I have mentioned before — here, on my website, in talks — that I was profoundly influenced by Madison Smartt Bell’s book, NARRATIVE DESIGN. Every year, I break down the work in process into some sort of visual pattern.
For the past two weeks, I’ve been trying to write around a structural problem in Book #15. (Ah, yes, those colorful Lippman titles for works-in-progress. Mary Kay Andrews told an audience at Sykesville’s A Likely Story that she can’t begin without a title. But, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, I am not Mary Kay Andrews, nor was I meant to be, but sometimes I wish I were.) I had clearly come to the end of Part One and started writing my way into Part Two, but . . . something was wrong. Time to get out the index cards.
I found a packet in neon colors and divided the existing work into three chapter-by-chapter groups. I used green cards for the main character’s present-day point of view, yellow for her life in 1985, orange for another character’s life in 1985. And, sure enough, when I had everything graphed out, I found the missing chapter and — bonus — a nice little bit of symmetry which paid off the decision to start the book with the “harder” opening. (That was discussed here earlier.)
I don’t know how to upload photos here, but Facebook folks can see them over on my page. If you’re a TMP person who hasn’t “friended” me on Facebook, it’s not hard. Just send me a private message.
Laura, I’d love to have you “friend” me on Facebook.
Thanks for not mocking all the typos I just fixed, not to mention that one run-on sentence. But I’m sure I’ve left some behind!
Well, I thought the typos and the run-on were done for effect – sort of the literary equivalent of grunge rock.
Anyway, as Marjorie of CT said about index cards – those things are indeed the best. It allows one to literally ‘sort things out’ (or alternatively, reshuffle the deck) – while avoiding silly continuity errors.
My fine young son and daughter really really really wanted to see Transformers, and they had never experienced a drive-in movie theater before, so a plan was made and executed, last week.
The short review of the evening: The drive-in experience was genuinely wonderful, but the movie? They coulda’ really used some index cards!
Okay, I am dazed and confused once again! I thought that your Life Sentences site on Facebook was the only one that you had going. I didn’t realize that you had your own LL page! No wonder I couldn’t find what you were talking about at one point a while back. Now I realize that it’s because it wasn’t on the LS page!
Glad to see a post from you today, Laura. A week without hearing from you on TMP is like a week without…sunshine? No, like a week without an interesting, thought provoking post!
Thanks.
p.s.–Neon index cards are the best! I had an idea for a movie script many years ago and I still have the index cards for it posted on one of my cork boards. Too bad that I am not talented enough to actually write it as it would be a good movie. But the index cards are neat. Takes place in Boston int he 1800s. Based on a true story. Maybe some day….
I’ve been using color-coded post-its on my white board for screenplays ever since hearing a writer much better than myself talk about the advantages.
Mine are always character-oriented, but isn’t it amazing how working out character stuff always seems to fix everything else as well?
PS – I love karen’s #6 comment. I have no idea why, but anytime, literally ANY TIME, I hear something that intentionally or unintentionally references that play, it makes me smile. Like, stop and smile.
I must climb into the Way Back machine and try to find whatever sense memory I have about Medoff’s piece.
isn’t it de rigeur to have colour coordinated highlighters, post-its, and notecards? i would have expected nothing less from you, and am not at all surprised that the use of the cards helped to ‘see’ better some of the issues. and to be a cause for some pat-on-the-backage.
as my junior high school chemistry professor used to say, ‘to fail to plan is to plan to fail.’
i have recently seen marketed a folding board for writers, so you can carry around something like a hinged game board for sticking post-its and shuffling them around. this is a tad much even for an uber-geek such as me, but i had a good laugh when i saw it–and the niche marketing it signified.
i love it when an oldie-but-goodie shows that it is still a goodie.
typos? hunh?
//karen
p.s. welcome back, red ryder.
I’ve never been able to get on board with the index card thing. I’ll write up an outline on a couple sheets of paper with a little blurb about each chapter so I can keep the whole plot in my head but that’s about it/ I do agree with Guyot that fixing the character stuff always fixes my plot stuff.
And Red Ryder is always the play I wish I would have written. It’s like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf with guns.
Bryon,
No one way. Cards might not be right for you. B
Also, remember this is a hindsight project. I’m not planning here (although I did find the one missing chapter). I’m diagramming what’s been done to see if it’s relatively balanced.
Narrative Design (and index cards, come to think of it) has helped me through more than one manuscript too, Laura. But really, while you may want to be Mary Kay Andrews from time to time, I kinda wish Madison would just write for me now and then, or at least go through my manuscripts with the microscope he did in Narrative Design, leaving me fab notes in the margins as to where all the holes were! Good luck on continuing with Book 15!
I have some index cards.
I use index cards instead of a PDA. They are more reliable. hee hee
I’d love to be your friend on any book at all but facebook will do. I kind of like MySpace better so if you wind up there too please send me an invite, thanks. I’ll go to them both and see if I can request that you add me or I can add you, do the shimmy, and/or the chicken dance to get it done.
OKay enough of that now. What I’m totally interested in is that you are organizing a new book. I want to go there with you wherever that leads.
I use index cards for a lot of different things so the colored ones work best for me. I just found a poem that I forgot all about, it’s pretty good so I guess I’ll tune it up ad put it with all of my other writings.
I hope your summer is going well. I’m off now to do some really cool music. See ya