Showing posts with label How I write.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How I write.. Show all posts
Saturday, June 17, 2017
How I write - Janet Lane Walters #MFRWauthor #writing style #Murder and Mint Tea
One of my fellow writers asked me how I found my system of writing. I always say I'm neither a plotter or a punster. I'm hybrid. Now what does that mean.
In 1968, I decided to begin writing. I took some classes via mail but they focused on short stories. Novels are different. They're longer and they have to have more than a character or two. I'd had some success with short stories until the markets dried up. Novel writing came next since I'd sent off a short stories I'd titled - And So We Walk On Eggshells. One editor turned the story down and told me this sounded like a synopsis for a novel. Synopsis had me puzzled, so I headed off to the library to find every book I could on writing novels. Then realizing I could only keep those books for a limited time, I purchased most of them. Every book had a different way of organizing the story. I wanted to try them all.
One book said have your characters and know what kind of market you want to reach and then sit down and just write. This got me so far and then I could go no further.
Another book had me doing extensive write ups on each major character and some on the minor characters. Trying this method had the same effect as just writing the story.
There were books that gave you ways to sketch out your entire plot and fit your characters to the plot.
I finally designed my way of doing it. As I approach a new novel, for a week or two as I'm falling asleep, I tell myself a story about the book. I finally reach a point where I know where things are going - sort of I'm ready to begin. Now comes how I do this.
I must have a title before I begin the book. Then I need my characters to have names. Once these are in hand, I write what I call a chapter blocking. This ends the plotting stage. Then I move to the punster phase for the rough draft. When I say rough, I mean rough. Often there are switches during the book that don't follow the blocking exactly but by the time I finish, I do have a beginning, some major and some minor scenes and the ending. The rough draft is generally about a quarter to a third of what the final book will be.
Then I begin the drafts. There is a setting draft, a character draft, a plot draft where all that I've ignored comes into the story. Finally there is the revision draft that looks at language, not punctuation, though I try. Some of my editors carefully replace question marks for periods and add commas where they hare needed.
I'm sure none of this makes sense but Murder and Mint Tea began the quest for a novel
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
Deadly Undertaking Click here to purchase ‘Tis the season of the year when the transformation occurs from the darkness of winter to th...
-
I grew up in a tiny place east of Banff. It was not large enough to be given hamlet status – hence they called us ‘a community.’ But i...
-
Click here for purchase information In my February 7th post I wrote about how I was turning an unused room in my house into a long-desired...
-
Ko bo Smashwords Amazon Barnes & Noble I-tunes Apple I-tunes Apple Amazon Barnes & Noble Smashwords Kobo More memory lane writ...
-
A common belief in most of Asia is that of reincarnation. After we die, the eternal soul reincarnates into another body. Some believe in m...
-
Please click this link for book and author information On January 25th, I fell on an icy Calgar...
-
Find my books here! I love book birthdays! My latest, written with my wonderfu...
-
Find these books and more on my BWL page HERE As I’m writing the last book of the Blue Phantom series, set in the Azura Universe (Angel Reve...
-
https://books2read.com/Saturday’s-Child S aturday’s Child works hard for a living. Anonymous About Rosemary Morris “Wher...
-
Available in print and ebook at https://books2read.com/Game-of-Love March has come in warm but windy, yet so much better than...