Post by margol on Nov 29, 2004 7:07:09 GMT
Hi Maxine, fellow Feral - and yes, I did have fun at the library today, 10 pages' worth of nasty magician's worth of fun!
'You said "I have to have the central character's voice clear in my head, to know who I'm dealing with, before the story really gets going". But I have trouble knowing who I'm dealing with before I've actually seen what happens in the story. That is, I get stuck in a bind where I can't write the story because I don't know what the character's going to do, but don't know what the character's going to do because the story hasn't moved yet--any advice here?'
OK, what I start with is usually a Post-It Note sized germ saying something like "Snipers picking off clowns". From that, I know that (a) there's going to be more than one sniper, so it's probably going to be a dialogue-driven story, and (b) that this is going to be a world where there are going to be a LOT of clowns, so many that the idea of snipering them is going to be, if not normal, at least entertainable.
That gives me a basis of serious weirdness to work from, so I sit and think about what kind of setting - snipers = Bosnia, so some old European city, probably rainy, for atmosphere, probably cold. Then there's the social setting: clowns represent the normal part of the society, so the snipers must be outsiders who have some serious grudge against either the clowns themselves or the powers the clowns represent, or possibly both - in the case of Red Nose Day, I chose the first. And because reaching for a firearm (Mlle Plessis excepted ) is generally a boy's reaction, the POV is probably going to be a boy, so we have a standard disaffected youth whose usual reaction is to bitch and complain at the slightest irritation, which gives me the first line he speaks: "Have you GOTTA do that?" So the other guy has to be doing something annoying, and slightly worldlier, less concerned with looking cool, so probably older and maybe more upper class. (OK, so I've got some hindsight here, but this is more or less how it went.) So I've got fingernail-holds on my two snipers now. And on my plot - because, as picking off clowns is these people's project in life (i.e. feels normal to them) something different has to happen during THIS snipering session to upset both the disaffected youth and the older classier man. Probably to work against the youth's veneer of cool, and to do who-knows-what to the older guy. However, the fun at the start is watching these guys' dialogue normalising the clown-society and the rebellion-against-clown-society - plus, putting in lots of colourful clown details.
So for me it's basically a matter of taking the germ of the idea and rolling it around in my mind and prodding at it and following chains of associations until I find something that interests me. Sometimes character comes out of plot (I think of an ending first) and sometimes vice versa, as above - but what I'm really looking for are excuses to play around with the fun bits and, in this case, kill off some clowns myself, because I've never much liked them.
I'm not sure how this translates into advice, exactly - maybe, again, not to panic but to focus on enjoying yourself (I often have to give myself this advice - often I get too earnest by half about getting things completed, and doing things right, instead of just relaxing and thinking in positive, interested terms about where a story might go. I'm a naturally anxious type.)
Also, it's a kind of strange meditative state, that immediately pre-story-starting state. Once I get myself into it (and it doesn't require much time, or any mumbo-jumbo, special notebook or magic ball of aluminium foil on the desk) I only have to prod at the idea and wait, and pretty soon the character lets a line of dialogue drop that I like, or find interesting enough to want to explore. I tend to think character comes more directly from my subconscious, while plot is more a matter of mechanically escalating tension to a point where some crucial part of the character gives way.
"Also, you said above that you write mostly for children and YA. Any reason for this preference?"
I mostly find children and young adults more interesting to write ABOUT than adults. I think probably that's because when they change, there isn't a whole lifetime's worth of baggage that I have to create, for them to give up when the crisis comes and they achieve insight!
Also, I find it easier to write with the idea of a classroom full of spellbound young people listening than with the idea of a nation full of adult critics ready to dip their pens in acid.
Also, it gives me a chance to indulge my inner 12 or 15 year old, who is a much funner person than my outer 44-y-o. I've always told myself stories and this is just a more explicit way of doing it.
"And do you approach writing for this audience differently to writing for adults? At a recent lecture, Terry Pratchett said he found writing for younger audiences far more challenging and rigorous because he has to discipline himself more. Do you agree?"
Naah. Mind you, I haven't seriously tried writing fiction for adults - although young adults count for adults, of course. I think whenever you try for an audience other than the one you're familiar with, you're more self-conscious and nervous because you're unproven in the field, so you're likely to make yourself feel challenged by the different strictures of the new genre. Children's and YA feels natural to me; writing for adults would probably make me sieze up before I found my feet. If I were really determined (and I'm not, really; I'm quite happy over in this corner!) I'm sure I could get used to it, though.
I must now give up the PC to my 12-y-o son Harry ("who is the coolest in the world" he dictates) before WWIII breaks out.
Best,
Margo
'You said "I have to have the central character's voice clear in my head, to know who I'm dealing with, before the story really gets going". But I have trouble knowing who I'm dealing with before I've actually seen what happens in the story. That is, I get stuck in a bind where I can't write the story because I don't know what the character's going to do, but don't know what the character's going to do because the story hasn't moved yet--any advice here?'
OK, what I start with is usually a Post-It Note sized germ saying something like "Snipers picking off clowns". From that, I know that (a) there's going to be more than one sniper, so it's probably going to be a dialogue-driven story, and (b) that this is going to be a world where there are going to be a LOT of clowns, so many that the idea of snipering them is going to be, if not normal, at least entertainable.
That gives me a basis of serious weirdness to work from, so I sit and think about what kind of setting - snipers = Bosnia, so some old European city, probably rainy, for atmosphere, probably cold. Then there's the social setting: clowns represent the normal part of the society, so the snipers must be outsiders who have some serious grudge against either the clowns themselves or the powers the clowns represent, or possibly both - in the case of Red Nose Day, I chose the first. And because reaching for a firearm (Mlle Plessis excepted ) is generally a boy's reaction, the POV is probably going to be a boy, so we have a standard disaffected youth whose usual reaction is to bitch and complain at the slightest irritation, which gives me the first line he speaks: "Have you GOTTA do that?" So the other guy has to be doing something annoying, and slightly worldlier, less concerned with looking cool, so probably older and maybe more upper class. (OK, so I've got some hindsight here, but this is more or less how it went.) So I've got fingernail-holds on my two snipers now. And on my plot - because, as picking off clowns is these people's project in life (i.e. feels normal to them) something different has to happen during THIS snipering session to upset both the disaffected youth and the older classier man. Probably to work against the youth's veneer of cool, and to do who-knows-what to the older guy. However, the fun at the start is watching these guys' dialogue normalising the clown-society and the rebellion-against-clown-society - plus, putting in lots of colourful clown details.
So for me it's basically a matter of taking the germ of the idea and rolling it around in my mind and prodding at it and following chains of associations until I find something that interests me. Sometimes character comes out of plot (I think of an ending first) and sometimes vice versa, as above - but what I'm really looking for are excuses to play around with the fun bits and, in this case, kill off some clowns myself, because I've never much liked them.
I'm not sure how this translates into advice, exactly - maybe, again, not to panic but to focus on enjoying yourself (I often have to give myself this advice - often I get too earnest by half about getting things completed, and doing things right, instead of just relaxing and thinking in positive, interested terms about where a story might go. I'm a naturally anxious type.)
Also, it's a kind of strange meditative state, that immediately pre-story-starting state. Once I get myself into it (and it doesn't require much time, or any mumbo-jumbo, special notebook or magic ball of aluminium foil on the desk) I only have to prod at the idea and wait, and pretty soon the character lets a line of dialogue drop that I like, or find interesting enough to want to explore. I tend to think character comes more directly from my subconscious, while plot is more a matter of mechanically escalating tension to a point where some crucial part of the character gives way.
"Also, you said above that you write mostly for children and YA. Any reason for this preference?"
I mostly find children and young adults more interesting to write ABOUT than adults. I think probably that's because when they change, there isn't a whole lifetime's worth of baggage that I have to create, for them to give up when the crisis comes and they achieve insight!
Also, I find it easier to write with the idea of a classroom full of spellbound young people listening than with the idea of a nation full of adult critics ready to dip their pens in acid.
Also, it gives me a chance to indulge my inner 12 or 15 year old, who is a much funner person than my outer 44-y-o. I've always told myself stories and this is just a more explicit way of doing it.
"And do you approach writing for this audience differently to writing for adults? At a recent lecture, Terry Pratchett said he found writing for younger audiences far more challenging and rigorous because he has to discipline himself more. Do you agree?"
Naah. Mind you, I haven't seriously tried writing fiction for adults - although young adults count for adults, of course. I think whenever you try for an audience other than the one you're familiar with, you're more self-conscious and nervous because you're unproven in the field, so you're likely to make yourself feel challenged by the different strictures of the new genre. Children's and YA feels natural to me; writing for adults would probably make me sieze up before I found my feet. If I were really determined (and I'm not, really; I'm quite happy over in this corner!) I'm sure I could get used to it, though.
I must now give up the PC to my 12-y-o son Harry ("who is the coolest in the world" he dictates) before WWIII breaks out.
Best,
Margo