My treadmill: an oldie but a goodie

Book 1, Standing Stone Series

• An idea would come to me. I’d sit down and
  write. Then stop where my idea ended.
• I’d lay down on the couch and think about a
  question, such as “How is he going to deal with his daughter’s unwillingness to talk to
  him?” Fifty percent of the time, this resulted in an unplanned nap.
• I would have a title and a vague notion of how
  the character was dealing with a situation or causing a situation 
•  I’d sit at the computer and hope more words were
  going to come soon
• I would develop when I redrafted, slide in side
  stories and look for inconsistencies
• Writing a novel was a yearlong process
• No cover
• A working title (very much subject to change)
• Ill-defined characters, setting and plot that took a lot more work to develop and clean up
• One novel at a time
• One book a year and a full-time job

• An idea comes to me. I get on the treadmill and walk (fast and on
  an incline: don’t want you thinking this is a walk in the park ) and
  hash out the idea, Socratic method.
• I write through the developed scenes (after that
  visit to the treadmill)
• Title, character with backstory and fully-fleshed
  appearance and behaviors. Distinct main conflict and side conflicts. 
•  I’m at the computer to write, not sit
• Development occurs in process, daily, a much
  more recursive process that results in a better first draft
• Redrafting occurs daily and is more about layering in deeper
  description, searching out inconsistencies, clarifying, and copy editing in an
  ongoing approach (more about this in another post)
• Writing a first draft of a novel takes a month
  and a half, average word count 90K (summer time writing – six months during the active school year)
• A cover (changes subtly over time, but the main
  concept is set)
• A title (still may change but rarely) 
• Well-defined characters with greater depth,
  setting is full of sensory details, the plot is organized and part of a greater
  series
• Three novels in development and linked together
  by plot, setting or characters
• 3+ books a year and a full-time job

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Would you consider collaborating with another writer?

I would have to know them very well and feel that we had similar writing styles and a united focus on the plot and characters. Of course, after saying that, I must admit I have been talking to two people about collaborating.

My husband and I have a couple of ideas we would like to turn into a series of books. Though we have never worked on a creative endeavor of this sort together before, lately I have been finding him very easy to brainstorm with. He has often over the years offered ideas that I have found intriguing and inspiring. Usually I write notes down about what he came up with and look forward to when I can work them into my writing schedule. Some have turned into short stories, but at this time none are published.

After I finish editing Standing Stone 3 and drafting Students of Jump 5, I hope to begin working on a novel he and I recently brainstormed together. And we have a second planned out as well. At this point, I will probably be the one writing while he contributes to the process in brainstorm sessions. But we may migrate into actually writing a novel in tandem or in pieces together in the future.

Another individual I am in discussion about collaborating is my daughter. We both are very busy, creative types so we are trying to figure out how we can make this work. Recently, we chatted via Skype so we could brainstorm the organization of an idea we have in mind. We have already determined which parts will be mine to write and which are hers. The unusual structure of the piece makes it possible for us to write separately, share and adjust what we’ve written. Also the idea we have is more non-fiction than fiction, most definitely not science fiction or fantasy. A contemporary work based on personal experience ~ fictionalized true to life, perhaps is a good description. LOL, without actually describing it.

As for writing with an author I am not related to, that has not come up yet. I’m not against the idea; I just have not had any reason to consider it.

#collaboration
#writing
#interview

The post A Stab at a Self-interview: Question 12 ~ collaboration first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

Partner and group brainstorming: I use this technique in my creative writing class. We gather around the table and discuss ideas. After we settle on one, I step back and write down each plot point or character decision as they work through them and build a consensus.

Now and then I read through what they have so far, and then the group is off again revamping, adding, changing.  Epiphanies fly about their heads, like those crazy fireworks you set on the ground and dodge as they zip off in random directions.  My students ram through half-baked thoughts as quickly as their mouths can speak them, making connections and changes to enhance emerging motifs.  And each student adds more flame and fires-up another idea.

Brainstorming

That’s brainstorming for strong writing.  That is the achievement of more than one mind reaching for development, precision, cohesion. I love those moments because they don’t just make for great writing, they make for the truly creative moment. If you have ever been a runner or done any kind of exercise that demands individual focus for more than half an hour, you may have felt the sensation that makes you feel as if you could go on running forever; the pace is perfect, the weather, the degree of breathing.

You float along without really feeling your feet hit ground or the sensation of running at all, almost an out of body experience. Time seems to stands still.  When two or more people are on the same run through an idea, it’s like that glorious running experience.  It feels as if you could create forever and you do not want to stop.

Very recently, just this past weekend, I felt like that.  I shared an idea I have been mulling over for a few months.  Soon my writer pal, Marcy Peska, and I were digging into the characters, their concerns, histories, families, questions, possibilities and my idea took on more life, seemed to breath a few halting breaths each time Marcy or I sent off another email between us.  The characters that had been slipping into my creative moments stopped being just skin deep. 

Sharing with Marcy and gleaning tidbits from her knowledge and experience made for development I would have taken much longer to come around to by myself.  What I love most about brainstorming with Marcy is that her questions are framed so that my characters are real people.  “Does Joan have Alzheimer’s in her family?”  Now I have to sit down with Joan and find out about her family history and for very good reason.  Colleen in a matter of seconds became even stronger because she is the type of person Marcy likes.  That alone added considerable depth to what was already a strong-minded woman.

Brainstorming with another writer or an interested friend is my kind of idea development. I am sure many of you use this same process. Is it a major factor in your process?  What others benefit idea development?

+Marcy Peska
#creativity
#brainstorming

The post Creativity: round robin brainstorming can lead to strong writing first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

Then a song came on the radio by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, “I just dropped in (to see what condition my condition was in).” As I listened, the story of a man who found a means to travel in time started playing out in my mind.  I liked the image of him “dropping in to see what condition [his] condition was in.”  And it was there that the idea for my book came from. I actually didn’t start writing it for several months. Each night at work, I would run the story through my mind again and again, working out the characters, problems he would run into, who his friends were, where and when it was all happening.  And every once in a while, that song would play on the radio again and refresh the images in my mind.  So finally I sat down and began writing out the story.

The book has evolved a lot since then, changing, repeatedly edited, redrafted, etc. I thought of it as the book I was learning to write on, though I had written two other books before I began it.  It seemed to be the one I most wanted to make work.  I went on to write a sequel for it and then a third and fourth, thinking all the time that one of them would be good enough to get published.  But I never really made the effort to publish.  Oh, I did some half-hearted efforts:  I sent the manuscript to a contest once and a synopsis of it to a publisher another time.  Nothing came of it.  I’ve redrafted it several times since then.

So here we are in the digital age.  I can self-publish via Smashwords.com and see if someone can enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed thinking of it, writing it and redrafting it.  When I think of that book, it reminds me of the days in the factory and how much it made the time go by for me.  And I still think of it as the book I learned to write on.  And I think each one since has been an improvement. a step forward in the skill of story telling.  So it isn’t the best book out there.  I hope one day, someone will call it an early Gibbs, the one to read to get a sense of where I started. Where one can “just drop in to see what condition my condition was in.”

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