Onward and Upward

r-avatarIt seems like every time we write a novel, we hit a point  in the plot where things get thorny. On our first one, which we began without an outline, we got completely derailed for about six months.

Kent is working on a theory (because that’s what he does) that what we’re running into is somehow a fundamental aspect of big, complex projects. He mutters about how it’s like spinning plates, but he wants to come up with something more original. Whether it’s a universal thing or specific to the Rune Skelley experience, it’s certainly a consistent fact of writing life for us.

It’s been less of a problem on our recent novels, though, for two reasons. One: now we’ve got a good process based on tools like outlines and stubs. Two: we’ve learned how to work more effectively as a team.

We’re at that point again, in case you were wondering. It’s the timeline that’s turned into a thorny thicket this time. Lots of throughlines intersect, and it’s a real puzzle to get them not to conflict. Jen is the Goddess of Puzzles and has this one nearly solved, but it’s a huge task. Progress on the manuscript has barely been affected though, because while Jen weaves our characters’ trajectories on her cosmic loom, Kent can keep working on prosifying the existing stubs.

Teamwork! It keeps us moving onward and upward.

Well, Astrid Thought

  1. k-avatarCharacter – cancer patient
  2. Setting – airplane bathroom
  3. Object – bullwhip
  4. Situation – talent show of the damned

Well, Astrid thought, if this isn’t good enough for the top prize I’ll raise a grievance with the judges. She adjusted the flaps and prepared to reverse thrust. The 747 touched tarmac and majestically slowed until it taxied all the way into the hangar.

Only then did Astrid coil her bullwhip and emerge from the bathroom. She strode up the aisle into first class, where the judges sat, and took a bow to light applause.

I hope I place, she thought. Only the three best contestants get chemo.

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Cerise Surveyed the Interior of the Zeppelin Gondola

  1. by jenCharacter – ghost of a bartender
  2. Setting – zeppelin
  3. Object – used condom
  4. Situation – performance art

Cerise surveyed the interior of the zeppelin gondola with some amusement. This was going to be her best installation yet.

Of course, the zeppelin itself symbolized the hopes and wishes of an earlier, less ironically self-aware society. Once its interior was wallpapered with used condoms collected through a year’s worth of dumpster-diving and hard, artistic sex, it would sing. Cerise couldn’t wait to get started.

She hauled the crate of prophylactics up the stairs and set it heavily on the bar. She hoped she had enough staples in the staple gun.

“Remember not to puncture any of the reservoir tips,” she said to herself.

Her words echoed slightly before settling to the floor, and were replaced by a soft scuffing from behind the bar.

Mice would add a certain je ne sais quoi to the statement she was trying to express, so Cerise wasn’t too worried.

“What’ll it be, lady?” came a raspy whisper.

Cerise startled and then saw a vaporous human form behind the bar. He was dressed in a vest and bow-tie, with his shirtsleeves pushed up to his elbows. He shimmered and wavered as he went through the motions of polishing a glass.

“Damn!” said Cerise. “This completely overshadows the complex interplay of hope, death, globalism, and ecology I was going for!”

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An Equal And Opposite Reaction

r-avatarEvery writer has to deal with occasional bouts of writer’s block, or lack of motivation, or distractibility.

Squirrel!

This week has been just such a week for Jen. She wants to keep the project moving, but can’t seem to find her way into any of the scenes that are already in stub form. Usually that would mean that it’s time to write more stubs, but we are currently well-stocked. More of the scenes need to be fully written so that we can make sure we’re still heading where the outline says we are.

Luckily for Jen, she has a writing partner. Kent is not suffering from the same malaise as Jen, and has been writing some great stuff, if he does say so himself. Jen happens to agree. But that’s part of the problem, actually. Lately Jen feels like Kent has been using all the good sentences and she’s just randomly smashing the keyboard.

This compare and contrast mindset can be one of the downsides to collaboration. When the stars align, the co-authors drive each other to brilliance. Other times, someone feels like they’ve been left in the dust. Right now it’s Jen’s turn, but Kent had a similar episode as we were finishing up the rewrites on the previous project.

The two of us trust each other enough to talk about these feelings and reassure one another that everything’s golden. As you embark on a collaboration with a new partner it’s something you should keep an eye out for. Collaboration is not competition. You and your co-writer should cover for each other when necessary, and celebrate when everything goes smoothly.

“Get On With It!”

  1. k-avatarCharacter – morose existentialist
  2. Setting – rowboat
  3. Object – bottle of champagne, box of saltines, jar of caviar, bag of pork rinds, candy cane
  4. Situation – first day at the new job

“Get on with it!” Vernon’s irritation had overflowed the vessel he kept it in, and he  shouted everything he said. “Launch the goddamn boat!”

Maurice grasped the neck of the magnum of Dom Perignon, half-lidded eyes directed at the prow of the boat. The “Cygnet” rested in dry dock awaiting her maiden voyage. This morning, Maurice had begun his new job of christening each new vessel assembled by Barking Brothers’ Boatworks, and this twelve-foot rowboat would be his third launch.

The Vice-Presidents of Sales and Operations sat aboard the Cygnet, eating caviar on saltines, while Vernon Barking munched pork rinds and Vincent Barking sucked a candy cane.

“Smash the bottle!” Vernon screamed, showering all with porcine crumbs.

Maurice sighed. “Are not all our moments like the christening of a ship? Each breath, an uncertain endeavor in what could be a leaky deathtrap?”

He swung the bottle listlessly and jolted the Cygnet from her moorings, and she capsized amid the shrieks of corporate executives.

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“I Never Should Have Gone To That Frat Party”

  1. by jenCharacter – recently hypnotized male college student
  2. Setting – whorehouse
  3. Object – large pink balloon with 25 live bees inside
  4. Situation – servicing the addiction

“I never should have gone to that frat party,” Josh grumbled. The situation he found himself in grew stranger and more worrisome by the second. Josh tried to remember what had happened.

At Kappa Delta Rho house, the brothers had decided to try something different. Instead of a band, which inevitably led to noise citations, they hired a hypnotist for entertainment. Josh thought that it was supposed to be the girls who were hypnotized out of their inhibitions (and clothes), but he wound up being one of the first “volunteers.”

Next thing he knew, he was here, wearing a frilly, pink and white teddy and holding an oversized pink balloon.

And now the balloon was buzzing.

Josh gave the balloon a shake and the buzzing grew angrier. Something inside thumped against the taut membrane. Josh frantically ripped at the white ribbon which connected it to his arm, to no avail.

The red velvet wallpaper and faux-fur bedspread added to Josh’s unease, as did the rhythmic creaking of bedsprings and regular grunts from the other side of the wall.

Josh drew his knees up to his chest and hugged himself, the balloon bobbing just above his head.

Moments later a hidden door opened and two people entered. One was a middle-aged woman in a long silky robe and fluffy, high-heeled slippers. The other was the university president, wearing a cowboy outfit.

“Thank you, Miss Kitty. This one looks mighty purty,” the president said.

“Don’t you go hurtin’ this one, Tex,” the madam replied.

“I won’t, I won’t. Are all the bees in there?”

Josh glanced worriedly at his balloon.

“All 25,” the madam said, and left the room, closing the door behind her.

The university president peered down at Josh while slipping out of his spangly, fringed shirt. “Well now, Missy. There’s no need to be so worried. As soon as I get my bee fix, we’ll get down to business.” He popped the balloon.

Josh screamed.

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Plotline Evolution

r-avatarDwight Eisenhower said that plans are useless but planning is essential. So it is with outlining a novel and then actually writing it.

The outline says certain events will happen in a certain order, but then while writing the scenes it doesn’t feel right, so small adjustments have to be made. Those little changes add up along the way, and sometimes the plot moves off in a totally unexpected direction. If you have a solid outline, you’ll probably be able to swerve around obstacles and get things back on course. Or, perhaps you’ll opt to pursue the new path you’ve found along the way.

There’s another level where things can evolve under your fingertips. The general shape of the events might not change, but you still end up with a radically different story than the one you thought you’d set out to tell.

Does the propulsion come from wondering who the villain will kill next, or from trying to figure out who the killer is? The same basic tale can be flipped between these states by a single critical detail: whether or not you tell the reader who the bad guy is. That decision could move your story to a different genre entirely, without even altering who kills whom.

What looks like a suitable source of action and tension in the outline might turn out not to fulfill its promise in prose. In a collaboration, this is something to talk through with your partner as it develops, especially if you’re divvying up the work and each writing a subset of the scenes. If you rely on the outline as the firm bedrock of your project, but your partner has made adaptations on the fly without telling you, then the whole first draft could fall apart halfway through.

But as always, there’s an upside to having a partner to help cope with the challenge. As long as you communicate you’ll avoid the catastrophe described above, and you’ll be able to brainstorm a solution that makes you both happy. Kent and Jen like to go for walks together, and use the time to discuss these kinds of shifts in the plot. How do you debug your outlines? What do you do when you feel the story pulling you down a different road?

Dr Clamdigger Strolled in the Gentle Surf

  1. k-avatarCharacter – oversexed physics professor
  2. Setting – tropical island
  3. Object – wasp
  4. Situation – splitting headache

Dr Clamdigger strolled in the gentle surf, admiring the student body. She acted aloof, but he knew she was admiring him, too, as she lay propped up on a towel halfway up the beach.

Yes, teaching physics at Cayman U was a great gig.

Dr Clamdigger altered course and placed his prodigious shadow over the coed’s bikini-clad torso (and, for the most part, her legs).

“You’re blocking the sun,” she protested petulantly.

“Impossible,” Dr Clamdigger said. “The sun is a star, a seething fusion reactor, while I am,” he ran his hand down his hirsute belly, “but flesh.”

“Well, Skipper –”

“That’s Professor!”

“– whatever. You might want to move.”

“So you can work on your tan lines?”

A volleyball ricocheted off Dr Clamdigger’s head. He swayed, but the sunbathing student didn’t flinch.

“Yeah, that too.”

Dr Clamdigger staggered into the waves and collapsed, not hearing the calls of, “Dude! Little help? That’s our ball!”

As the warm salt water lapped at his sides, Dr Clamdigger saw his nemesis chatting up the pretty student. It was Professor Henderson, showing off his pet wasps again.

Damn entomologists get all the chicks.

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It Wasn’t Often

  1. by jenCharacter – small-town cop
  2. Setting – the Concorde
  3. Object – camcorder
  4. Situation – sending telegrams

It wasn’t often that I got out of Hicksville, so this vacation was proving to be a real eye-opener. New York City had been intimidating enough, but now, here I was, zooming across the Atlantic faster than the speed of sound. When we landed we’d be in France. Holy smokes!

I thought back to my turn in the limelight, my 15 minutes of fame on that game show Bet Ya Can’t! My time in the Boy Scouts and my police training kept my Morse Code skills sharp, and I had been the first contestant to successfully receive a telegram and send an appropriate response. That’s how I won the grand prize – a trip to Europe on the Concorde, and a brand new camcorder!

Yee Haw!

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But it’s research!

r-avatarThe new book, like its predecessor, is turning out to require significant research. Whereas the previous one was set in a real city, which meant we needed to get the details right, the new one registers a greater hardness on the sci-fi scale. That means more technical details to get right. So far we’ve needed in-depth information about algaculture, DNA chemistry, prison architecture, and single malt Scotch. (Not to mention a few Russian phrases.*)

This has led to a sense of bafflement at the idea of trying to accomplish anything without the Internet. But if Kent doesn’t soon get some sense of proportion about things, he might have to do just that. Jen threatens to turn off his Internet access a couple of times per week, in hopes of getting him to focus on the actual writing.

Being able to do research on any topic right from your desk saves hours that would otherwise go into trips to the library and other activities. It frees you to do spur of the moment “research” on any incidental question or topic the moment it arises, so you needn’t plan ahead what subject areas to explore.

The downside is that when research is so available it becomes a slippery slope. One quick search for the names of the four whisky producing regions of Scotland turns into a whole afternoon of reading articles, studying maps, and of course shopping for the perfect dram (something just a wee peaty). Staying productive means having the discipline to get in and out of research mode efficiently. In a collaboration, sometimes one partner needs to give the other a nudge back toward the manuscript.

How do you approach research for your fiction? How do you know when you’ve collected enough information to write your technical scenes convincingly?

*Oops! Now we’ve given away the whole plot!