No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days (19 page)

BOOK: No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days

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I wrote my first book, Time Off for Good Behavior, during NaNoWriMo 2002. A group of writer friends were doing it, and in the grand tradition of jumping off a bridge if your friends are doing it, I went along. By November 25th, I had written a 50,000 words novel (what can I say, I’m not an overachiever), and it became my holiday party icebreaker: “Hey, dig me, I wrote a novel.”

The thing about having a finished novel lying around the house is that it gets you thinking about selling it. At that point. I was home with the kids and keeping sane by writing during every spare moment anyway, so I decided to give professional writing a shot. I revised Time off and sent it out to friends for comments. As luck would have it, I got lucky. Someone who’d read my first chapter recommended me to her agent. The agent loved it and signed me—wahoo! She submitted my book, and six weeks later, I had a two-book contract with Warner. To top it all off, in July 2005 Time off for Good Behavior took the coveted RITA award for Best First Book. surprising no one more than me! So don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be done, because they’d be full of crap.

Now, true, I’m a bit of a freak in the book business. Typically, people spend years trying to get their novels published; I hit on some lightning speed mojo. But forget the timeline and look at the result; it can happen. Since then, I’ve contracted a total of six books between two publishers (Maybe Baby, released by Warner Forever in June 2005, also started out as a NaNoWriMo book), and if I can do it, so can you. The important thing is that you write, and that you give yourself permission to write crap, if necessary. Crap you can edit. A blank page will never be anything but. God bless, and get writing!

-------------------LAYING OUT THE CARDS

When you’re done with your chapter-by-chapter analysis, the arc of your story will be laid bare, a fact that will either be exciting or depressing, depending on how cohesive your story turned out. No matter how tight the tale, though, there is still plenty of room for improvement. Which is what we’ll do now. Let’s start by transposing your story into movable outline form. I like to use four-by-six-inch note cards for this, but you can also do it digitally using Power Point presentation slides, cells on a spreadsheet, or any other tool that allows you to transpose bits of information easily. Now, break down each chapter into its component scenes, and create an index card (or Power Point slide, etc.) for each scene, noting the same information you did for the chapter-by-chapter analysis—the cast, the action, and what role the scene plays in advancing the storyline of the book. After you’ve made a card for each scene, lay the cards out in the order they appear in your book. Use a vertical divider (I like pencils) to group the cards into chapters. Then step back and marvel: There it is, your month’s labors laid out in a long line of action/reaction, a book’s worth of plot and story sailing in a straight line across the floor of your apartment or desktop.

CUTTING THE CARDS

Here’s where we take apart and rebuild your book’s engine. As you look at the story, you’ll likely find that you have many random digressions and out-of-left-field tangents. In the rough draft phase, these were vibrant labs for the production of new ideas and angles. And let’s face it: They were also easy ways to amass the day’s word-count quota.

There’s no shame in that. Now, though, you need to decide what really belongs in your book. As you scan your cards, remove the obvious filler scenes and set them aside. If you’re not sure whether a scene is essential or not, leave it in for now.

Next, look at your remaining cast of characters. Chances are good that in writing your rough draft you introduced more people than your story has room to accommodate. Some of these superfluous voices are simply doubles of other characters, and others may be evolutionary vestiges of earlier, discarded story directions.

As you view your story from above, ask yourself if all of the characters have a reason for being there. Do they end up advancing the story in some way? If not, trim, slice, and winnow. Don’t be too overzealous with the knife, however: In your character paring, you may find a pointless but absolutely lovable stowaway who you’re reluctant to evict from your tale. If so, think about crafting a new relationship or twist that might bind the person more tightly to the core of your story. If necessary, create new index cards to serve as placeholding reminders of any new scenes you’ll need to write. Once your roll-call of characters is set, consider whether each one is developed properly; there are probably some you need to spend more time with. As mentioned in chapter five, balanced “camera time” for each character is crucial, especially if you’ve written the story in third-person or are telling your novel through multiple points of view.

If you do have multiple protagonists, think about the “through-lines” of each character. Do you tell each character’s story in multi-chapter blocks? If so, maybe switching to a different character every chapter (or within chapters) might give your novel more energy.

SHUFFLING THE CARDS

Which brings us to the next phase of the “big picture” rewrite: figuring out your book’s pacing. After you’ve trimmed all the obvious fat and have what seem to be all the essential pieces, it’s time to address questions of flow, tension, and payoff.

This is the beauty of using cards, since you can literally shuffle them, taking the story apart and putting it back together in any number of alternate ways. Do this deliberately now, testing different structures and ideas, until you have a gorgeous, surprising, yet inevitable-seeming arc for your story. You may find more pieces to cut or holes that need filling. If you’re at a loss over the best way to organize the book, move the cards at random, purposefully throwing everything out of whack. Sometimes a seemingly haphazard alignment can open up new through-lines in your story, bringing a sweet, soaring readability to a book that used to trudge along.

Here are some questions you might ask yourself as you shuffle the deck: Does it seem like the story gets off to a dynamic start at the beginning, only to loose steam at the end? Or do the opening chapters have too much exposition and not enough action? When it comes to the story’s timeline, do you take a direct, chronological approach to your book? Or do you use flashbacks and reminiscences to jog the story back and forth from present to past? How might you shuffle scenes to heighten the story’s drama, comedy, or suspense?

Once you’ve come up with a winning order for your scenes, implement those changes in your manuscript. Cut and paste the scenes into the right sequence, but as much as possible avoid rewriting; if you have new scenes you need to write, use descriptive placeholders for the moment. Until all your book’s pieces are in place, you don’t want to get bogged down in minutiae.

--------------------HOW LONG DOES A REWRITE USUALLY TAKE?

Rewrites vary, of course, but a year is a pretty good estimate. If you’re absolutely fanatical about it and can spend every weekend revising, you may be able to do it in half that. Taking a novel-editing class is one option, as is signing up for the free National Novel Editing Month
(www.nanoedmo.org). Run b
y NaNoWriMo veteran Lauren Ayer, NaNoEdMo gives writers a mission and a deadline: pounding out fifty hours of rewriting in the month of March.

--------------------

A FINAL WORD ON GETTING PUBLISHED

Whenever I talk about all the big picture and microscopic changes a revision requires, I frequently hear the following lament from NaNoWriMo participants: “The book market is so tight, and I probably don’t stand a chance in hell of getting published. So why should I waste my time on a rewrite?”

When faced with this question, I think of my friend Brent. Brent is an engineer, and his weekdays are filled with incredibly complex mathematical equations and indecipherable codes. On weekends, Brent plays softball.

Now, Brent is not the greatest softball player. Brent played volleyball in college on his school’s team, and he’s a slamming, spiking terror at the net. He’s also a force to be reckoned with on the basketball court.

On the softball diamond, though, Brent has a lot to learn. Which is partly why he does it. To challenge himself. To grow. The pitchers of beer after the game don’t hurt either. Anyway, whenever people express their reluctance to invest time in something that won’t have proven results, I ask them what they do for fun on weekends.

Invariably, the time they spend running around on basketball courts, rearranging Scrabble tiles, or slaying video game monsters is not done in an effort to make millions of dollars from corporate sponsorships. Or because they think it will make them famous.

No. They do it because the challenge of the game simply feels good. They do it because they like to compete, because they like spending time with friends, because it feels really, really nice to just lose themselves in the visceral pleasure of an activity.

Novel-writing is just a recreational sport where you don’t have to get up out of your chair. And that’s exactly how I encourage writers to approach revisions. As you edit, do it in the spirit of a playground softball game. No stakes, no pressure. No one in the stands watching or judging. Just you versus a dozen easily distracted, unathletic third-graders who will believe anything you say about outs and ups because they think you’re the gym teacher.

Okay, forget that part about the third-graders. But you know what I’m saying. Don’t waste your time thinking about the agents, the publishers, or the market. It’s just you, and it’s just for fun. And, should things go well, you’ll have a convenient paper record of your heroic deeds to share for decades to come.

But even if this book doesn’t pan out, there’s always the next one. And the one after that. So go for it. Swing hard; take risks; aim for the bleachers. The game begins anew everyday, and it only gets better from here.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

http://www.dailylit.com/books/no-plot-no-problem/acknowledgments

THE END:
This is the last installment. In other words, you finished—woohoo!

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