Getting Somewhere

                                                                                                 Pat Zabriskie

The next nine days, we scribes, will work on chapters 4 and 5 of Wiesner’s book, First Draft in 30 Days. This experience has been challenging, instructional, perplexing, enlightening, and just plain fun. At one stage or another I’ve felt them all.

This past week I worked on “incorporating” my summary outline, scene notes, and all sorts of things into my “formatted outline.” And some days, I’ve spent time just writing scenes. Not sure where they’ll all go, but I have a glimmer of hope that these elements will indeed come together.

At this stage, the author warned us that our material may look like a big mess right now. I’m glad she said that because mine is a mess of folders and notes and scenes and sometimes I feel surrounded by giant piles of paper (I’m not), but then I make progress in getting the correct folders around me.

This semi-order suits me and I take off hither and yon where the characters or plot takes me. Then it’s fun again.

One delightful surprise has been my ability to stay at the desk and work longer than I imagined I could. Last year, I was ill and out of it. The beginning of the year marked a turnaround in my health and I’m enjoying it. But I wondered if the weariness of last year’s pain would follow me into work time. It didn’t. (Thank you, Lord.)

As a group, we’ve had interruptions and necessities intrude on our writing time, and we probably won’t accomplish the project in 30 days. Nonetheless, we expect to see completion not too long into July.

No matter, we are proving to ourselves that we can indeed work better and accomplish more with a goal and with friends sharing the experience. 

Read On                                                                Pat Zabriskie

This week’s assignment was Research. The book gave us 1-6 days. I thought, This will be a cinch. What will I do with the rest of the week. Ha!

That was before I read Chapter 4 of Wiesner’s First Draft in 30 Days. I was flabbergasted. Chapter 4 dumps us into the meat of the story. To help us there were seven worksheets. Gulp! Now I know why we were allotted six days.

One sheet deals with characters, their idiosyncrasies, unique way of speaking, favorite saying, mannerisms or tags.

Now we’re getting down to the nitty gritty. Next is a fact sheet—what somebody did and where. Then two timeline sheets, and, of course, the suspects list, followed by motives and alibis.

And I haven’t even gotten to worksheet 15 which has five pages spanning the beginning, middle and end. These pages deal with conflict, which we all know, is what moves the story along and keeps the reader turning pages.

All those, plus lots of short-term goals which are thwarted, disappointing the characters, who react, letting us see more deeply into them.

I hate to distress my characters, but without conflict there’s no story—so I’ll be wrestling with these worksheets and putting my beloved characters up a tree, through the wringer, up the creek without a paddle, and down the tubes.

If we all survive, I’ll talk to you next week.

What A Week!

This week four members of Six Rural Writers group embarked on a fascinating journey. Each of us is writing a book.

Each of us began with a fat folder of notes and some chapters or scenes written. One writer had written hers all the way through, but it came up short.

We chose First Draft in 30 Days by Karen S. Wiesner as our guide. And boy, has she put us to work! I had character sketches in my files, but Ms. W. had a worksheet that asked for information I hadn’t even thought of.

Oh, I had a picture of my hero in my mind, but I didn’t know his background. I only knew one inner conflict he had. I didn’t ask him what his external conflicts were.

I had a foggy notion of what the setting was. It involved a 1700s house and an old theatre on an estate, but where was it? And in what year does my story occur?

Next came research. I knew I’d have to do that, and I’m sure glad for the internet. I’ve already found such interesting material. In the first chapter, I was instructed to make a Research List.  How would I get all that done? Not to worry, the next chapter gives me 1-6 days for research. No sweat. This will be fun. Maybe I’ll make house plans of the mansion and the theatre. Pictures from the internet anyhow, so that when my character walks into the “drawing room,” I’ll know what kind of antique footstool he falls over.

Then came Plot Sketch. Okay, I got that one down. What’s this on the worksheet—Story Goal, Romantic Thread, Subplot Threads 1-7, Plot Tension, Release, Downtime, Black Moment, Resolution?

No, I don’t have that thought out. I thought the plot sketch would be like back cover copy, the gist of the story. But I did the worksheet, and now I know a lot more about my story. I have six subplots running through the book. I’m even more interested in the story now.

I’ve had this material in a drawer for a number of years—didn’t know how to proceed. Thought it would take forever. But just after a week, the pages I’ve produced and the information I’ve gained, tell me that if I keep working this, I will indeed have a rough draft in 30 days.

I’ll let you know how it’s going next week.