WIP Wednesday
Posted by annastan on October 28th, 2009. Filed under: WIP, Writing Rants.As you might have noticed in my past posts, my WIP has been giving me some trouble. But after meeting with my writing group last Friday and doing some serious thinking over the weekend, I believe I finally figured out what the problem is. My epiphany started when my writing group told me that while they enjoyed the chapters I gave them, they contained too much plot and not enough character. This made me start scratching my head since I’d thought of this as my most character-driven story thus far.
Over the weekend I finished reading How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy in which Orson Scott Card defines four kinds of fantasy: The Milieu Story, The Idea Story, The Character Story, and The Event Story. I realized that while most of my books are Event Stories (something is wrong in the universe and the characters have to struggle to solve it) my WIP takes place in an unbalanced world, but the focus of it isn’t on fixing that world.
The characters’ relationships are supposed to be the most important part of my WIP, but I realized that I hadn’t created a true Character Story (“A story about the transformation of a character’s role in the communities that matter most to him.”) because I’d set up a world for my character to react to, instead of focusing on the transformation she needs to make. Essentially, I’d written a strange crossover of Event Story and Character Story which only wound up equaling a big mess.
On Sunday, I sat down with all these thoughts and bombarded my poor husband with questions until I finally started to get a sense of how to make my story work again. At first I thought it might entail taking out a bunch of plot elements, but then I realized that as long as my character’s desires and motivations were clear, those plot elements could still stay part of the story. Armed with new confidence, I even (gasp!) outlined a few chapters and then started revising. It’s still not perfect but already the story feels a lot more focused.
Usually I don’t worry about story definitions when I’m writing, but in this particular case, keeping in mind Card’s four story types really helped me realize that I was trying to do too much at once. As Card says, it’s possible to combine the different kinds of stories (and I think my MG book After the Failure is absolutely an Event Story mixed with a Character Story), but the way I’d orchestrated my WIP wasn’t tight enough to be any kind of story. Hopefully I’m finally back on the right track.
How are you all doing with your WIPs? Any successes or stumbles along the way?
October 28th, 2009 at 10:17 am
I find I do the same thing when I begin a new WIP: I set up a world for my protagonist to react to. I think I need to spend more time with my characters before I write. I tend to be a pantser, which I’m finding may not be the best way to go. Oh, it’s fine for getting a semblance of a first draft down, but then I really need to rework the whole project. You made me chuckle about the outline because I, too, am thinking I need to go back and outline my first draft of this MG chapter book I’m writing. I also think I’m getting over my aversion to outlining—as long as I can outline in a way that’s comfortable for me.
October 28th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Andrea, it sounds like we have a very similar approach to writing! I’m also a pantser and I tend to jump into the story before I really know my characters. I often get to know them by putting them into different situations, but sometimes I think doing a bit more character work before I actually start writing will save me a lot of revision later on. I’m still not convinced outlines will help me, but I’m trying to use them a bit more.
October 29th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Anna, you sound like me. I’m definitely an event/plot person first and then I work on the characters. But think of it this way, now your story will be even richer once you figure out the characters. I always do this part last. Plot first then character.