A Writer's Device: Branches and Skews as experiments.

There is a tremendous amount of writing required to produce even a novella in a timely manner. Writing a full novel is like running a marathon. With all that writing to do just to get the job done, why on Earth would you willfully add more writing about things outside the planned telling that you won't be using?!?

Well, I guess I had best start with the negative case: Most writers of fiction seem to write way too much and often too much about things that will be cut from the manuscript in editing. Or should be. They may well already explore all the alternate outcomes and repercussions of changes as part of their massive output. They sure don't need to add this device to their process.

But for the rest of us, it remains a truism that we often don't get to write about "what we want to focus on writing about" and instead have to "write what the story needs to be told". c.f. all my previous complaints about wanting to write more Sherri stories but knowing full well her story is -told- in Remember When and that's done. Far more commonly we need to write the scene the story calls for, and then move on to the next such scene or chapter. Many things may result because the first scene occurred, but only the obviously important ones to the plot are referenced later. But you, the writer may feel like you don't fully understand all those results. That makes it harder for you to explain to the reader that the meaningful result didn't occur in a vacuum, when you write those later chapters.

If that is a thing that bothers you, then try these sort of things before you take on those later chapters:

Make notes, perhaps even write short scenes or bits of dialogue, during the "scenes missing" part immediately after the first scene (in our example above). Set those aside after convincing yourself you know how that scene more widely influences the "world of the story". Worst case, write an off-genre version of the missing part of the scene to teach yourself about it. That would be a Skew, by the way. More on those later.

Write a branch; Look at that first scene and its outcome, and then write a brief passage as if there was alternate outcome instead. Look especially at how the characters would be different in the future chapters if "what if" had occurred. You can note those things as what a particularly self-aware character might think back and consider, in those future chapters.

Write a skew: In this case "skew' means a completely off-genre or off-perspective retelling of a scene already planned or written to the form you intend.

Example: If you are writing a desperate Techno-thriller where time is of the essence and every character is on-edge with tension and one character is absent from a scene, said to have had to spend part of a day with their spouse doing something mundane... and then you try to just write the next scene, you might miss appreciating any effect that might have on the returning character's mindset. But if you write that as a scene in the novel... let's just say that genre fans might SCREAM about 5 pages of browsing through departments at Macy's together talking about whether or not the matter with the spouse's uncle's health issue was resolvable.

You as the writer can benefit from knowing or exploring how the character would change for reintroduction in later chapters, but your readers probably don't need to go through the motions with you. So, one afternoon while ordering your seasonally spiced beverage from the barista down the block, write such skews after critical moments. Not to use them. To know them.

Besides, you might just discover that you do have more to tell worthy of publication about a scene or a character, or that you have a marvelous opportunity to write an Unreliable Witness telling of your epic tale two or three more times. Or, you know, you might discover a previously unknown talent of your own for a genre or style you've never tried.

Just don't ever forget that the goal is to finish the manuscript, not to explore all the options, yeah?

Sunday Fun Day: Three passports, a couple of visas...

How about a post that connects music, the writing of the new novel, and a really top-quality Danger International campaign, all referencing roughly the same era?

In the new novel, set in spring and then late summer of 1984, there are several lengthy parts about all the layers of identities that the key operatives for the mission have built. They each have a base identity; their normal life. They may have a purely temporary travel cover, used while moving as if they were in the military for one example. They each have an elaborate intermediate cover, built to withstand a ton of scrutiny if discovered and to misdirect any discoverer into thinking that identity worked for someone other than American official interests. On top of that, they each have an operational identity as someone with a reason to be going to the place the mission will happen and, in this operational plan, a reason to be doing specific things together there.

Coincidentally, in this author's real life it was only a year or two later that he ran (game mastered, story-told) one of the better role-playing game campaigns he had the pleasure to be a part of. Good players, very enthusiastic about the game, and very into the movie-style spy stories of a Danger International (HERO Games, 1985) campaign. As part of the mood building for the campaign's play sessions, I would bring some music that had some connotation of the genre. The players brought more music, too.

But not the "Bond Movie" soundtrack stuff that everyone already knew. Don't get me wrong, some of that was awesome. But songs like Talking Heads "Life during wartime" were the kind of music that was still popular around college campuses, and had lyrics that -spoke- to the listener about some of the things that went along with clandestine operations.

Here's a link to an appropriately 1984 concert movie version of "Life during wartime".

Enjoy! Oh, and as I know a couple of the players from that campaign are still around out there, feel free to comment about the old campaign as well as about the new writing.

Viva la revolución mundial

Heh, not really. But I am writing a lot from the viewpoint of the opposition forces in the new novel chapters I am working on, so it seemed appropriate as a title.

Just a few Cubans. Not like the 30,000 that were in Angola in the early '80s.

Wish me luck on that, and here's to more progress today!

She's catching me...

I have had the joy of meetings with my Editor the last few days, where she does a First Read through a chapter of the new novel to spot major structural problems. Along the way, some of the basic proofreading happens, too. We went four Reads through every chapter in Remember When during that production process, each pass refining details all the way down to word choices. It really makes the book better, but it takes a lot of effort. I'm deeply grateful, to say the least.

She's already through three chapters, while I am mid-way through writing the sixth and still have an obligation to go back and expand the bare-bones of Chapter Five. With a concerted effort on my part, Chapter Six may be in her hands by this evening (PDT, same time zone as this blog uses).

So off I go to try and stay ahead. Enjoy the 'blog today, please, and do recommend Remember When to your friends!

A Writer's Device: Description needed.

A post about style, again, but this is a chance to comment about a process error in my own writing and a work-around I've found to correct it.

As discussed in many of the Character posts about Remember When, I tend to instinctively describe characters more if they are central to the story being told or if their appearance will figure into some scene about to occur. More distant, or "bit" characters, get the short end of the description effort. But when working at novel length instead of novella, there are both lots more room to fit in descriptions and a lot more expectation that everyone that matters at all will get described.

Fair enough. The process error that I mentioned above is that I tend to want to write a given scene for the scene's content to the overall story. If it's an important discussion, I try to get all the dialogue said and the feeling and thoughts of the characters speaking all down first. Notice any character descriptions in that list? Yeah. That means, if the first appearance of a character is in one such dialogue scene, they are very short if not lacking the description that is necessary for the reader to appreciate them.

What's the fix?

When I recognize that I've a new character that appeared first in a scene where I'd not properly described them, I stop other thoughts and list a ton of descriptive things about that character. Then roll back into the main draft and look at where they can be added to the existing work as adjectives.

Example:

Man A said to (the Main Character) "It's nice to meet you. We don't get many main characters around here." Then Man A went over to the window. After (the Main Character) greeted him in return, Man A offered "A caution if you are to go outside today, sir. It looks like rain."

Man A is a new face. He's got nothing to hang on to in the way of a description.

(( think fast, writer guy))

tall
graceful
dressed casually
dark haired
surprised
friendly
polite

Okay then... application where appropriate? Pick a few that fit.

Man A said politely to (the Main Character) "It's nice to meet you. We don't get many main characters around here." He seemed only a little surprised to meet (the Main Character). The tall, casually dressed fellow (Man A) went over to the window. After (the Main Character) greeted him in return, Man A considerately offered "A caution if you are to go outside today, sir. It looks like rain."

Still not as good as if the character description had been formed fully before writing the original passage, but vastly better at giving the reader points of reference that can be referred to in later passages.

Hope this helps you solve any problems you have of the same sort!

New Novel Progress: a bit part, but a memorable one.

In an effort to cleverly segue from yesterday's Fun Day post into the more serious weekday stuff, there will be a brief excerpt from the new novel from late in Chapter 4, below.

But first, a progress report. Chapter 5 is in to Edit, although it immediately got marked as "good dialogue; needs more descriptions". Chapter 6 is underway and good progress is being made there. I'll bundle it off in the next day or two, then dive back to expand 5 appropriately before pressing on. Milestone for this week is Chapter 7 in to Edit by the coming weekend. That would be 1/3 of the novel in rough draft form if I hit that. Note however that rough draft is still a long way from ready to go to print with. Editing can take 3x as long as writing, easily.

Anyway...

Since yesterday was about building an intermediate cover, albeit as a game for readers to try, it seemed fitting to mention who actually approved builds of intermediate covers for the "disposable" operatives of The Project. Here's an excerpt about her. The "he" at the start is the Mission Planner, Dean Conway. The candidate for the Two slot on the mission is our returning character from Remember When:


He sent word over to the office that actually saw to the care and feeding of the “disposables” about this, and the office boss there took it over for the interim. She was called The Librarian by everyone, although never to her face. Her role was to make sure all the intermediate covers were as solid as they could be, and that the operatives wore them seamlessly. It had been her call regarding the Two-slot candidate’s last intermediate cover getting the ol’ 86, and her budget took the hit for building a new one.


Enjoy!

Sunday Fun Day: Who would you be?

In Remember When, I explored the idea of an operative being capable of wearing a new identity as if that was who he actually was. The risks of taking that to an extreme were a big part of the Main Character's personal story, too. He almost realized how far gone he was...

She stepped back, still holding both hands, and pulled him toward the hotel again. “Who… are you?” she said. “Hell if I know right now.” he replied. “Let’s go.”

In fancy terms, this was a manufactured dissociation. Plainly put, it was lying so completely that they even lied to themselves as to who they were. Done as an intermediate cover usually, this acted as a cut-out when the operational cover they would actually be using would fail or be abandoned without closure. It also cost a ton of money to build that solid an intermediate cover, with all the documentation in place as if that was a real person. With just a little hint here or there that the intermediate cover was working for... well, anyone besides "our" side.

So, just for fun...

If -you- were a Disposable, an operative selected to take on such an intermediate cover as part of your new career in the world of espionage, and a secretive but efficient organization with access to the tools of bureaucracy in a wide number of countries (but not any of the "opposition nations") was willing to spend up to a million or two U.S. dollars circa 1980 to back up your cover with documentation and a history...

What intermediate cover would you build?

It would have to be based on skills you possessed, or could learn in less than about six months, and you really couldn't change your appearance much. No magic tricks are possible, but all the details you'd need to oh-say apply for a Security Clearance could be documented to match your fabrication. What would your cut-out be, as in if someone investigated your identity, what (incorrect but intentional) traces were there of who you "worked for"?

You can post your choices in the comments for everyone to see or, you know, keep your secrets to yourself.

Enjoy!