Story Map: Story Deconstruction Notes I

            The first draft of my middle grade novel came from a story idea following “the hero’s journey” (Vogler), “vein of gold” (Cameron) inspiration, and sitting down every day for about three months and writing almost nonstop. “In flow” while writing the novel, I allowed surprises to surface.  After letting story simmer for a couple of years, I used the “almost nonstop” method again to complete a rewrite this fall. My manuscript required new sections for subplot, deleting of some passages, and all chapters to undergo an intensive, thoughtful reworking.

The nonstop experience allows all of the story points and details to be at the tip of a writer’s tongue, mind, and fingertips. A writer can zip throughout the manuscript in continuity changes with the speed of fingers on caffeine.

How to begin was the gigantic problem. I started at my gold vein to ponder story. I considered story structure and the hero’s journey. I found edge and hope. After a struggle worthy of the words “writer’s block,” I developed story deconstruction notes. This is my one step at a time way to focus on story.

First, write what the story is about in one sentence. Example of a major conflict sentence: Dorothy journeys through Oz to overcome challenges and get home. Note to writer: expect to revise every few days.

Next, make a list of these words and your response after each: title, genre, setting (time and place), narrator, point of view (be precise), tone, tense. Note to writer: expect to revise the title every few weeks.

Now, list these thought-provoking story concepts: themes, motifs, symbols, keywords. These seem to be the similar, but list nuanced responses for each. The goal is to deconstruct your story in a concise manner.

Finally, state the plot in a few words. Under plot, outline problems, solution tools, and resolutions with responses for each. Next, list or outline subplot conflicts and resolutions. Remember to be concise by limiting yourself to a line (a small font works for this exercise) or so.

Remember the saying, real writing arises during the rewriting.

More story deconstruction notes will be in the next Story Map post, Story Deconstruction Notes II.

 

FINDING FLOW: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ENGAGEMENT WITH EVERYDAY LIFE by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Basic Books/Perseus, 1997).

 

In addition, on story structure mapping:

YA author (Faithful is my favorite) Janet Fox posted (December 2013) a great summary of well-known plot structures on her blog, Through the Wardrobe. It is perfect for the writer trying to map visually. Thanks, Janet! 

Janet’s Through the Wardrobe post:

http://kidswriterjfox.blogspot.com/2013/12/i-have-always-had-trouble-with-plotting.html

Or download Janet’s Plot Paradigm Compilation in pdf from her website;

http://janetsfox.com/faqs/a-plot-paradigm-compilation/

 

Note earlier LIN posts:

Story Map: Gold Vein, September 2013

Story Map: Edge and Hope, November 2011

Story Map: The Journey, March 2011

 

Story Map: Gold Vein

This month I’m starting back on page one of my novel. The first draft was written by the “seat of my pants” method. I’ve been asking myself, and others, if this is the best way to write a novel? The answer seems to be “yes—for me, for a first novel.” The learning curve has been high. Next came multiple revisions and, now, a detailed story map from the many scribbled notecards. Is my story clear? My story map must illustrate details woven throughout and plots points hitting every story beat. Are my characters alive and showing me the way?

Both my writing and life journey have led me back to my “vein of gold.” This is where my novel-writing process began a little more than three years ago in a workshop I didn’t even expect to attend. Life forces seemed to propel me to a place, a spot in time, an “aha moment.” I trust the process, the journey. September finds me revisiting my gold vein. I have been looking for a sharper understanding of the short phrase that encompasses my viewpoints and actions. This insight informs my creativity. Can I look at my insight in negative words? In a positive words?

The “vein of gold” for a writer comes from Julia Cameron’s book, The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart. Cameron has a set of ten questions to help reveal the area of study that is a writer’s vein of gold. It is that topic where a writer works with high creativity. Passion. Inspiration. We are told to write what we know. Your gold is what you question, what you know. Start there.

THE VEIN OF GOLD: A JOURNEY TO YOUR CREATIVE HEART by Julia Cameron (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1996).

I read Nancy Drew

. . . and Hardy Boys.

 

Book lists for more summer reading: 

GUYS READ

http://www.guysread.com/books/

FREQUENTLY CHALLENGED BOOKS

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged

SIBERT MEDAL BOOKS

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/sibertmedal

NEWBERY MEDAL BOOKS

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberymedal

CALDECOTT MEDAL BOOKS

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottmedal

CARNEGIE MEDAL

http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/carnegie/

KATE GREENAWAY MEDAL

http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/greenaway/

Another Writing Day, Another Font

Revising. Rewriting. Finding the real story. The truth.

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know”—Ernest Hemingway.

That’s all.

Once there is a first draft, the real writing begins.

Writing workshops provide essential moments to move writing onto the next plateau. There was one workshop in Montana where I worked on the first draft of my first chapter. Everyone was so supportive, but I was at the beginning with the story. That “first” chapter is now gone. In the course of the workshop, I struggled to keep my cabin stove fire going every night. I’d throw in a couple of logs with enough kindling, strike, hover, and toss in “dude dust.” And snuggle under the quilt. At the end of the workshop, I left my cabin door open to the mountain air. The fire crackled into a warm blaze. I learned to search for the right kindling, opportunities, and to breathe.

My writing recipe includes that my story simmer in a cast iron pot on a back burner, waiting for the right seasons. There are always plenty of potatoes, and whatever herbs are growing on my back porch. I think writers are natural gardeners and cooks. Maybe that’s when the art of writing actually happens. Throw in a carrot or turnip every now and then. Linnea’s Illuminated Notes essays seem to spring from time outside, either gardening or walking. Nature reveals one’s own truth, one’s own stories. The vegetables in my pot are those close to the earth. Rewriting a first novel requires a nurturing bubbling of seasons and fixings—to simmer and crackle.

Slipping into a cotton flannel shirt and sitting down at the computer, I remember the "10,000-hour rule.” Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell, described many examples of high success achieved after 10,000 hours learning and practicing craft. Time. Writing is a journey without end in challenging self to write truth, sentence after sentence.

Walking with hot mug after hot mug, holding onto thoughts weaving together, I glance out the window beyond my computer screen and sit down on another writing day. While writing, the tops of the crepe myrtles outside have turned white with early summer blooms. New views and another font can mix ideas up enough to clarify editing and discovering the most accurate words. Change fonts to see other ways to create narrative. So I write on . . . to find my own best words and, maybe, one true sentence. Well, at least a few true words.

 

A MOVEABLE FEAST by Ernest Hemingway (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1964). 

OUTLIERS: THE STORY OF SUCCESS by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown & Company, 2008).

 

Of Glimmers to Editing

It’s spring—nature’s time of inspiration. Bright green leaves are popping out, flower heads are blowing around, and allergies symptoms abound, but that’s another story. I was out in the thick of it yesterday, pruning trees in a major effort since moving into my one-acre yard a few years ago. This morning, benefits are being enumerated. Muscles have that satisfied feeling with the aches of being more toned. My brain is toned up as well and ready to get back to mental pruning called editing. And I’m brimming with glimmers of new ideas. This is an excellent frame of reference with which to begin a writing day. Glimmers of inspiration and editing are different processes, both essential to good writing.

I write from story start to story finish in a wave of energy beginning with a glimmer of an idea, a realization. I fill in details. I rewrite with an eye on plot points. What is my real story? Glimmers grow into solid writing craft honed from workshops, reading, and walks of reflection.

Next is the process of editing and more editing. My trees reminded me of lines not crucial to the direction of my story. The strong trunk must reach upward with grace. I trimmed off small twigs that didn’t add to or reflect back on the limbs of plot or subplot details. The Water Oak showed signs of burn from high temperature winds and drought, perhaps like my wrong turns in crafting story. Dead sections had to be removed. Uneven pruning from previous efforts had to be straightened out. Tree cut spots seemed to disappear from view as focus shifted to clarity of story. Sturdy limbs that jutted straight out called for a tree swing or a series of bird houses and rewriting.

The art of story begins to reveal itself in an almost magical flow between writing and breaks to renew my perspective. A good story tells me where to go, arching like a Live Oak, or stubbornly pushing upward as a Post Oak. Editing, like pruning, shows the grace of a story with all details reflecting back and forth, yet moving to an inevitable climax and end. Does the story touch the sky?

Nature walks and gardening break up a writer’s life by sowing new thoughts and renewing the writer’s spirit. Poet William Wordsworth composed most of his lines in his head while walking around the Lake District—glimmers of lines in daffodils. My spring is about renewal, new starts, and finding the art of story while revising my first novel again.

 

A Must-Have in Writing

voice