Hi Guys,
This time I
thought I'd turn my attention to one of the problems that faces all writers,
but especially pantsters like myself. Getting the details right. So here I'm
talking about the things that in film and tv become known as continuity errors,
where for example the hero gets in an overturned yellow sports car with damage
in its side and drives away in an unblemished one – Commando. It's also about
the issue of major plot holes and nonsensical plots. In Powers for example one
of the anti-heroes forces another to help him in a complex prison break to
murder a common enemy, simply because there is a “drainer” in it that could rob
him of his teleportation ability. Problem is, all he really needed was a pump
action shotgun and a balaclava. Teleport in, shoot his enemy in the head, shoot
the machine and jump away. Simplicity itself.
These mistakes
occur in writing as well as film and television. Sometimes they can be amusing,
and occasionally they can completely ruin a book. But whichever they are, they
shouldn't be there.
So how do we
stop them? Or rather – how do I stop them? You will all have your own ideas as
writers.
There are
actually two approaches to preventing them from happening. Each approach is
based on the style of writer you are. For plotters – those who like to plan out
their books in advance of writing them – their approach actually protects them.
Not perfectly. But it's hard to write in a plot hole when the plot is already
laid out in detail with all the key developments written down in front of them.
For plotters the best approach is simply to up their plotting so that their
plots, time lines, world builds and character bio's etc, are written down in
meticulous detail. A simple fix.
But for those
like me who simply like to wade into writing the book without doing anything
like that – pantsters – the fix is not quite so simple. For us we generally
look at these issues as problems that we get around by constantly rewriting and
editing our books as we write, and by being utterly focused on our work. But
this isn't always enough.
So speaking
purely for myself, I use a second approach. I write out the plot, time line,
world build, character bio's, beastiary etc in a second document at the same
time as I write the story. And as I write the story I have this second file
open beside it. Then as I write I constantly update the data file. So for
example for The Wolves of War, I had the story file Wolves in which I was
working, and the data file WolvesData both open on my screen at the same time,
and I simply swapped between the two as I wrote.
Sounds like a
simple fix? It is. And it will save you a thousand headaches, and a thousand
questions from beta readers, critics and readers as they hopefully enjoy your
work. But I want to extend this a little to show just how invaluable this
approach is in your writing for a pantster like me.
To return to
Wolves for a bit which is obviously freshest in my memory, I'm going to look at
just a couple of places this approach helped me immensely. I'll start with
travelling.
Wolves is a
traditional epic fantasy, and like many in the genre it involves the characters
travelling large distances periodically. As the writer of course, I want for
that travel to be realistic. To fit with the distances involved, the terrain
crossed, and the means of travel. And I want to synch everything up with the
plot so I don't have unreasonable time gaps where people are either not doing
anything for excessive and inexplicable lengths of time while other characters
are advancing the story, or else, rushing impossibly fast to do things so it
all fits together in a logical story arc.
So to do this I
include in my data file, two vital sections – the map and the time line.
The map is
actually not a map for two very simple reasons. The first is that I can't
actually draw a straight line even with a ruler. And the second is that my data
file like all my writing is done in an older version of Word which doesn't
handle graphics well. So instead my map is actually a series of locations,
towns, cities, realms, and their distances / compass directions from another
key location. And that actually works better for me than a map would since the
distance and the means of travel give me the time taken to get from point A to
B. And that in turn gives me a couple of notes to add to my time line as I
write. The day the journey began and the day it ends.
In practise this
becomes a straight forward approach. First I have the start point of the
journey set out and a distance. So say my hero Briagh sets out for the fae
realm on foot and carrying a large pack on Day Twenty One. His journey is a
hundred and twenty leagues – three hundred and sixty miles. And the terrain is
snow covered and flat. I simply estimate how far he can travel in a day under
these conditions, and make an estimated time of twenty four days which means he
arrives on Day Forty Five.
Now here's where
the time line becomes so valuable. Because while Briagh is busy travelling my
other main hero {anti-hero?} Elan is busy with her own story arc – arguing with
the Court, escaping the city and giving chase for the second time. The time
line allows me to place her story, chapter by chapter, at the exact right
points in the story so that she can then arrive in the fae realm and start
hunting down Briagh at the right time for him to have done what he needed to.
Another section
included in my data file is the characters. Now here I don't just include the
basic details like name, gender, race etc. I also include a minor biography for
the important characters. Who is this man? What are his values? What does he
care about? It doesn't have to be much. But it does have to be there. Because
in any situation who a person is will determine how he will respond. So in
Wolves, Briagh was a thief and a morph. A man whose entire life was based
around running and hiding. Not trusting others with his secrets. Fearing
exposure. So thrown into a new environment where his secret is known – how is
he going to react? The bio is there as my guide to answering those questions,
and it like the time line and the plot is being constantly added to as I write
the story. {This of course is especially vital when as a pantster I tend to
wander between writing different books at the same time and often don't write
anything on the same book for days or months.}
Normally I
include a beastiary in my data file – for a couple of reasons. The first is
that I want a consistent set of creatures in my work that relate to my world.
Is my world based on ancient Greek / Roman / Babylonian mythology? If so then I
want it to include creatures from those mythologies like hell hounds, cerberi,
minotaurs and not those of other mythologies. Similarly I need to nail down the
characteristics and abilities of those beasts so that I don't have them doing
things that they can't or wouldn't do. For example if a manticore is an ambush
predator operating from its den in the forest depths, I don't want it to
suddenly be out chasing down its prey across the savanna.
Other sections I
usually include are the gods and religions of the world – you never know when
you need a good curse or a priest to tell your characters about right and
wrong. Likewise I add a language section – terms I use through the book. So in
Wolves I took a number of terms from middle English and scattered them
throughout the work, simply to keep the steam punk feel of the book alive.
{This can be fascinating and fun research by the way, and you can learn a lot.
For example in writing the book I discovered the term 'rakefire' which is
essentially an over-stayer in an inn who refuses to pay for his lodgings and
needs to be booted out in favour of paying guests.}
And last but by
no means least I add a comments section. This I cannot stress the importance of
strongly enough for pantsters and probably plotters to. This is simply a
section where as I'm writing the book I have a random thought eg 'explain the
magic of scrying somewhere in book'. This matters because obviously I as the
writer know what scrying is and how it works in the book, so as I reread and
edit it makes perfect sense to me. But if that isn't in the book somewhere, my
readers may be left scratching their heads wondering what's happening.
So to those of
you who like to write in the manner I do – by the seat of your pants – this is
the approach I use, and I would commend it to you.
Here's hoping
you have a great new year ahead.
Cheers, Greg.
