompts from which to draw.
1. The Character Sketch
From the presses of Writer’s Digest comes a great publication, Write Your Novel in 30 Days, complete with worksheets like the ones mentioned above. This simple form (one of many within the workbook) guides you through the basics, like name and birth date and physical descriptions. It also prompts you to consider character role and internal or external conflicts.
2. Characterization Exercises
Cathy Day (author of The Comeback Season and the blog, The Big Thing) spoke on a panel at the AWP Conference in Chicago this year. I couldn’t make it into the conference (though I got close), but I did find access to a document, compiled by Day and her group of panelists, on the best practices for teaching a novel workshop. I’d love to take one of these classes, but since I can’t, I’m especially grateful for the few writing exercises listed within:
- “Describe each of your primary characters in the novel…their psychology: likes/dislikes, hopes and fears, odd predilections, good and bad habits…friends and nemeses.”
- “Let’s hear them. Write representative speeches…for each of the primary characters.”
3. Character Visualization
From the files of Glimmer Train, Yelizaveta P. Renfro’s article about “Creating the Fictional Family” focuses on several directions writers can take, questions to ask or exercises in visualization:
- “Visit your characters at home. Family often have specific places that are important to them…. Spend some time mentally visiting the places that are important to your characters, and write down everything you can.”
- “Picture your characters. Having a physcial picture of your characters can help you get to know them. Find a photo or a painting of your fictional family. . . . Once you have your picture, put it at your side and write everything you observe in the image.”
Renfro suggests stopping into an antique store for pictures of real people. I’m suggesting another idea: the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, where you can search for and find thousands of images. Little treasures, like this one:
Photos that make you want to tell a story.
Do you plan? And, how do you get to know your characters?
Christi, what a valuable set of links and suggestions! I especially like the Library of Congress site. Visual cues seem to work most strongly for me, and old photographs get my creative juices flowing every time.
Like you, I used to be a write-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of girl. Not so much anymore, and that’s a good thing. 🙂
Lisa, I love old photos, too. I just received an email to a link for another site that I think you would especially appreciate as well: http://www.cyndislist.com/diaries/locality/ This site has a list of diary excerpts, including a groups called “Wisconsin Pioneer Experience”.
So, I keep wondering…does moving from panster to planner somehow mean I’m growing up? 🙂
Christi, this brought me to the place where I live 🙂 There are two main “challenges” that face most of us: do we write from the “seat of our pants” or do we first “plot” the basic arc of the story: Panster vs. Plotter. The second challenge is do we write stories that are driven by character or plot? Read Laura Drake’s repost of the first part of a challenge: Plot vs. Character:
http://ramblingsfromtheleft.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/plot-vs-character-my-guest-throw-down/
Since I have always been an audio/visual person, I am drawn to the character and the sound and vision of them. They come to me from so many places and your great link, in particular The Library of Congress images, is a great way of plucking a character from the image of a photograph. It can also be the sound of a song, a conversation you hear at a luncheon counter, the scent of perfume, a person’s laughter. The image of that face in your post would haunt me until I knew what was behind that one frozen moment in time.
I have always been compelled to write out one mad first draft. Still, when I begin to get the idea for a character, I do a “bio” or characterization of them, the supporting characters (or family) and write out a few paragraphs of the plot.
A friend wrote to me about vintage letters that you can purchase on e-bay and yesterday gave me the link to an old National Geographic magazine with images of New York. Old magazines and newspapers (like from the turn of the century) offer great images and stories … the letters she told me about were also wonderful. Some of those date back a hundred years. I can now add the links you have provided to my arsenal of resources. Thanks so much 🙂
Boy, Florence, thanks for your comment and the link to Laura’s post. She lists some great tools as well, and I love what she says about plot vs. character driven stories:“Characters are more important than what happens.” That gives writers even more incentive to work out the kinks in the characters before sitting down with the first draft. I like your strategy, as well, the general bio of characters.
I’ve heard about those kinds of letters on eBay — another great suggestion. I’m so glad you stopped by!
I also used to plunge into stories with not much more than a few blurry characters and a list of possible scenes. Like you, that works for shorter pieces, but I’m starting to plan more with novels and a bit more with novellas. I was afraid the thrill of discovering new things, watching the characters come to life, surprising myself, would all disappear if I did too much planning. But I’m starting to realize that can all happen in the planning stage, and it’s just as exciting, because I’m still writing my to those discoveries, it’s just planning writing, not the manuscript itself.
If you want another suggestion, I highly recommend The 90-day Novel by Alan Watt. I’m only on day 17, so take that with a partial grain of salt, but I had a huge breakthrough in my writing life from one of his exercises, so I’m a bit over the top about his approach.
Cathryn,
It’s so important to hear that planning doesn’t kill the muse. I’ve heard it said before, but it carries even more weight when I hear it within the experience of an author (and writer friend) whose work I respect. Thanks, too, for the book suggestion. I will check that out!
I’m just starting to experiment with planning, and so far, I don’t think it kills the muse, but I’ll let you know if I find out differently. You let me know too! And thanks for your kinds words. 🙂
Interesting . . . so this post, plus Melissa’s most current one remind me how much work I have to do before I dive into novel writing again. I honestly don’t think I’m up for it. Though maybe I’d feel differently if I was really excited about an idea . . .
Nina,
Melissa takes planning to another level with her colored note cards. I will say that, almost 10,000 words into this first draft, the planning has helped. It’s still a sh*tty first draft, though. Guess there’s no getting around that. When I get back to short stories, I’ll be interested to see how this experience has changed that writing process for me.
Very interesting post, Christi. I was well into my revision of my novel, agented and nearly ready to put up for sale, when I felt I didn’t know enough about one of my characters. This novel was my first, with no prior experience writing fiction, so I did the only thing I knew how to do, and the way I’d approached the novel: I wrote it out. I wrote page after page about things that had happened to the character before the time frame of the novel — the kind of guys she’d have dated in high school, and the one who broke her heart, and how she responded to it; what kind of clothes she wore in college, and whether she’s always worn her hair the same way; her father’s nickname for her as a child that she hated, and the one thing she could do that her brilliant, competent mother couldn’t. Ninety-nine percent of it never made it into the novel. But I had a far better grip on her likely emotional reaction to events, knowing more fully where she had come from.
Nichole,
I love the kind of exercise you describe. On those days when I couldn’t get to my draft but didn’t want to ignore the story, I’ve done something similar, asking a lot of questions about the character at the same time. That kind of writing also has kept me grounded in the story, especially lately. Even with the bit of planning and character development I’ve done, I’ve had days when I all of a sudden feel lost in this WIP. Focusing on one character’s history, even if it that history only went back a few minutes before they entered the scene, gave me a shot of confidence to get back to the draft and forge ahead.
I’m a pantser … I’ve only written the one so far (revising now) but my novel ideas often start with the characters and I write through the first draft to get to know them. Then I map, plan, rearrange. I have a bulletin board and a white board in my office for the purpose. I save everything. In successive drafts, I’ve added and removed backstory, scenes, characters, and sub-plots, but having written it all helps me to see what the reader has to know, and what they don’t. Having backups means I haven’t really killed my darlings, I’ve just sent them off to the orphanage 😛
It’s all part of the process, and one I hope to see come to fruition one day. I love seeing how other writers tackle outlining/mapping/etc.
Thanks for the post!
Melanie,
I’d say, even as a panster, you have a great strategy! This is definitely the first time I’ve used a bulletin board, but I imagine I’ll use it during rewrites as well, in a similar fashion as you. Thanks so much for stopping by!
Christi,
It’s been more than a year since you wrote this, but I need it now. Thanks so much for writing it in the first place!
Good planning ideas, this will come in handy when I plan my next book, I hope I’ll be an author one day!