How I Write
(This post was written by Greenwood writer John Rose, author of The Monster Grrls.)
So here's the thing: I was asked to come to a Writers' Guild meeting because I had done a book called The MonsterGrrls, which had some success. We all met at Webster's, which is a sort of public house-type restaurant, and someone raised the question, "How do you keep track of ideas?" Or words to that effect.
Well, for me personally, I tend to keep a lot of my ideas on file in my head, and I kind of do a lot of writing in my head, so when it all finally gets down on paper it kind of ends up how I want it to start with. But I can get away with something like that because I have a weird ability to intensely focus on a project, which isn't something a lot of people have. So one thing I did do when I was writing MonsterGrrls was keep a work journal, called "The How I Did It Files" (after Frederick's dad's journal in Young Frankenstein, which made sense).
MonsterGrrls ended up being a pretty dense story: four monster leads, three auxilary human leads, a large cast of supporting characters (allies, villains, and general nuisances) and two worlds; one pretty much like our own and another being this haunted place where monsters lived. There was also a huge amount of folklore, fable, legend and cryptozoological information about monsters to begin with, so by writing in the journal, I sort of organized a road map of these paths that many others before me had walked and decided what bits I wanted to use. At the end of the day, such a novel required a work journal to help keep everything straight.
When I was done with what I'd written for that day, I'd make notes in The How I Did It Files to finalize the progress I'd made. Sometimes I'd write about where I wanted to go next, other times it would be something like "Finished scene. Dead tired. Going to bed." As the story grew and I came to know the characters, sometimes the writing would be notes on motivation, history, back story and so on. For instance, the entire back story of how Bethany was Turned as a vampire is in the HIDIF, which was retold through her point of view in the final act. This kind of thing is necessary for good character development in writing. It may seem like extra work, but it really wasn't; it was just part and parcel of everything that I did.
When I found something that I thought would fit with a character, I'd make notes. Example: it came to me one day that Frankie's personal hero was Thomas Edison, so a note was made. Eventually, in one scene it was revealed that Frankie has a picture of Edison in her locker at school. It's a small thing, but small things help to make characters come alive and seem like people you know, or want to know.
I did not write a lot of personal stuff in the HIDIF; I felt that it should concentrate only on the book, and though I sometimes did talk to myself about how I felt about something, most of the stuff in the HIDIF was straight notes. Eventually MonsterGrrls began to birth other ideas, which also wound up there, so I have this handy back catalog of stuff I can draw from.
Something else I think is important to how we write: reading. I read as much as possible, and most of what I read has influenced my writing because reading was really how I learned to write. I don't think there's a certain number of books one should have read or a certain kind of book you are supposed to read before you can start writing, but I think that you should read often because it keeps your vocabulary strong and shows you things you can use. One of the reasons I like reading Stephen King so much is because he has a way of getting into his characters' heads and capturing their internal dialogue, which was something I knew I wanted to do with my own characters. By the same turn, I like reading Mark Twain's short stories because they're all pure storytelling; no pretensions and no affectations, just a simple voice and a great sense of humor. And conversely, there are things I didn't read when I wrote MonsterGrrls because I didn't want that influence creeping in--for instance, I stopped reading Harry Potter back then. I didn't want people to say that I'd taken anything from J.K. Rowling, because there was a lot of magic use in her stuff and in mine. I felt it was important that I find my own thing and learn how to do it.
Anyway, that's what I do. The HIDIF is still in my computer, and I still write in it even now. So if this idea helps anybody, feel free to start your own, because some day, maybe there'll be another Mad Scientist who'll find it hidden in the ancestral castle, and read it, and suddenly be stricken with a desire to create his own Creature and send it up to catch the lightning. Which, as I can personally attest, is a lot of fun.
So here's the thing: I was asked to come to a Writers' Guild meeting because I had done a book called The MonsterGrrls, which had some success. We all met at Webster's, which is a sort of public house-type restaurant, and someone raised the question, "How do you keep track of ideas?" Or words to that effect.
Well, for me personally, I tend to keep a lot of my ideas on file in my head, and I kind of do a lot of writing in my head, so when it all finally gets down on paper it kind of ends up how I want it to start with. But I can get away with something like that because I have a weird ability to intensely focus on a project, which isn't something a lot of people have. So one thing I did do when I was writing MonsterGrrls was keep a work journal, called "The How I Did It Files" (after Frederick's dad's journal in Young Frankenstein, which made sense).
MonsterGrrls ended up being a pretty dense story: four monster leads, three auxilary human leads, a large cast of supporting characters (allies, villains, and general nuisances) and two worlds; one pretty much like our own and another being this haunted place where monsters lived. There was also a huge amount of folklore, fable, legend and cryptozoological information about monsters to begin with, so by writing in the journal, I sort of organized a road map of these paths that many others before me had walked and decided what bits I wanted to use. At the end of the day, such a novel required a work journal to help keep everything straight.
When I was done with what I'd written for that day, I'd make notes in The How I Did It Files to finalize the progress I'd made. Sometimes I'd write about where I wanted to go next, other times it would be something like "Finished scene. Dead tired. Going to bed." As the story grew and I came to know the characters, sometimes the writing would be notes on motivation, history, back story and so on. For instance, the entire back story of how Bethany was Turned as a vampire is in the HIDIF, which was retold through her point of view in the final act. This kind of thing is necessary for good character development in writing. It may seem like extra work, but it really wasn't; it was just part and parcel of everything that I did.
When I found something that I thought would fit with a character, I'd make notes. Example: it came to me one day that Frankie's personal hero was Thomas Edison, so a note was made. Eventually, in one scene it was revealed that Frankie has a picture of Edison in her locker at school. It's a small thing, but small things help to make characters come alive and seem like people you know, or want to know.
I did not write a lot of personal stuff in the HIDIF; I felt that it should concentrate only on the book, and though I sometimes did talk to myself about how I felt about something, most of the stuff in the HIDIF was straight notes. Eventually MonsterGrrls began to birth other ideas, which also wound up there, so I have this handy back catalog of stuff I can draw from.
Something else I think is important to how we write: reading. I read as much as possible, and most of what I read has influenced my writing because reading was really how I learned to write. I don't think there's a certain number of books one should have read or a certain kind of book you are supposed to read before you can start writing, but I think that you should read often because it keeps your vocabulary strong and shows you things you can use. One of the reasons I like reading Stephen King so much is because he has a way of getting into his characters' heads and capturing their internal dialogue, which was something I knew I wanted to do with my own characters. By the same turn, I like reading Mark Twain's short stories because they're all pure storytelling; no pretensions and no affectations, just a simple voice and a great sense of humor. And conversely, there are things I didn't read when I wrote MonsterGrrls because I didn't want that influence creeping in--for instance, I stopped reading Harry Potter back then. I didn't want people to say that I'd taken anything from J.K. Rowling, because there was a lot of magic use in her stuff and in mine. I felt it was important that I find my own thing and learn how to do it.
Anyway, that's what I do. The HIDIF is still in my computer, and I still write in it even now. So if this idea helps anybody, feel free to start your own, because some day, maybe there'll be another Mad Scientist who'll find it hidden in the ancestral castle, and read it, and suddenly be stricken with a desire to create his own Creature and send it up to catch the lightning. Which, as I can personally attest, is a lot of fun.
posted by Keetha at 8:18 AM
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