Creating Order Out Of Chaos

“He stepped over the corpses and came face to face with the grim king.  The hosts watched in tense silence, holding their breath.  The black-armored figure loomed in terrible menace over the lean, silk-robed shape, the notched, dripping sword hovering on high.  ‘I offer you life, Conan,’ said Tsotha, a cruel mirth bubbling at the back of his voice.  ‘I give you death, wizard,” snarled the king, and backed by iron muscles and ferocious hate, the great sword swung in a stroke meant to shear Tsotha’s lean torso in half.”
— (excerpt from The Scarlet Citadel, by Robert E. Howard)


Order and Chaos
Where did the week go?  It went by so fast.  I guess that’s what happens when you are constantly racing the clock.  Before I give you my first week’s assessment of ROW80 (Round 2), I want to first talk about my experience so far with Camp NaNoWriMo (here’s my Camper Profile if you want to follow along).  I’ve been enjoying the banter with my cabin-mates and have kept up with my word-count goal there, but I haven’t been satisfied with the quality of my writing output.  I keep slogging along with my “stream-of-consciousness” exercises and “word sprints” there, but I don’t feel like I’m crafting as much story there as I do when I work on my ROW80 projects.  Maybe it's because story-crafting is more than just a word-count; it’s outlining, it’s note-taking, it’s research, and for me, it’s also sketching-out characters and cover designs onto paper (I’m a visual artist, too).  Oh, I’ll dutifully complete what I started at Camp NaNo (hoping my writing will improve there), but ROW80 is my priority and focus.  I separated my ROW80 word-count from my Camp NaNo word-count because I wanted it to be a truer reflection of my writing progress here.

Okay, now onto ROW80.  The first full week has been decently productive, although it didn’t go in the direction I had intended.  I thought I was going to start plotting one of my three stories, working on the opening scene, but instead, I spent the majority of the week developing some of my main characters and villains.  Why the detour?  I didn’t feel I knew enough about their motives to continue plotting.  Because plots are driven by the motives of the main character and the villain, I had to try to delve a little deeper into their personalities (and I’m glad I did).  I’m starting to see how all these story elements (plot, character, setting, etc.) have to be developed simultaneously as I write the first scene, and beyond.  For me, writing a novel is like painting a landscape on a canvas; first the artist makes broad-strokes across the canvas, blocking-in all the shapes and colors so that he can see the whole picture.  Then, when he is satisfied with the composition, he comes back later to add the fine details.  That’s how I approach novel-writing; loosely blocking-in plots, swapping out characters, and altering scenes and settings until I am satisfied with the general structure of the story.  Then, I make consecutive passes at the structure to fill in the details, building upon the layers beneath.  I’m constantly jumping around trying to balance the story as a whole.  That’s my writing process.  Sounds chaotic, huh?   What is your writing process?  Are you a linear writer who starts from the opening scene and works straight through to the ending?  Or do you, like me, jump around, working on Act-1 while also working on Act-3 so that you know how to guide Act-2; hitting the "signpost scenes" first, then the "transition scenes" in between?

That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
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