Vampy Black Project: Organization

One thing I love about Scrivener 2 is the ability to cut up a chapter into subsections, group those together, and move them around. We ran into an issue at the end of Darthaniel's Vampy Black Project, which I am working on him with, where the end of the book did not feel like it flowed as well as we would have liked. There was nothing wrong with the text, it just seemed like the tension and drama could be increased and we just couldn't place our finger on it.

Last night I tried mixing things up. I split chapters up and combined them in a logical fashion where the action in each built upon each other. We had a structure where we had start-to-stop chapters, where a situation would begin and resolve all in the same chapter. They were great for blocking out what happened, but when they were placed together, they didn't flow together naturally, and I got the feeling I spent too much time away from one character while we read the next.

I don't like it when you get the feeling you need to skim to get back to the character you really care about, and that is what I felt was happening. Even though, yes, everything was great in the individual chapters, in the order they were, I just did not get that sense of urgency and equal importance.

So I cut the few ending chapters we were working on apart into logical chunks, and reshuffled them.

It worked very well. The same text was broken apart at logical breakpoints and pauses in the action, and then worked back together so the end of the book starts working very well as an interlaced, real-time story. Each chapter still has a single point-of-view, but the chapters flip characters rapidly as the end of the book draws towards a crescendo, and you get this sense of tension that I felt was lacking how the work was organized before.

You just don't get that organizational ability in other programs and traditional word processors, which is why I just love Scrivener so much for writing and these final editing phases. I can block out a rough draft anywhere, and preferably on a distraction free device, but when it comes time to layer, check, and craft structure - Scrivener is the place to go. Although I have written books in Scrivener from draft to release, and it does that well too.

So the next time you feel something isn't working right it may not be the story at fault, it could just be organization, flow, and presentation. If you cut things up, reshuffle paragraphs, and change the flow you just may see something you hadn't before. You may discover that the problematic feeling you had was just how things were ordered instead of the words themselves.

CLS Romance Project: +10% to Fix the Purple Monkeys

I always end up adding an extra 10% to my word count on each editing pass I do, and this is true with my CLS Romance Project, where I am up to about 31,000 words. I credit this workshop for a lot of my editing work, and I am constantly adding things which I found was short-changed the first time through:

Wednesday Workshop: Purple Monkeys and Padded Rooms

I just love that workshop, and yes I wrote it, but it forces me to slow down and rethink rushing through a scene. To me, those details of what things look like bring in so much to my work, and all sorts of interesting observations start appearing in my writing as characters begin reacting to where they are and what other characters look like.

It is instantly great stuff, and it not only gives the reader an idea of what things look like, it gives the reader an insight into the character observing the scene and how they think about the world. a great description goes both ways, it colors the world for the reader, and it also colors the character observing that world to the reader.

When we write a first draft, we invariably rush to get the scene done. When we come back, we need to pay attention to grammar and correctness, but also sound and tone. And finally, we need to pay attention to painting that picture in a reader's mind. That is what I love doing, coming back to a scene and then seeing all the fun little places that I can paint-by-numbers some great detail and visuals back into the work.

You can go too far, and spend a lot of time describing things which do not need description, but you need to pay your dues at other times. If you can go through several chapters and still have no idea of what a character is wearing or looks like, you have a serious problem. I love great dialog, but one things I notice about a lot of books with great dialog is a distinct lack of description, as if somehow a character's words alone will tell a reader what that character looks like or what they are wearing.

You need to slow down, and nail this stuff. Readers need to be filled in on the basics, and you need to set the scene. Characters needs to be described at least once, and even the most minor of details can be very telling.

But yes, I find it is very helpful to use the purple monkey and padded room rule when you edit, because it forces you to think about things which may have just sailed right by you through several editing passes. These missed descriptions are great opportunities to use to not only paint your world a little for your readers, but to make your characters come to life in ways which reflect the world you just described.