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| Red flowers to right. |
Open a fiction book to somewhere in the middle. Pick a page. The first image you find is the starting image in your writing. Take it from there.
If nothing inspires you, start with the red flowers to the right.
Writing
non-linear plot imbedded in linear plot: not intending to confuse the reader
As I have mentioned before, I am working on a revision of the first novel in my Students of Jump. One of the changes I am making is running the two timelines (1979 & 2275) adjacent to each other. I am in the middle of a decision. Should both run chronologically or should one (the 1979 timeline) run chronological, while the future timeline runs non-linear, different scenes appearing based on a commonality. I like how a feature in common brings in a future event that the earlier time event is a result of. At the same time, I worry about my reader getting confused because the events in the future do not run consecutively. Maybe I can explain it like this:
Basic linear plot: Boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, gets girl, looses girl, gets girl back, they live happily ever after. (Let this be the chronological 1979 timeline.)
Non-linear plot: Boy loses car keys, Boy needs to take car downtown, Boy cartwheels over sleeping dog, boy grabs keys off counter, boy must find another way to get to town, boy buys new car, Boy needs new pair of pants. (non-consecutive 2275 and happens both in the future and before the 1979 events would occur.)
With one linear and one non-linear, they might look like this.
Boy loses car keys, Boy meets girl, boy needs to take car downtown, boy falls for girl, boy cartwheels over sleeping dog, boy gets girl, boy grabs keys off counter, boy loses girl , boy must find another way to get to town, boy gets girl back, boy buys new car, they live happily ever after, boy needs new pair of pants.
In order to get the girl, the boy must need a pair of pants and must lose his keys, but these events do not occur in the same time period. One entirely precedes the other.
Is this confusing? Would it make for a confusing novel? You see my dilemma. I won’t know the answer until I put it completely together. Revise that, it is currently in this form. It is me that is confused.
Also note, these are not the actual plots of my novel. Hmmm.
Tuesday Prompt: #41 2012
Go find a hat, either one you have not worn for a very long time or one that belongs to someone else. This is a magic hat. Put it on and sit until you feel the magic vibrate around and through you. Give it color, sensation, dimension; imagine that magic flowing into you, inspiring you. Sit until you can feel the flow. Then hold on to your bootstraps (figuratively, of course) and write.
WordPerfect: my kind of word processing program
I am fully aware that the most popular word processing program out there is Microsoft Word, but my loyalty goes to Corel WordPerfect. I like the way the program is laid out and some features just simply don’t exist in the same way in Word. Reveal codes, for example: I love being able to look at each code spelled out and easy to read and delete as I please or not (a simple toggle switch). I can change formats without finding myself suddenly back in a particular format when I was certain I had changed from outline to word processing or from columns to no column.
The two programs did become very similar over the years (though my favorite features never left WP); however, the version I have now in WP is far different from the new Word which I am still figuring out. I have used both for nearly the same length of time: close to thirty years. But when I work in WP (which I do for everything personal and most especially for my fiction writing), I just sit easy. If I am not familiar with some feature, I can figure it out because I understand WP’s logic. This is not the same with Word, which, though I said I have been using it for years at work, still makes me stumble about.
Recently, my WP began freezing every time I saved my work. I would write a thousand words, go to save and find myself in permanent freeze and no access to all I had written. Heartbreaking, as it happened repeatedly, though I did get smart and save after each page, so I could at least see what I had written and could hand copy it. After a few days I switched my files over to Word so I could work on my book, but I wasn’t happy about it. I assumed it was an update to my computer operating software (Vista) that brought about the problem and since my version of WP was at least ten years old, I thought it was time to up grade. I ordered WordPerfect X5 and couldn’t wait for it to arrive. Now I am not so sure I had the source of the problem correct as the new version suffered from the same problem.
So there were a few days that I was quite frustrated. I tried looking for updates, I researched on the web finding the problem actually began back in 2006, though it did not hit me until this past September. I found suggested solutions, but none worked. Then, a few days ago, I decided to try again. I experimented and used “save as” instead of the icon for “save.” It worked just fine. And two days ago an update came through for WP X5. Now I am back to saving using the icon without freezing. Now that is a quick fix. I love WordPerfect.
Tuesday prompt: #40 2012
Today you will write about discomfort. What does it feel like? Get real descriptive. Most importantly, get uncomfortable. Sit on your seat awkwardly, twist your body around and hold it in place until you are uncomfortable. Don’t eat if your hungry. Hold your arm straight up from your shoulder until it cramps, and then write about how it feels. Don’t imagine; use your own experience to get into the details. If you already have a cold, flu, arthritis, backache, then you are ahead of the game (for once it brings you benefits). Go for the sensation, the imagery of pain, stuffy headedness, tight muscles, stiffness, a sinus headache.
Tuesday prompt: #39 2012
Write about a dream, but not just any dream. Pick one of those that kept sliding into odd, even unrelated scenes that as the dreamer you just accepted. Explore the strangeness of this dream following all its remembered impressions, actions and reactions.
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| Write the twisty dream. |
If you don’t recall all the details, let your mind slide around what you do remember and pull at it until you have seized everything you can from the dream.
If you are one of those who don’t remember your dreams, imagine an image and carry into some foggy focus, let it slip into another image and then another as you track each flight of fancy.
The one thing I ask that you do different with your dream is create a string of connections that holds each event to the next, smooth out the quirky, extra-stair-steps startle effect of the twisting dream. Let take on a sort of logic of its own that may not have been there when you actually dreamed it.