Fishing for Plot Bunnies

"After many years of close observation and data collection, I hypothesise that the plot bunny (scientific name: fiction distractus) is most commonly found in the presence of its more adapted relative a written work-in-progress, fiction novella. The plot bunny is easily recognised by its brightly coloured fur coat. This outer skin has evolved to attract the creature's elusive prey - the writer species, which is believed to inhabit libraries. Although writers are able to co-exist peacefully with fiction novella and lingua poetica, the plot bunny has the ability to override writers' mental processes and disrupt the calm symbiosis with other forms of words. The plot bunny then uses the writers' mental processes to feed and into fiction novella - often at the cost of another written work-in-progress."

~ Extract taken from: "A Treatise on the Behaviour and Development of Plot Bunnies in Writer Communities" by The Society for the Protection of New Novels from Plot Bunnies (2015) Handbook.  

 

(Disclaimer: I invented those Latin names and I have no idea if they're actual Latin or what they would mean, but I'm back at university so I felt like starting this off this post with an academic note)

Plot Bunnies are dangerous. They can really cause havoc when you're trying finish a novel that you've bee writing for ages. They shine, glitter and entice you with their siren's call until you're stepping off the writing boat you've captained for months. Then you drown. 

They always appear when you don't want them, but, when you haven't worked on a novel in months and need something new...the ocean is empty.

(I realise that I'm creating a very confusing image, talking about aquatic plot bunnies, but if anyone would like to do some artistic magic to produce one I'm sure we would all enjoy seeing it)

I haven't had pulled a real, wonderful plot bunny from my mind in ages. In a way, it makes me worries. I have been writing - a few short stories here and there from equally short flashes of inspiration - but I miss having a novel to dedicate my time to.

I've tried using my usual plot bunny bait. Pinterest, movies, new music...but I haven't had that spark, the jerk of a plot bunny biting and demanding to be written. It seems that I have to try a different tactic to attract a plot bunny. I'm going to provide its prey: a novel in progress.

How? I'm rewriting an old project. A half-decent story that I wrote in Grade 11. The story itself was pretty good (blowing my own trumpet here, but my writing is usually so bad I deserve to brag about something good every now and then), so I've been meaning to work on the rest of the book's layers in a rewrite. The effort of working on something as distraction-prone as a rewrite is bound to attract a plot bunny. I hope.

This post was written in line with this month's theme, The Ideas We Carve.

xx Munira  

Layering

I've been thinking about books in terms of layers a lot lately. Each aspect of writing forms a layer. You get the basic ones that every book needs - story and characters. Then you get the other layers - plot, style, theme, setting/world-building, concept - which aren't always necessary but add to the flavour of the book when they're created well. A good book has the basic layers done well, but a great one has the basic layers and the additional layers all on point.

When I write, I usually only succeed in creating a solid story layer and a half-decent plot. Does it make for a good book? Not really, but I like to think that my writing *is* readable. I constantly tell myself that when I rewrite and edit, I can add on more layers and improve the ones I already have. This is very true, but I am the world's laziest rewriter - which is terrible, since most of writing is rewriting. My impatience makes me jump to my next project and I procrastinate on the rewrite. I've been procrastinating on rewriting one of my novels for three years now, and I just never seem to start.

I like to think of the writing process as having its own internal layers as well. There's the basics - grammar, putting a decent sentence together that means what you want it to, dialogue - but you can also get really fancy with by adding more layers. Descriptions, body language, metaphor and simile. These layers turn a bland page into something that comes to life. Although I'm bad at adding on the larger layers and lazy to rewrite, I'm pretty good at adding on these in-writing layers. When I have to get a scene out of my head, it's often the dialogue that I want to put on paper and the important action. So, after I've gotten a scene down, I start layering. I go back to the start of the scene, fill in the setting and description, show what my characters are sensing and turn a bit of dialogue into something that's simply better. 

Thinking about books in terms of layers makes writing one a lot less intimidating. The cool thing about layers is that you can keep adding them on as you get better. I've seen it happen with published authors, comparing their early books to their later books. The better they get, the more layers the book has and the better the quality of the layers. You don't need to write a book that's got every layer perfect the first time. Just work on your writing, one layer at a time.

//

Since this post turned out to be a lot shorter than I intended, I thought I'd include a short update on where I am with my writing currently. I've started a new novel and I've completed two chapters, but, I don't know what the plot is yet. All I have to go on is three main characters and that it's high fantasy. Writing this way is exciting and terrifying, and I'll either end up with something brilliant or a huge mess. Thankfully, the writing is going easily for me so I hope I can keep it up.

~Munira

The Red Pen of Annihilation

Okay, so perhaps not quite the right word, and perhaps a little dramatic. But that’s what the editing process sometimes feels like – like you’re completely ripping into your story and changing it. I’ve just finished the second draft of The Day It Rained so I thought I would talk a bit about editing. 

This is only the second time I’ve edited a whole novel, as this is only the second novel I have finished! It seemed like a daunting task the first time, and I wasn’t sure how to approach it. Every writer has a different method of re-drafting. Some people completely tear their books apart and re-order everything. I tend to plan so much beforehand that the basic order of events already make sense (hopefully, anyway) so the structure is all sorted.  

First when I edit, I print out my novel and put it in a ring binder, and then I read through it with a red pen. I don’t usually do this right after finishing writing it. I think it is good to have a break (maybe months, maybe even a year) so that you can look at it with fresh eyes. Once I have read it through the marked on grammar errors or things I think need changing/improving, I type up the second draft. 

Most advice says not to worry about grammar and sentence-level editing at first and to focus on the bigger picture. I prefer to do it the other way around. I can’t stand to have a draft that isn’t grammatically correct so I tend to edit the wording and sentence structure type things first. 

It is really hard to see yourself where your novel needs improving sometimes, so I always get feedback from other writers, because they always seem to find things that I never would have spotted myself. 

The question I always wonder about, is how do you know when you’ve edited enough? How do you know when your manuscript is ready? After all, there’s no such thing as perfection, so how do you know when to stop? I don’t know the answer to this question. The Water That Sings is halfway through a third draft and, as said before, I just finished a second draft of The Day It Rained. I’m not sure where to go with them next, so I think the way forward is to get some people to read them and see what they say. 

In some ways, the editing process is harder than actually writing the book! At least, that’s what I find anyway. This is partly because I don’t want to ruin it by changing something and making it worse, and also it’s hard to see what needs working on when it is your own writing. As writing takes practice, so does editing. 

M.T.

The Process of Something New

I'm a novelist. I don't really have the precision to write short stories really well and I generally don't enjoy writing them as much as I enjoy working on full-length novels. I love to see the word count stack up into the thousands as my story twists, turns and unfolds. So when I start on something new, I'm either in for the long haul or I'm wasting my time with a project that's not going anywhere. Although plot bunnies are everywhere when you open your mind to them, it can be difficult to choose which stories are worth committing to and which should be discarded. But, I have system which sometimes works for me. It might not work for you - everyone has their own, unique writing process - but it's worth sharing anyway because starting to write a novel is one of the most tricky parts of the process.

It all begins with an idea. This can come in any form - a character, a concept or a "what if..." moment. I usually jot down my immediate inspiration in a notebook and then let the idea sit in my head for a few days (or weeks) to gather more inspiration. If it stays in my head, then it's a sign that it might be an idea worth pursuing.

Next, I write a short "pitch" or description, quite similar to the blurb you find on the back of a book. It gives me a general sense of direction about the plot and the characters, leaving enough room for me to play around and change things. I rarely plan a story before I write it, because I prefer to see where the plot and characters take themselves, but having a pitch helps me keep the story on track and within a genre. 

Once I have my pitch sorted out, I start with the first chapter. This first chapter doesn't often stay around very long before I delete it, but it gets me started writing and sets me up to write a first chapter that I can actually use. Somewhere around this point, I make a Pinterest board for the story I'm writing to keep my inspiration, setting and character ideas all in one place. Whenever I'm short on inspiration and I don't know what to write, I have a quick look at my Pinterest board and that gives me a boost to keep on writing.

The downside of not planning a story in advance is that you never know whether you're going to have an actual plot or not. More often than not, this is how my story ideas get discarded. I finish a chapter or two, then realise that the story doesn't exactly have anywhere to go and I end up scrapping the idea before it reaches 10 000 words. I use 10K as a benchmark for my stories - if I can write the first 10K with ease, then it's a story I should keep working on because I'm fully invested in it by then. If not, then the chances are great that it's a story that I can't commit to.

At least, this is the system that I tell myself I'm going to follow, but, in reality, my starting process isn't quite the same every time. While it generally starts off like this, it softens into something more organic and chaotic. The processes for each novel are different, because each novel is different. In fact, the process that my last completed first draft looked more like this:

1) Idea popped into my head from a dream

2) I wrote the opening chapter, then three more that followed a series-like pattern

3) A greater plot appeared out of nowhere

4) I wrote a pitch and sailed past 10K

5) I made a Pinterest board for it and scribbled out some key plot-points on a page

6) I started posting my story on Wattpad

To this day, that novel (called The Raven Conspiracy) is my most successful project on Wattpad. I wrote its sequel, taking none of the above into account (except for the 10K point - that remained my benchmark). I'm currently between novels, but I'm following my process. It has sparked off a new novel idea, but, I haven't been writing it long enough to reach the 10K mark. Maybe I'll stick with it and the process will change, maybe it won't. I won't really know if I've carved my way into a new novel until I've reached 10 000 words, or gotten distracted by something else.

Starting a new novel is not easy and it's not something that can follow a fixed process. The most important thing to do is just to start, without worrying too much if it's good enough to pursue or not. Write, and if it works you'll just keep writing. If it doesn't work, move on to the next idea.

~Munira