Going in circles...

Am I the only one who finds that my writing progression and techniques seem to loop back around to the beginning every so often? Or that there seem to be phases to techniques and productivity?

For instance, I used to outline. Obsessively. It was over-outlining that actually killed more than one project, because I would write myself into a corner. I tend to take deadlines and outlines and any other kind of line seriously. I was one of those kids who learned to color inside the lines very, very quickly, because the idea of going outside the lines and making a mess was nigh-on sacrilegious.

And then, one day, I just decided to go with it. To just write and let what happened happen. I think I can thank my first NaNo for that. While that project was the offspring of an older, outlined project, and thus had a lot of paper fostered in, it was all background information. The actual story was new and thus I just had to roll with the punches as they came.

Now, I'm at sort of a middle-ground. I'd still classify myself very much as a pantser, but occasionally, I find myself scribbling out a tentative plan for the future. Not even a real outline, or anything really in-depth, but a plan for the future nonetheless.

I don't imagine I'll ever regress back into over-outlining, but I do find sometimes that outlining even that little bit can kill an idea, or at least my enthusiasm for an idea. But I don't count that as a bad thing. The advantage that does exist in outlining is that it can show me the weaknesses in an idea outright, in the beginning stages, before I get too emotionally involved.

Of course, sometimes that is a bad thing. I tend to over-think things sometimes and instead of just rolling with the idea, despite the weakness, and figuring out something along the way, identifying the problem can sometimes just cause me to freak out and avoid it.

But it fluctuates sometimes, which is the entire point of this post. Sometimes I find myself writing notes - outlining, if you will - to avoid forgetting things for the future. Sometimes I find myself actually planning out storylines and character development in advance. Sometimes I don't touch paper outside of actual story. It goes through phases. But those phases happen in a pattern. It's weird.

On story pirates...

Well. 's been a while, no?

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Every so often, a character swaggers, fully formed, onto the page and demands to have the story revolve around them. I've had it happen several times with several different characters, the latest of whom are running rampart through my hedgehog project, upsetting all of my original idea's plans, but leaving a much more coherent and interesting story in their wake.

It's funny how this can work sometimes. In the most particularly egregious example, a background character I needed for one tiny subplot ended up getting his own entire novel for NaNo. Yes, my leading man Red started as a walk-on who popped into my head completely fully-formed. He came in with motivation, character description and everything. The only thing that really changed from beginning to end was his role in the story and how he acted in it. While his motivation remained the same, he acted a bit different in several different drafts as how I treated him changed.

It's pretty cool sometimes when it all comes together like that with seemingly no effort on the writer's part. It's like having all the work done for you as this character provides you with a blueprint for everyone else in the interactions between the cast members. Other times, it can be a nightmare as it begins to shift everything around for better or for worse.

Because this can be a not-good thing. Dangers of Mary-Sue-dom abound, as does losing sight of the original story. When one strong character begins to shift all the other character interpretations really quickly, it can show how weak the other characters already were and that can throw you into despair. I know it does me occasionally, as I bang on the keyboard in frustration as each new acquisition to the cast seems far more interesting than all of the originals. Then I wonder why bother with the originals if the new guys are so much stronger and more interesting, but then I remember what made me love the original so much that I would want to write it at all and I get all flustered.

For right now though, I'm still infatuated with these new characters. Two of them this time, they suddenly are giving me long-term goals in the story and background stories to explore in the present action and even shifted the dynamics of the cast around enough that I have new relationships to explore that I think are far more interesting than what was there before. Time will tell if this is true, but for now, I'm happy.

In terms of discussion: has anyone else ever had one of these story pirates as well? Also, does anyone else have another name for them other than "story pirates"? Because they are like pirates, in how they catch you unawares and take control of the reins, but c'mon, there has to be a snazzier title somewhere.

The pros and cons of NaNoWriMo...

Pros:


1) You write a friggin' novel

 in a friggin' month.

2) Take a look at 1) again. Really soak it in.

3) The creative freedom afforded by hogtying your inner editor is a wonderful thing. Really, just cutting loose and letting things happen without worrying about future consequences or even such things as readability is an amazing experience and can lead to the most awesome insights to your own abilities.

4) Did I mention that you write a novel in a month? Novel. in. a. month.

Cons:

1) NaNoWriMo takes a lot of work and on top of that, it doesn't give you a material reward beyond the novel itself. No ten grand or shiny trophy. Poopy.

2) Remember sleep? Your best friend and ally against the crazy and the cranky? Yeah, say good bye. You won't be seeing each other for a while.

3) Your novel (y'know, the one you wrote in thirty days, losing valuable sleep for, etc. etc... yeah, that one) will most likely be crap.

It's a first draft. All first drafts are shit. So that amazing novel that you pounded out in thirty days will suck That's because the odds are like a bajillion to one that you would write a publishable, or even completely readable, novel in thirty days.

See, the thing is, first drafts are supposed to suck. We have to let them suck so that we can use that suck as a vacuum to pull all the little niggling ideas that haven't really been developed yet out of our brains and into the collection bin of scribbles. My first drafts are always filled with unusable subplots and weird character moments and long scenes of nothing important happening. Very often, my timeline changes and huge chunks of my novel are deleted in editing.

But that's okay. An idol of mine once said that good novels are made in revision. First drafts just get all the nuggets of blahsome onto paper and then editing is the "bl" out and just leaving the core nuggets of "ahsome", which we then edit until it becomes "awesome". 

All in all, for me, the idea of a novel in a month outweighs even the idea that I might spend months more editing the stupid thing.