The Web Haunt of Ryan K Lindsay

I’ve finished Part One of my novel. All the initial players are in their spots and it is time to leave them. I think I have left them all in interesting places so that readers will want to get back to them later. Not complete serial-style cliffhangers, no one’s tied to a rail track, but it’s not far from it. A homemade arrow bolt through the chest is something I would like to see resolved if I was reading a book…

I know what I want to roughly take place for the rest of the book. Roughly.

When I write, I work from notes. Lots of notes. Scraps of thoughts and lines of whatever. It’s all valuable and has to be taken into account. I give myself the freedom to run away from the notes whenever the story calls for it, but they are always there to fall back on. I once heard, and I can’t remember who it was, but some author said that good authors never took notes, if their idea was of enough quality they should be able to remember it. I say, pfft to that. I love my notes.

Sometimes, it is just interesting to go back and see what you once thought might happen. Many a time I have revisited the old notes and seen crazy ideas that never should have seen the page. I laugh and thank myself for having avoided that flexible bullet.

I have an idea that in this novel Part One will set up one storyline and set up characters, Part Two will do that for another area. Part Three will then do its best to tie it all together. I have just finished plotting out Part Two. I wrote Part One from plotting and found that things changed and chapters were added as necessary. I am assuming the same of Part Two. I have just made a few rudimentary notes for Part Three. But, I’ll see exactly what transpires in Part Two before I go getting married to any ideas.

From the image above you can see my note taking process. Lots of paper; I have also taken to having a book that I use for each different story/novel/series/short/etc. I’m still working by the lamp of gloom as my lights are still out, and in a cheap bid to fix it I now seem to have no hot water. I swear, I’m not some struggling bum trying to write while drinking water from an old paper cup under the tap in the front lawn and eating toast’uns whenever I shake the device upside down. I swear. I have a real job. I know this because it takes up all my days…I keep a quality Kilometrico pen on hand (made by the good nameless, faceless production line jockeys at PaperMate), there’s plenty more in the drawer below, they are the best pen ever. They go forever, or at least a kilometre, and they give a nice smooth motion. With my chicken scratch any little tricks help it become legible later. I have Post-It notes scattered everywhere and I have the iPod close by, perfect for catching up on FanBoy Radio on my ride to work or afternoon run. It’s all very simple but it seems to work for me.

Now that Part Two is plotted, loosely, I guess I actually have to start writing the bastard. Just over 51k for Part One, I think Part Two might be a little lighter. I think it should be as it is more of a downward slope to the last part, and the bloody collision with the first part.

Fun.

Posted on November 27th, 2008 by ryan
Filed under: Writing