Braids: A Writing and Revision Technique

Heather Seller’s wonderful book, Chapter by Chapter, discusses a technique called braiding. Now that I know the term, I see it everywhere. Even before I had a name for it, I’d been noticing it in books I enjoy. But I hadn’t found a way to keep track of the emotional, physical, psychological, and other sub plots and arcs that ran through my stories. I’d tried several paper models, but they hadn’t been effective in helping me see my novel clearly.

But, with my spreadsheet and a new understanding of braiding in hand, I thought, what if I make a new spreadsheet page to visualize the braids. Voila.

I used the information from my original spreadsheet to look at how the plot lines in Knowingintertwined. I could see when I left one plot for two long. I could see how plot lines and character arcs balanced and played off each other. I could see where there were holes and missing parts and I could make plans to fill them in.

In Knowing, Alex and Sophie have a cat named Ginger. While she isn’t a sub plot in herself, I found that I didn’t always use her well to reveal character and tension, so I gave Ginger her own small column in the Threads spreadsheet.

I’ve wondered if I might skip the plot-tracking step of the first spreadsheet and just make a threads spreadsheet. I might try that for later stories in the series where keeping track of what we know about each character might become less important, but for now, both the plot spreadsheet and the thread spreadsheet help me see my novel clearly so that I can make it an even better read.

Review: A Tangle of Knots

I picked up A Tangle of Knots, by Lisa Graff, because it had magic in it. A very specific magic. Some people in the novel have “talents” things like baking, spitting, and choosing just the right family for orphans, that set them apart from other people. Other people, those without talents, are called Fair. It was an appealing concept, and since my current novel also uses different talents in the characters, I wanted to see how Graff handled the everyday magic in her book.

I’m not a big fan of prologues, but since this one was followed by a recipe for Mrs. Mallory’s Peach Cake, I read on instead of putting Graff’s mid-grade novel in the bag of books to go back to the library.

I’m glad I kept reading.

And even though Graff also uses 3rd person limited shifting point of view, each new chapter is seen through the eyes of a different character, a POV type that I don’t normally enjoy, I loved this book. It might be because even though the POV shifted, the protagonist was very clearly Cadence, an orphan with a talent for baking just the right cake. I love her. She is charming and flawed and quirky and a little codependent. I can relate. So, I kept reading.

The knots in the title appear in the hands of a character who moves through the distinct threads of the book first in his hot air balloon, then on a bike, and then back in the balloon, a knotted rope dangling from his suit pocket.

The title also aptly describes the many threads that, seeming tangled, draw this diverse cast of characters together. In the end we realize the threads were braided intricately, not tangled at all.

Revision: A Spreadsheet? You're Kidding, Right?

With manuscript mini-me in hand, the next step I take is to jump over to Excel and type into the spreadsheet all the information I’ve intended to keep track of all along, but sometimes forget to update.

Mike Mullins was the first one to introduce me to the idea of using a spreadsheet to keep track of what’s going on in my novel. He shared his basic spreadsheet with me, and I’ve made changes to meet my own needs and issues. Thanks, Mike.

The categories change with each novel I’m working on, but in general I keep track of the following things for each scene. Each of the following categories are posted at the top of the sheet and locked in place

Chapter and Scene

Words

Characters

Setting

Scene Description

Scene Intention

Complication

Risk

Result

Timeline/Date

What do we learn about x (character, event, etc.)

What do we learn about y

What do we learn about z

Other

I could include other categories, but for me, these categories all fit within a single screen on my spreadsheet. They make it easier to see the parts I find it so hard to see once I’ve finished the novel.

In my dream of myself as a very organized writer (a somewhat fictional creation borne out of my own longing), I will update this spreadsheet every day as I’m drafting my next novel. We’ll see how that works out.

For now, I’m creating the spreadsheet from my mini manuscript. I don’t need the manuscript in mini form for this, but it helps. I’m unlikely to edit words that are so small on the page, so it makes the mini manuscript helps me focus on creating a spreadsheet.

I’ll often take some time once I’ve finished the novel to note the word count for each scene. I don’t see any need to track the word count for the whole novel since that changes so much, the scene word count will change, too, but seeing the words as I’m first beginning to revise calls my attention to areas that may be bloated or too thin.

It’s a full day or two’s work to create this spreadsheet, and when I was young and had a more consistent memory for details, I wouldn’t have needed it, but the spreadsheet gives me distance from my work that’s essential for the next steps.

Since the next steps also happen within a spreadsheet, it helps me to start a novel worksheet that I to as needed. The novel I just finished revising has these sheets: overview (the spreadsheet discussed above), braids, character quick sheet, and revision plans. The next novel I’m revising, an historical mystery, will likely add two sheets: clues and history.

Once I’ve created the spreadsheet, it helps me stay focused on the world in my novel. It also makes it easy to find specific scenes, to look at pacing, and to track the growth of each character. Perhaps most importantly, it helps to see the novel again, both as whole and in its parts. And it helps me take the next step, braiding the stories. 

My New Desktop Background

My reader's comment at the end of Knowing, Chapter 1.

Christine de Pizan: Subtlety

Subtlety

Christine de Pizan, 1370 AD

A dead bird

should not have a magnificent tail

yet

the carver delivers the subtlety

and there he is,

the peacock,

roasted

but wearing the clothes he wore

when he was trying

to impress the hens.

I turn away,

take only a small bite

from the tray.

A bite that I hide

under greens

that flip their

curly edges into the air.

Do they mock me?

Do I imagine that

cry from the garden?

The peahens,

screaming in their women’s voices,

as if they know

their mate

dances his final dance,

plumage unfurled

before the king.

Medieval feasts were grand occasions, not simple meals that people ate before they entertained themselves. The feasts themselves were the entertainments, ways to pass the hours after dark in winter or to pass long days when the cold meant there was no work to be done. Guests followed elaborate rituals and up to twenty courses were served. Sometimes between each course and sometimes after specific courses, the cooks would bring out a subtlety, a wondrous, edible object for the enjoyment of all those who were feasting. Spun sugar sculptures were popular, and so were cooked meats that had been carefully reassembled to resemble their living forms.

from Christine de Pizan: A Portrait in Poems

Come to the Playground

Slide

From the top, the world is wide.

I can see farther than I can walk alone.

I'm taller than my dad.

I ride down quick.

The earth jumps up

to greet me with a bump.

From Come to the Playground words and image by Lori Gravley © 2011.

Revision: Going Small as a First Step

My actual first step to revision has been to try and fail repeatedly at revision. There's something to be said about trying, failing, and trying again. But I said a lot of it in my last post.

So, here I'll share the one thing that helped moved the revision forward. I single-spaced my manuscript, made the margins .5 all around and shrunk the font to 7 pts.

Viola. A little mini-me manuscript.

I got the idea of shrinking the manuscript from Darcy Pattison over at writetodone.com (the post is here http://writetodone.com/revise-novel-glance/). Thanks to fellow Sunday morning writer Jude Whelley for sending the link.

I didn't follow any of Pattison’s other advice on what to do once the manuscript was shrunk, but shrinking it down was the perfect first step for the others that followed.

I am a whole-to-part learner. I can write a novel one page, one day at a time, with only a vague plan and a bevy of characters, but once my novel was written, I couldn't see it. I tried spreadsheets, notecards, and post-it notes. All those things asked me to look at parts to envision a whole. That didn't work for me. But 7 pt. font did.

Once I had my manuscript down into a manageable pile, everything was visible (so long as I took off my glasses and put my nose right on top of the paper). With my 34-page novel, I could update my spreadsheet more easily. I could track the character and plot arcs, I could make a visual key for where my characters appeared and where they seemed to disappear for no reason.

And, I could carry those 34 pages with me in a medium binder clip with my character quick notes, my plot braid, my novel calendar, and my character's class schedules. It was easier to get my papers out and flip through each chapter to look for continuity problems.

I’ll talk about those other elements later, but for now, I’ll leave you with this step. Feeling stuck? Shrink your novel in order to see it more clearly.

Some things I’m going to try this week before I print Bed of Bones to revise.

1) Find character names and replace them with highlighted character names (a different color for each character). This will allow me to skip the scan and highlight step I took this time around.

2) Search for common locations. In my novel, the Louvre, Hotel St. Pol, the Seine, the King’s Garden, and Rue this and that are important places that it might be helpful to track. I can search these and highlight them in order to see the movement through space better.