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Archive for Online Writing

Harvard Divinity

Oct17

As readers of The Darkening Dream are aware, nothing is ever black or white. Certainly this is the case with Pastor John Parris. Is he a villain or victim? Well… villain, but even the most evil come from somewhere. In this short story, which began life as a chapter in an older larger versions of the novel, we explore some important questions about the creepy little man: 1) How did he come to dabble in witchcraft? 2) Who was Grandmother Grace, and what was the manner of her unpleasant death? 3) Is shit really useful for spellcraft? And most importantly, 4) When did Parris meet his succubus lover, Betty?

It turns out, one weekend reveals all four.

I’m publishing this in short story for free as part of this year’s Fiction Frolic.

Read the story here.

Related posts:

  1. Short Story: The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate
  2. On Writing: Passes and Plots
  3. Call For Feedback
  4. A Fiction Frolic for All Hallow’s Read
  5. Book Review: XVI (read sexteen)
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Darkening Dream
Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Arts, Fiction, John Parris, Online Writing, Short Stories, Short story, The Darkening Dream

Plotter vs. Pantser

Oct07

The Plotter

This is one of those eternal writer questions, getting into the heart of the creative process. For those of you who don’t know, a “plotter” is someone who plots out (outlines) their entire story before writing it and a “pantser” is at the opposite extreme, starting with an idea or a character and just going for it, like a daydream. Of course, everything between exists as well, it’s an analog space. And for what it’s worth, writers, including myself, love to talk about this.

Given that I’m more hard core, workaholic, and over-organized than nearly everyone I know (and having gone to MIT that includes a lot of anal folks) I would have assumed I was a plotter.

But when I got into it a couple years ago by starting to write The Darkening Dream, I found I totally prefer to just go with it. I do need to plot a chapter or two ahead as I can’t write the scenes until I see in my head what’s going to happen, but after I finished revising my first novel (and there was a lot of revision) I decided to try to plot the whole second. This resulted in about two months of fairly unproductive head banging. Then, with only a lame first act plotted, I started writing and it veered onto a different course anyway. The characters and the situation seem to dictate what happens. Often you can’t tell in plotting which secondary characters will be the coolest, etc.

The Pantser

But certainly the pantser approach requires plenty of revision. I always have to go back and examine the motivations of the characters after the first draft and map  more of the formal dramatic arc onto the story in the second and third drafts. Pantsing also leads to Second Act Problems (what doesn’t?). I think that’s just the way it goes. It would be very difficult in the first draft to do the kind of “setup and payoff” that good stories have. A great example of this is the film Back to the Future which undoubtedly had umpteen drafts and where every little reference at the start of the film is a setup that tests and then pays off for one of the characters. Case in point where George McFly gives in to Biff about the car. Then back in 1955 he does it as young George, but by the end of the film, with Marty‘s help he has the backbone to be in charge in the revised 1985. This is formulaic but satisfying and artfully crafted in a way that takes multiple passes. Still, I think you can start any which way that works for you. Sometimes getting the draft finished is the most important thing. Then you can step back and look at what needs changing.

Personally I find the two different modes: plotting vs. just writing, to use different sides of the brain, and therefore useful to stagger. I can only handle a few days of plotting before I need the release of getting it out there. There really isn’t any rush in writing as good as just pounding out a great scene that’s already gelled in your head, and it’s even better when the scene and characters take on a life of their own and bring something novel to the process. Looking back on it, I realize that as a computer programmer I took this same exact alternating approach (between designing the algorithm and just coding) and that the rush and rhythm were nearly identical.

For more posts on writing, click here.

Related posts:

  1. Untimed – Two Novels, Check!
  2. Untimed – Two Novels, Two Drafts!
  3. Call For Feedback
  4. Save the Cat – To Formula or Not To Formula
  5. On Writing: Passes and Plots
By: agavin
Comments (9)
Posted in: Writing
Tagged as: Arts, Fiction, Online Writing, Pantser, plot, Plotter, Writer, Writers Resources, Writing

Untimed – Two Novels, Check!

May20

Today I reached a milestone and finished the first draft of my second novel, tentatively titled Untimed. Now this doesn’t really mean it’s done, revision is usually more work than the first draft. Still, it’s a book. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Untimed is the first book in YA time travel series. I haven’t written a log line yet, but it’s currently 70,000 words, and is a lean-mean-fast-paced first person present story about a boy whose name no one remembers — not even his mother.

Oh, and it features Ben Franklin, Napoleon, a male gang leader that wears red high heels, and the Tick-Tocks, creepy clockwork time traveling machines from the future.

I started it Feb 9, 2011 and finished the first draft May 20, 2011. I took about three weeks “off” to work on revisions of The Darkening Dream. So that’s roughly three months. My output was actually slower (as measured in words) than with TDD, because a don’t overwrite now. If anything Untimed is underwritten and certainly needs a lot of character work in revision, which might make it grow slightly.

I learned a lot of things from problems with TDD (mostly fixed in my many many revisions). I learned to find a place to start your story that really hooks BEFORE starting to write. I learned not to write any scenes that involved merely going from place to place. I learned not to flash back. I learned to stick with the plot, not the sub plots. And a whole lot more.

And I tried to outline the entire story before I wrote it, failed miserably, and concluded that I’m really a pantser (a seat of the pants writer).

For info on my first (and completed) novel, click here.

ps. If you’re one of my many dedicated beta readers, and want to offer early high level feed back, send me a note.

Related posts:

  1. Beginnings and Endings
  2. On Writing: Passes and Plots
  3. On Writing: Yet Another Draft
  4. The Darkening Dream
  5. Call For Feedback
By: agavin
Comments (9)
Posted in: Untimed
Tagged as: Andrew Gavin, Andy Gavin, Arts, books, Creative Writing, Fiction, Novel, novels, Online Writing, Physics, Second Novel, Time travel, Untimed, Writing
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