Friday, November 7: Bandersnatches
FAST TRACK FICTION WRITING
by Steve Steinbock
This month is NaNoWriMo. Sounds like a disease, doesn’t it? Or a microscopic poetry-writing machine. But NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month) is an annual event started in 1999 by Chris Baty in which writers and regular folk sit down with the goal of hammering out 50,000 words of fiction in thirty days. The first year there were twenty-one participants. This year there are well over 100,000.
And I’m one of them.
It’s a neat idea. The premise is that you put your internal critic to bed for the month and just write, and have fun doing it. As I type this week’s column, I’ve written 3,301 words. That amounts to about twelve typed double-spaced pages (and about half of what I should have written by now in order to reach the 50,000 word goal by November 30. But who’s counting?)
The image below shows an ongoing tab of my progress:
I’m happy with what I’ve written so far. But there are elements of NaNoWriMo that I can’t buy, hook, line, and sinker. One of the theoretical premises of NaNoWriMo can be summed up in the title of Chris Baty’s writing guide, No Plot? No Problem! His belief is that anything more than the most cursory bit of planning is too much. Thinking too hard about your writing will bog it down. Throw caution to the wind, he says. Just write. “Aiming low,” Baty says, “is the best way to succeed.” If the result is unreadable garbage, you can devote December to fixing it.
As a mystery reader, writer, and advocate, I happen to like plots. Long tomes that meander aimlessly bore me. Writers who make bestseller lists with acerbic prose, biting characterization, and psychological flow-of-consciousness dribble make me want to join the N.R.A.
My colleagues and I have discussed the modes and relative merits of plotting here on the pages of Criminal Brief. I’m not advocating any particular system. And I’m certainly not suggesting that an elaborate scene-by-scene synopsis is necessary before a writer puts pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard, as it were). But when a writer sets out with no goal in mind, how will he know when he gets there?
Even John Steinbeck knew that Travels with Charley would bring dog, man, and truck back to Sag Harbor.
(Then again, the final pages of Steinbeck’s Travels make it obvious that the author didn’t plan very well. The final leg of his trip, from Texas back to Long Island are written in a rushed twenty-five pages).
So, Steinbock (as opposed to Steinbeck) is a believer in planning and plotting. But at the end of the day, I have to admit that NaNoWriMo is a good idea. It is getting me to write. I’m spending more time telling the story than I am thinking about it. I’m putting words on paper. And that’s a good thing.
Wish me luck.
All the best, Steve. If by some chance you don’t finish the month with a novel the experience should still tell you about your writing strengths and weaknesses. And hey, you can even carry that into December.
I heard a writer advise newbies to forget plotting too carefully. She didn’t believe readers would notice holes in plots. I strongly believe otherwise.
John Floyd and I had a lengthy discussion about plots. As software architects, we’re acutely aware of structure and we have to make certain all the pieces fit together. I suspect James is much the same way and the one story of Rob’s I read suggests he’s much the same way.
Stories may be character driven, but the vehicle has to be plot.
Good luck, Steve!
But then there is Edgar-winner Arthur Maling who says the only way to write is to type “Chapter 1” and just let things flow.
I enjoyed hearing him argue with Stuart Kaminsky, who outlines for a couple of months and then writes the book in a couple of weeks.
Neither convinced the other even a little.
Or how about pulp writer Lester Dent, who had his typewriter facing a blank white wall. He would stare at the wall and soon characters would appear and the action began. Lester sat there writing down whatever took place. I tried it myself but all I saw was a fly moving from one side of the wall to the other. Not much plot there and too few characters.
I once heard that Eudora Welty disliked plots and plotting. She said stories with plots are often heavy and flat and ponderous. (Don’t ask me to explain that; that’s just what I heard. Besides, I believe pretty much exactly the opposite.)
The funny thing is, I’ve read a lot of Miss Welty’s fiction, and she DID write plotted stories. They aren’t “action” plots, but there’s plenty of social and family conflict. I suppose she probably just meant the most important thing, to her, was the depth of the characters. Hard to argue with that.
And best of luck from me, Steve!
Thank you, everyone. Now back to writing!
Craig Rice actually wrote an article on how to write a novel where she described setting up the typewriter, putting in the paper, typing in the title and “Chapter One” and then said that from here on in, the writer was on her/his own! And she could really write like that!!!
Craig Rice kept herself well lubricated! That’s how she wrote.
A lot of crime writers in those days drank a lot. It may loosen the wheels of imagination, but it’s hardly recommended.
(So says Steve as he takes another pull from his bourbon).