Right now I’m in a fun but occasionally overwhelming stage of writing known as “Brainstorming the next book”. This is also known as the “Valiantly struggling not to charge forward after the shiny premise without any characters” stage.
The thing is, I nearly always start my books with a premise. A “wouldn’t it be cool” idea, like “what if someone had to make a fake fortune come true?”
But one thing I’ve learned (painfully, in a manner involving lots of dead books and trunked novels) is that a cool premise is not enough. If I charge forward with my premise, spin out a plot, and just start writing, I almost always have to toss it. Because characters drive the plot. I can’t just dance my characters through the plot like puppets performing for my amusement (though that would be a whole lot easier!).
That’s not to say that I must know my characters inside and out the moment I set finger to keyboard and start on Chapter One. I can learn a lot about the characters during the first draft — especially during the first few chapters (which is part of the reason those chapters are the hardest for me to write, and the ones I most often toss and rewrite).
For this new book idea (current working title: THE BROKEN SKY) I’ve been trying to do more work up front getting to really know my characters. Not only their quirks and emotional damage and favorite movies, but getting a sense of how they will ACT in different situations, and playing around with the lines of tension that might connect them to one another.
Endless possibilities! Sometimes it feels an awful lot like I’m trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle, but I can’t see the pieces until I pull them out of the pile. And I just have to keep playing around with them until they fit.
And when they do fit, I know it. It’s like reaching out in the dark and finding my husband’s hand reaching back. It just fits. It’s right.
So that’s what I’m doing now, playing around with a new project, seeing what pieces I can fit together.
How do you start a new project? How well do you know your characters when you start?
Tags: broken sky
Your approach sounds a lot like mine. I often start with a premise and only figure out my characters once I start writing. But yes, this often means some serious false starts. And whaddyaknow? I'm actually trying to do a wee bit of planning on my next project instead of blindly jumping in. We'll see how that goes. Happy writing!
Hopefully the planning goes well for both of us!
This has been on my mind a lot lately because I just finished my first novel and I'm in the early stages of figuring out the next. So I've been trying to reflect on which parts of my writing process were helpful and which parts need improvement.
I agree that plot and character are inseparable. My story usually grows from an idea for conflict or tension. Once I know what the problem is (or perhaps the big decision that the MC has to make), I ask myself what kind of person would really struggle with this kind of problem or decision? And why? And what else could make it even tougher? That is usually how I come up with who the main character is. After that, fleshing out the plot is a way of building up to that point.
I do a lot of pre-writing, research, I'm not sure if my outlines are really outlines, more like a flexible scene list and a few plot points.
My "outlines" sound a lot like yours, Lana — mostly a list of scenes or specific events, plus notes on theme and (especially) an ending.
Good luck planning your next one, and thanks for stopping by!
thanks