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Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

WIP

When the story won’t speak, pick up another tale

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Stand on stone words

Just a few weeks ago, I decided I needed to shift to another writing project. My contemporary novel, Joanie and Friends, had hit a wall. I was writing, but it was failing to feel original and authentic, like I was just dragging the words out of my characters.

So I remembered an outlined set of rules for a story about magic. It had been bubbling up in my mind frequently, and I would run through my ideas but not put a word down and remind myself I already had Joanie’s story to tell.

But I remembered that I often write on several pieces in different stages: rough draft, cleanup draft, final draft, and final edit, bouncing back and forth feeling very invigorated by the multi-action writing.

My box set of time travel books 1 -3 of the Students of Jump was published along with the fourth in the series late last year. I had run through all my work and had thought delightedly that Joanie would more than fill my time and would benefit with being the only work on my mind. With three narrative voices, it seemed very practical. But I hit that wall at 18K words. I cringed every time I sat down to write. Who would I pick on this time to continue the story?

But back to multi-writing. I reread my notes on that fantasy short story and felt compelled to write. Some 40K words and 5 weeks later, and I have the first half of a novel drafted (not a short story anymore) and a good sense of conflicts and characters figured out. I haven’t felt any impetus to return to my previous WIP and can only suppose that it just wasn’t ready. Standing Stone, the working title of my current roll, seems to have a steady stream of words each night. My average weekly rate is 7K.

When Joanie or Mathilda or Colleen speak up, I’ll stop and listen and write if they have something strong to say, but for now this bit of writing magic is flowing nicely. Maybe knowing there is something else I can turn to is part of what is making this roll so well; the demand that there be words to type isn’t strangling me. Rather each morning more of the story comes to mind, and by the time I am home from work, the next scene is ready for drafting.

So my choice to shift from my contemporary novel and answer the call of a seemingly simple short story about magic was a good one. I’m looking forward to writing every night.

So have you had to pull back from what you thought was a ready-to-go novel and found yourself immersed in an unexpected backup? 

Observation: Classics vs Contemporary writing style

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Classics

I was thinking about Dickens, the Brontës, and Austin vs the current writing guidelines that state one should start with the action and keep things rolling along, active or reactive.  But these classic writers were outstanding providers of fine fiction and they did not follow this advice.  They practiced the immersion method. Wrap the reader in details they can smell, taste, feel and see in a serious case of high definition wordiness.

It was about development, deep examination of thought, motivation, environment, symbolism. Yes, they are classed as literature, and I don’t claim to write literature; however, strong development, a creation of an environment that truly is a place for the characters to “be” in should still be a requirement. And it’s one I struggle with every day that I write. (Notice that sneaky “that I write.” Not every day can be a writing day, ho hum.)

It is this that makes me keep going back into my work-in-progress, adding more to a scene that is not dialogue. More character, more sense of place, more demand for “high definition wordiness.”  But I also go back, remove the excess waste that slipped in among my efforts to immerse my reader. It is a knife edge of care to whittle away at a work, or to graft in another variety to add to the overall flavor and aroma of the reality between the covers.

I recently read Findley’s Time and Again. It was my first time reading this classic time travel book. It took more than half the book for the character to take a simple half hour trip back in time and practically nothing happened while he was there.  There was no rising action until after he returned and even that was a slow build up. I had to make myself slow down and enjoy the scenery, relax and not demand action of the heart racing kind.  In the end, it was very much worth the wait.

After I finish this fourth installment of my time travel series, Students of Jump, I will be working on a contemporary fiction, in first person, no less. A truly tremendous shift in my writing.  But I see it as an opportunity to take the process a little slower, a little more immersion for the reader in my characters’ lives. More build up to a satisfying emotional closing.

My husband loves to watch old movies.  We sat together twice this week watching some classic films that followed that slow buildup method. We found them not just satisfying but thought and discussion provoking. We enjoyed them because they stayed with us. In the days that followed, we continued to refer back to those films and the questions in morality that they posed to the audience. There has to be a middle ground for this process of development of character and purpose and engagement of the reader. That’s my goal.

 What is your take on these styles of writing?  Is there a clear divide or is there a middle ground?