Going On the Account: Some Assembly Required

On pulling together a work in fragments and collecting other bits…

I’ll warn everyone up front: I’m going to be on the road next week and likely won’t have anything to post.

Okay, now that you’ve had a moment to shrug and go, “And…?” let’s get into it…

I started putting together a larger work this week.

I use the term “larger work,” as I find that you can’t always judge properly where something will go; I’ve had ideas that I thought would be a short story balloon into a novella, and short stories that worked better as flash fictions. I even went back and forth with a few things as to whether they’d be better in prose or verse.

In this instance, I had a general idea. Like many ideas, it started off with just asking a simple question. Then, it was time for a follow-up, and then another, and then another, and when enough of them came together, there was a story to tell. It doesn’t always happen, and sometimes when you get enough questions answered, you may come up with the wrong story to tell.

Case in point:

So, I got a story, and from some of the answers to the questions, I have a few things the story will touch on. In my case, there were a few moments that suggested themselves as being major touchpoints in the piece. If this were a short story, that would probably be it right there; just take that moment and build around it. And if in the build-up you find it needs more work, put some effort to build up to the moment, earn it before you use it.

And if there’s more building that’s needed, do as you must. This is where the variables come that set the length of the piece; the more building of the narrative that needs to take place, the longer the expected final work will be.

This of course is just the work you need for the narrative; if your habits include getting the precise details to include for the sake of grounding the story, no matter how fantastic that tale might be, that’s a whole other work. And in my case, there’s the spreadsheets when needed, which may be worth looking at another time…[1]

But, sticking to the narrative: In this case, I have more than one or two moments that would be ideal for the story, and a general sense of what I wanted s a whole, but how to put them together? If I were a panster, I’d just go “Hi-Ho, Smith Corona!”[2] and be off to the races. If I were a plotter, though, I’d be meticulously weaving a framework for the story to follow, like a spider building its web.

There are pros and cons with both of these. The panster would be zipping along, going from A to B via 7, silver, and Sullivan, and in the process have a quickly done story that may lose some of the moments that drew me in in the first place. I could plot, trying to schedule where each scene goes, which could be frustrating this early in the process, running through a string of IF_THEN routines in my head, scared of collapsing if something doesn’t hold up and killing some momentum.

Two competing processes, at the point of assembling the work. Some would go with their pants, some with their plots.

I decided to borrow a little from both of them.

Using an off-the-shelf standard plot for example (as opposed to the real one I am struggling with), I first started with doing a summary, like it was a Wikipedia article telling me what happens in the book:

So, once upon a time, this person, Ava, they had an issue. The person with the issue had someone who loved them, Bea, but these two characters can’t figure out how to move beyond just being friends.

Now, one day Bea gets taken by Zed, which makes it harder for Ava to deal with their issue. Ava starts looking for Bev, and along the way meets Yas. Ava is taken by Yas, who has their own reason to go after Zed, but doesn’t share that with Ava. The two stay close as they make their way while following the clues left behind every time Zed hits somewhere, searching for Bea.

Now, the next step, is to take the above and turn it into a set of bullet points, where particulars about some aspect of the story can be highlighted as sub-points:

• · Ava: has an issue

• · Bea: Ava’s friend

  o Wants to be more than just friends

• · Zed: Kidnaps Bea

  o Part of master plot

  § Why this plot matters

• · Ava hunts down Zed, meets Yas

  o Yas has reason to go after Zed

  § Wont share with Ava

  · BIG SECRET!

  o Starts having feelings for Ava

• · Ava and Yas hunt down Zed:

  o Scene o d Crime 1

  o Scene o d Crime 2

  o Scene o d Crime 3

In doing that, I’ve found a way to tie together the moments that are important to the story, by trying to tell the story simply from start to finish, and then gave it a framework to help set up where in the tale something is supposed to happen. Especially early on, this enables any momentum and enthusiasm built up for what I had to begin with continue.

As with all writing advice, this may not work for you. If everyone tried to stick to Balzac’s routine (as noted in the footnotes last week), there’d be a lot of sleepless writers who need help.[3] Not everyone would benefit using this method; some people can improv whole books in a single sitting, and some need the intricate architectural blueprints before a single word can come forth. As they say, your milage may vary.

And speaking of getting milage…

Other Happenings:

My interview on the Fitz of Writing Podcast dropped this week. I had a nice talk that went into how I get ideas and inspirations, and what happens when I get them together into books and stories.

There may be a surprise or two that will get shout outs on socials next week…

And In Addition…

If you’re travelling next week (willingly or otherwise), stay safe out there.

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[1] If for some reason you need to see an example, my piece “It’s How You Plague the Game” can be found in Pyramid Volume 2 HTML Archive: 2002 Spotlight.

[2] Like that isn’t a dated reference on so many levels…

[3] Old joke: Q: How much does the average writer make per year? A: The same as all the neurotic ones do…