So now we are writing,
hopefully on a regular basis. We know this is something we want to do,
something we enjoy, and something that offers us that certain thrill of
creation. Sometimes, we even dare to call ourselves “writers.” How can this get
better?
“The Process” is how.
Teacher and award-winning author Barbara Gregorich told me her three categories for
developing the writing process: Psychological, Organizational, and Mechanical.
In case you haven’t figured it out, the Psychological part comes early on when
we start exploring our writing and discovering who we are as a writer. The past
several posts quietly set the psychological table (though it is far from over).
In some ways, the development of the Psychological part of the process never
stops.
The focus for this
post is about Organizational, and that word may be a little misleading. The
important part of this step is knowing what you want to write well enough to
accomplish the task, which includes understanding when your idea has changed
into something else. It sounds simple, but the application is the tricky part.
Let’s say you want to
write a coming-of-age story set in the Midwest. Easy enough, yes? Well, let’s organize
this. Let’s ask some questions that will narrow down the idea to something very
precise and targeted.
When does the story
take place? Not just the year, but is it told as a narrated flashback or as it
happened? As a series of short stories at various times? Is it historical?
How is the story told?
Is the narrator telling their story or someone else’s story? Is it in
first-person or third-person? Is the narrator biased or unreliable? Is the
reader supposed to know this? Is it told in past-tense or present-tense (so
very important)?
Why is the story being
told? As the writer, you know this one already, but what should the reader take
away from this? Is there a lesson to be learned? Should the reader be inspired
by the main character’s journey, impressed by their sacrifice, horrified by
their actions? Stories that have a bunch of events happen but never offer the
reader a reason why are referred to as BOSH – Bunch Of “Stuff” Happens (pick
any s-word for Stuff). They’re fun to write and interesting to read but they
miss a chance to be so much more.
What are the elements
for the story? Theme and mood can really liven up a story, and knowing it
beforehand can infuse every word. Is there a sense of dread? Urgency? Is our
coming-of-age character facing problems they can’t escape or don’t want to
face? Does it feel like their world is falling apart? Changing when they need
consistency?
Also, what is the
voice of the piece? Light-hearted, comical, horrifying, dreadful, aloof,
serious, darkly humorous? This also ties together if your writing is for a
target audience. Coming-of-age stories that appeal to the young adult crowd
might not work with a serious voice, while children’s books usually avoid dark
humor (but not always). When the voice of the piece can work with the theme and
mood, they harmonize into very effective writing.
Taking our idea of a
coming-of-age story in the Midwest and pushing it through these questions is
how we apply the Organization part of the process. After running the idea
through that mill, I ended up with a twenty-something guy in Chicago in the
1990s, trying to hold together the ideal life as it starts spinning out of
control. It’s in the third-person, voiced from our protagonist’s point-of-view,
using flashbacks to fill in his backstory. While written with a soft humor and
sophomoric mood, the underlying message is about escaping a life of denial and
facing up to the world’s harsh realities. And yes, this is now a working manuscript: Easier than the Truth.
That is how this part
of our process saves us a lot of rewrites and a bunch of grief. At that point,
we are ready to write. More importantly, we are ready to know what we are
writing, and we know when it’s changing into something else.
I would be curious HOW you construct the organizational component? Is it internal, picture-in-your-head, or you chart it out on paper?
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to use mind-mapping, but not very successfully, for certain things.
Personally, I let the ideas come to mind from the simple approach of doing the journalistic "Who, What, Where, When, Why" interrogation. That usually provides me a framework, and something to think about.
DeleteAnd if I can't answer those questions, there's a chance I don't know the story well enough