The house that Jack built
“And ye shall know him by the house he keeps”
This might seem duh to most learned and experienced writers, but I read about a writing exercise that I thought was quite useful.
Namely, descibing your character’s house. Read more
And yet another about the Hidden Story
Had this blog post open for a while, because I thought this writer put it well when he said,
The major players in your story must have… subterranean motivations, and ideally provide such curiosity-sparking mysteries for your readers. Perhaps you eventually reveal what makes those gears whir — in a revelatory flashback, for instance, or a final, crucial sliver of information presented in act three — or perhaps you don’t. What’s important is that you must know what makes them tick (and tic), and slyly weave these details into your narrative.
Don’t put it all on the page. Hold a few of those cards close, damned close, to your vest. And understand that if your entire knowledge of your characters is what your readers directly experience on the page, you may have written a Good story … but probably not a Great one.
Not always so easy.
I just started the first scene of the new draft – and really, it’s the prologue. I’d devised an entire back story for the Lovable Schmuck that will probably never make it to the pages – but writing the resulting voice for him? Harder than I thought. I thought I had it when I was drafting his character, but now that I’m actually making him interact with others, I’ve had to stop and think.
The trick, I reckon, is in the nugget dropping. Leaving a trail of clues along the way before the final Ah Hah at the end. And the hardest part of all: doing it elegantly. Avoiding an extra scene, when a sentence or two will suffice. Crafting the smallest moment that paints the thousand words, without detracting from the main story but adding to it.
Am I up to the challenge? I’m hoping so.
The hidden story
Was reading an article about the narrative trinity – namely,
- the back story
- the present story
- the hidden story
of each character. And while I’ve been spending the whole of August and half of July pulling together the back story and the present story, I never got around to categorising part of the plot as the hidden story.
The hidden story has been defined in a couple of ways. Read more
A quick word about death
I just spent the last week with the family, dealing with the aftermath of the accident that took my beloved cousin away from us all. Obviously, I didn’t get a scrap of writing done except for the eulogy, and even then it had to be compiled within an hour because all of us were just running ragged, between the paperwork and visits to the hospital to visit my ailing aunt and younger cousin.
Literature in a hurry. I don’t think I’d ever be a great poet. Trying to condense the worth and wonder of a person’s life – even if cut short – was one of the hardest pieces of works I ever had to commit to. Writing it was easy; releasing it as the final edition “for publication”, so to speak, was rather nerve-wrecking. Thankfully, I get to give 2 eulogies – one for the memorial in Australia that has just passed, and the other back in our country of origin.
It’s been such an emotion-suck the whole week, not only because the bawling was firmly squelched in light of pragmatism and the desperate desire not to make this about myself, but the bloody myriad of personalities involved. Funerals, or the lead up to them, are just bursting with writing material. Off the cuff, I can think of at least three caricatures I’ve had to deal with through the week.
- The Best Friend
Everyone’s now best friends with the deceased. Even people my cousins and I hardly heard of – and I’ve heard of or met all of her close friends in the 30 years I’ve known her. I am seriously starting to lose count of the number of people who have Facebooked/blogged/emailed/twittered about how devastated they are because of how she/he and the deceased “were so close”. Every time I hear some melodramatic wrist-to-forehead wail about how they were best friends, I feel like saying,” Yeah yeah… you and seven others. Take a number and line up.” - The Auntie
She’s the one who knows best and has a 101 opinions – all unsolicited – about how the accident and death could have been avoided if only everyone had listened to her advice. She’s also the one who takes it upon herself to decide who should be in charge of all arrangements, who’s part of the inner circle that makes the decisions, and who’s extraneous and ought to stop helping out.It’s one thing if The Auntie were actually an aunt. It’s quite something else when The Auntie isn’t even related by blood to the deceased. And it really takes the cake when she takes it upon herself to mobilise her sisters in Auntiedom in her absense, so now you have a stereo version of what the hell it is you could have done better and how you need to be a support to the family of the deceased. (The fact that you might be one such member of the family in need of support and comfort doesn’t quite dawn on them, for some reason.) Which makes you really want to take a huge spade, creep up behind all three of them, and…
- The Best Friend of the Hour
Unlike The Best Friend and The Auntie, The Best Friend of the Hour actually was close to the deceased during the last years of her life, and is therefore welcomed into the family as one of their own – if only to cling to the last tenuous link between them and the deceased. This is, admittedly, the least annoying caricature because you know their grief is genuine and their help is sincere.Unfortunately, if you’re prone to jealousy flaring in times of heartache, you spend a lot of time alternating between loving their company and irrationally dying to yell at them for “taking your place” in the deceased’s life. It gets worse when they actually get the same privileges as you do when it comes to mourning the deceased, and actually succeed in taking over the detail of the funeral arrangements. And suddenly, you wonder if your help is even needed. You know you’re being a petty, self-absorbed cow and you know this hardly should be about you. But a part of you is seething because the Big Shiny Object syndrome is alive and well, and you’re suddenly yesterday’s news.
I’ve really struggled with my inner demons this week – most of all jealousy. And because I cannot stand to ever be seen as either The Best Friend or The Auntie, I sat on these awful, ugly feelings and smiled and smiled like a phlegmatic old maid who just took her happy pills. But they were always there and today, when I couldn’t get to see the body because the hospital/morgue/funeral parlour screwed up, I lost it and cried mightily. And I cried even more because The Best Friends of the Hour could get to see her even before I could. And it was a family privilege I couldn’t bear to bestow, even if it wasn’t mine to give.
Because I was there first. Because I’d always been there. Because she was her absolute self with me – we fought hard, we loved harder. And it’s something I don’t feel I should have to explain to anyone else who knows us, firstly because it all sounds so corny, and secondly because those who really knew us, knew.
I guess the comfort I truly need now is the full recognition of my pain because of my proximity to the deceased. But that’s the trouble with death and funerals, isn’t it. It’s never really for the dead. It’s really all about the ones who are left behind.
First deadline: decent effort
So my first deadline came and went, and how did I fare? Better than expected in some ways, although I still have a few more characters to go before I finish off the planning stage proper.
But it’s close!
This evening, I finished off 3 middle-to-major characters, and was planning to polish off the last two but I’m just too knackered. Also doesn’t help that I’ve been scouring the net for free ebooks this evening (downloaded Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island! Haven’t read them in years!)
Also figured out how to place books that I’m reading on my WordPress blog. And even did some very basic coding to make the books appear as they do! And then because I was working on my bitchy character today, I spied a book delightfully titled, “Bullies, Bastards & Bullies” through Writer’s Digest’s tweet, and promptly bought it online.
So all in all, a good day. I’ve got 2 other characters to flesh out, and then the rest are really quite minor. Also have to work out which scenes form my chapters and in what sequence, but that can be worked out by the end of the week as well.
So here’s what I intend to do.
- Wednesday (today) – no good. Choir practice, and I will be home past 10pm, so my brain will be quite fried and useless…
- Thursday – Remaining 2 characters and polish off the rest of the very minor characters (and who they were inspired by.)
- Friday – Scenes assigned to chapters, and sequencing
- Saturday – Choir performance (and I’m doing a solo!)
- Sunday – Possible movie with person from writing group. And grocery shopping. And hanging out with my much-neglected real-life romantic hero…
Monday next week, perhaps about 5 days late but what the hey, I will finally start writing proper. And I can hardly wait, to be honest. I have had dialogue swimming around my brain for weeks, and am just dying to sink in and start typing like the demon.
But until then… I have to finish these characters. *nod*
