What’s Working: Licking the Wounds

Just as a tree's wounds get separated from the body of the tree and protected by thickened bark, so too do the wounds your character has get protected as they grow.  Part of your job as a writer is to take your characters on a process of healing (or not) their wounds so they can either move forward, self-destruct, or continue acting in ways that the reader will find compelling. Image copyright Lori Gravley. 

If you’ve spent any time in therapy, you know that most of us who’ve made it past toddlerhood have survived mostly intact, but with some emotional scars that show up at inopportune times: a fight with your partner, your child’s bad decisions, a work project that frustrates you, a driver ahead of you on a two-lane road.  

These scars become wounds, sensitivities close to the surface or deeply hidden, that become hidden drivers of our behavior.  

A character arc is generally the path the character takes to recognize and resolve the wounds that childhood, past relationships, and the background you’ve given the character have created for that character.  A character in a romance, for example, may start the novel unable to trust someone in a relationship. The character meets someone who makes them want to try but then your character’s past or future goals get in the way of being able to commit to a relationship, even if the character wants to.  Through a series of plot developments and pressure from the world of your novel and other characters, your character has to face her wounds so that she can end up happy at the end of the novel.  

I’ve just finished Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs, and though it is Book 5 in the series, Mercy Thompson is still working on the wounds that make it hard for her to feel completely connected to an individual or completely connected to a community.  

Personal Pressure: The beginning of the novel finds Mercy choosing not to share her concerns about her former love and current roommate/friend’s state as a werewolf whose wolf is taking over.  

Community Pressure: She’s in a relationship with the pack Alpha, and their relationship continues to be strained by members of the pack who don’t trust/like Mercy since she’s a coyote shifter and not a werewolf.  

Both of these pressures are activating her deepest wound, the belief that she doesn’t belong and that if people love her they will eventually be destroyed because of that love.  

Towards the climax of the novel, this wound is actually given a visual metaphor as a rope that has been frayed, cut, and broken and has been inexpertly mended. 

During the denouement/atonement of the novel, this same connection is seen as a beautiful, shimmering, solid golden rope with no evidence of previous damage.  

The steps both Mercy and her community take heal Mercy’s wounds, heal her community as well (at-one-ment as Joseph Campbell calls it). 

I’m skipping over some important plot points here as I don’t want to spoil this delightful read for you, but hopefully, you get the message.  Your character’s past has given him or her disordered ways of living in the world and interacting with others.  Your characters don’t need therapists to heal their wounds though, they have you.  

You can find a lot more information on exploring your character’s wounds at K.M. Weiland’s Site: Helping Writers Become Authors and in her book Creating Character Arcs.

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s book, The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, is another helpful reference.  

If you get stuck moving your story forward, think about what you need to do to move your character forward and it might give you some story momentum to speed you into Week 2 of NaNoWriMo.  

Writing Amid the Chaos

Image copyright Lori Gravley

2019 has been a difficult year.  A young man I considered a third son died at the end of 2018. A friendship that I thought would last a lifetime ended painfully.  My marriage of 28 years gave its last gasp. My dog is dying. My mother’s Alzheimer’s has become so apparent even she admits she might need some help. My younger son has made some difficult and painful choices on his journey to adulthood. Yep, suckity for sure.  

Many of the difficulties are still in flux. I live in a 128-square-foot trailer that was once my office behind the beautiful 1880s farmhouse that I’ve worked hard to make a home but that we’ll be selling in the new year. We’re filing the dissolution papers in the new year for financial reasons even though it’s painful to have to interact and just seems to be prolonging the suffering. My son’s choices still haven’t resolved themselves. My dog is dying slowly, and while I’m glad to still have her companionship, it's difficult to see her suffer.  

But my word for 2019 is flourish, and, you know what, in many ways, I am. I’ve almost completed a new professional credential.  I’ve sent my work into the world. My writing is stronger than it has ever been. I love my vintage trailer, and this year I bought a van. Next year, I’ll live part-time in my trailer on my mom’s property, helping my stepfather care for her; part-time in hotel rooms for work; and part-time in a 21-foot Ram Promaster that has been made into a beautiful Winnebago RV. My tiny dreams are coming true in interesting ways. I am hurting. I am grieving. But I am flourishing. 

This year will be my eleventh NaNo and my tenth win.  I’ve built a new young adult world and made some interesting plans for this year’s novel, and I have an outline for another adult romance that I’ll draft in 2020 (I was prepared early, but then I changed my mind and decided to write YA instead).  The trick or treaters are knocking on the door, and I’m still working on my beats, but that’s okay.  I’ll wake up tomorrow, plan some, write some, downsize and pack a little more, and snuggle with my puppy.  

Really, I’m always writing in the middle of some sort of chaos.  But aren’t we all.  When I first participated in NaNo, my son was twelve.  I wrote while my husband was in Iraq.  I wrote through our first separation. I wrote when my older son and his then-girlfriend (now wife) moved to town for college and grad school.  

Someone said to me a couple of weeks ago, “There are other months you can write novels in.”  And I do write all year long, but I love the wonderful collective energy that is NaNoWriMo, and I welcome this creative collective as a still point in the middle of my shifting world. 

I hope you will, too. There will always be reasons not to write.  There will always be unfavorable external circumstances, but that’s one thing I’ve learned from NaNo, it doesn’t matter what’s happening on the outside, I can create stillness inside of my daily writing practice.

Five New Things I’m Trying for NaNo This Year

 Like many of us, I’ve been thinking a lot about NaNo this year.  Over the summer as I was revising a novel, I read up on Beat Sheets (Save the Cat and Story Engineering). I began reading some inspiring books by James Scott Bell in August.   I’ve always been much closer to a pantser in approach, but the limitations of that approach have been evident as I’ve worked through some revisions, so I’ve been trying to find a new way to work this year.  And, I think I’ve found it. 

I won’t know how it turns out until January next year when I do my first read through of my NaNo novel, but I’m excited about the possibilities, so I thought I’d share some things I’m doing differently in no particular order.

1.  Keeping a scene list. James Scott Bell recommends taking some time at the end of every writing session to take notes on scenes.  This is one of the most time consuming parts of revising for me, and though I think there’s some benefit to rereading a novel to create this list, this year I’m going to create my scene list as I go.  I haven’t decided on format yet, but at a minimum, my scene list (written on index cards) will include characters, objectives, setting, and obstacles. 

I’m hoping this list will help me when I go back in to look at the structure of the book during revision.  Time will tell.

2.  Imagining alternatives.  James Scott Bell suggests stopping every once in  a while during drafting to think about the ten worst things that might happen to the character next.  Then, you choose the worst things and make them happen. 

Because I love my characters, I don’t like to see bad things happen to them, but my favorite writer, Kate DiCamillo, always makes her characters go through heartbreaking things, and her books are more satisfying because of it.  So, this year, my goal is to let my characters suffer.  Imagining the worst things that can happen to them at several points in the novel should help me increase their suffering. 

Aaack, I’m having a hard time just thinking of this.  Deep breaths.  Okay, I will let my characters suffer.  I will let my characters suffer.  I will.

3.  Music.  Bell suggests listening to movie theme music that matches the purpose of your scenes.  So I’ll waster, er, spend time this weekend downloading some movie tracks for drama (The Mission), hope, terror, despair, avenging, etc.  And then I’ll have something to listen to when I’m writing the novel.  I’m very influenced by music, and can’t listen to words while I’m writing, so this sound track ideal seems promising.  I’ll let you know how it goes. 

4.  Jump start.  Again, it’s Bell who recommends writing 350 words before you do anything each day.  Getting 1/5 of my daily word count goal down in the morning while I drink my coffee seems like a useful tool for priming the pump each day.  I’ll try to apply another trick that works for me, walking away in the middle of sentence, so that it’s easier to come back and sit down to work.  And, of course, if I get twice that amount written in the morning (like I have this morning) then that’s even better.

 5.  Character letters.  I often have detailed character descriptions before I begin work each NaNo, but though I’ve done some work, another idea I’m borrowing from the prolific Mr. Bell.  He suggests stopping at points along the novel’s way and writing letters in the voice of your characters.  Ask them what’s missing in their lives? As them what they really want?  Ask them about their actions and motivations.  I like that this practice also helps build the voice of characters, voice that will show up in first person narration and dialogue.  Besides, it’s much more interesting than a fill-in-the-blank character sheet. 

Bonus Task 6.  I’m including this here not as a suggestion, but because I think I’ll be referring to it as we go through the month.  This year, I’ve mapped out the major beats and listed some key scenes.  Using Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat and James Scott Bell’s Super Structure, I’ve come up with a fifteen point outline of this years NaNo novel.  It covers the big events and also has space for scene lists during the dreaded middle.  If you don’t know what beats are, don’t worry, it’s really just a list of the major plot events that will take place in my book.   It identifies the novel’s theme and then takes a look at how that theme will guide the character through the three acts of the story. 

There’s still plenty of room for pantsing in here, but I’m hopping this big picture view of the book will help me make it through a very busy November.  If you’re free this weekend and this sounds appealing, read Super Structure (details below) and outline as you read.  If you’re reading this on Monday,  don’t worry.  Pants away.  You can go back and apply these techniques to your novel during revision.

I hope you’re visualizing yourself working each day, picturing the words filling up your documents, and picturing yourself raising your hands in victory as you finish that 50,000 word. 

Many of these ideas won’t work for you, but take what you need and leave the rest.  Most of all, get ready to enjoy your words and the world you make in NaNo this November. 

Source List:  AN IMPORTANT REMINDER  Now is not the time to read these books unless you want to choose one to read over the weekend (Super Structure would be great).  But put these on a list for next year.  These books will give the critical part of your brain a work out.  All you need to do now is take some deep breaths, do some warm ups (character letters anyone), and get ready to write. 

Bell, James Scott.  Just Write.  Writer’s Digest Books. 2016.

Bell, James Scott.  Super Structure. Compendium Press. 2015.

Bell, James Scott.  Plot and Structure.  Writer’s Digest Books. 2004.

Brooks, Larry.  Story Fix.  Writer’s Digest Books. 2015.

Brooks, Larry.  Story Engineering.  Writer’s Digest Books. 2011.

Snyder Blake.  Save the Cat Strikes Back. Michael Wiese Productions. 2009.

Snyder, Blake.  Save the Cat.  Michael Wiese Productions. 2005.

The Next Impossible Thing

It seems impossible, doesn't it?  50,000 words in 30 days.  Where will I find the time? What will I do when I don't have any good ideas? Who will clean the kitchen?  How will I do this when I have work, kids, dogs, friends, a house, company coming for Thanksgiving, sick parents, a cold?

But like all impossible things, this impossible thing begins with the next right step.  Tomorrow, I will sit down and write.  I have four hours blocked out on my calendar.  I could go shopping (in Thailand, where I am currently for work, they do love to shop).  I could go work out (the pool is lovely). I could have dinner with friends.  But I have blocked out 4 pm to 8 pm for writing.  I will put my butt in the chair.  I will put words on the page.

They may not be good words.  But it's a draft, so that doesn't matter.

I will aim to write 4,000 words tomorrow.  Why twice the amount I need to? Because I know myself.  I like to win, and I like to have a little space for the days when the writing is difficult.  The beginning is easy.  Four thousand words is cake at the start.  But no matter how many words I end up with, I will sit, butt in chair (for at least 45 minutes out of each hour, I use the Pomodoro method), and I will write.

And then on Sunday, Nov. 2,  I will do the same thing.  On my calendar, from now until Nov. 9 when I will spend 24 hours traveling home from Thailand, I have marked out at least 1 1/2 hours each day for writing.  There's time for yoga, time for the full-time work I do when I'm traveling.  Time for a little more shopping, a little more food, but there is time, every day, for writing.

I don't have to find the time.  I've already made time.  Since I've done this for four years, I know I can do it.  It still seems impossible, even though I already spend at least 1 1/2 hours a day writing nearly every day.

But I have already done so many things this year that have seemed impossible.  50,000 words in November is just one more impossible thing to add to my list.

I hope you'll join me in doing the impossible.  Find encouragement and support at www.nanowrimo.org and become my buddy (I'm gravllo).  Join me and my writing tribe at Yellow Springs Write In's (see the calendar in Ohio: Elsewhere). Let's see what's possible.