Writing Wednesday: The Five W's

A quick post today, mostly because I've been almost completely consumed by NaNo madness (with what was left over being consumed by my Inner It), but also because I've only just remembered that it was my turn to write this week's Wednesday post , and I now have only 30 minutes or so to get something done). *shifty*

So... the title 'The Five W's' - what exactly is that? It's actually very simple, and it's a tool that I've used many times to come up with the basic framework for a story.

Who? - Who is your main character? You really need to know your main character inside out before you can tell your story. Is it a male or a female? Do they have special abilities? Are they part of a large family, or all alone in the world? Do they have a history that the reader needs to be aware of? Or, if not the reader, is there a back story that YOU need to know? All these questions (and more) need to have answers, or your main character will be a stranger to you, and you can't write about someone you don't know, right?

What? - You need a plot, obviously, but what is that plot? Every author differs in how much they plan before they actually start writing their story, but you need to have a core theme whether you plan ahead or not. The first 'book' that I finished (story wise, not edited or polished as of yet *shifty*) was easy. I loosely based the story on Cinderella, only my main character was a twenty-something typical modern-day Cardiff-born girl. I knew exactly where I was going, and where I needed to end up. My current WIP is different as the tale is completely original. I know where to end, but getting there is harder as I don't have any form of reference. I have my beginning, and I know my end, I just need to muddle through the middle part. However, if you don't have any idea at all what you are aiming for, then you will get lost. Trust me, I know from (plenty of) experience. So you definitely need to have the basic plot formed before you start writing. You don't have to have a detailed chapter by chapter plan, but I find it helpful to list five or six things that I have to get to in my story, and then work my way through them.

When? - This doesn't always need to be addressed - if you are writing a story based in the here and now, for example - but if you are writing something historical, futuristic, fantasy or sci-fi based, then you need to get some preparation in beforehand. The good news is that it's not as hard as you might think. If you are writing a historical story, then there are tons of way to gather research - no problems there. Even easier is when you are writing futuristic, fantasy or sci-fi, because you can basically make up whatever facts you need - it's your creation, after all. (Can you tell why I like the idea of writing fantasy? Me no likey research, uh-uh).

Where? - Are you writing a story based in our world? If so, where? Find out as many details as you can about the area you are basing your story on. If you are basing it on a real place, then include some details that will be familiar to those readers who may live there. If the place is fictional, then you need to perhaps 'borrow' some features from a similar place just to make the story feel more authentic.

Of course, if you are setting the scene on a different planet, of in a different time, then you can resort to my favourite thing in the world, and make it up. But be consistent, and keep notes, or you may end up naming a village three different things (or that might just be me *shifty*).

Why? - Lastly, the biggest 'w' of all (at least, it is for me, at any rate). Why does this story need to be told? Why is it different from all the other books of the same genre that are currently available? And for your main character, why are they on this journey? What is moving them forward? Your main character has to have a reason for their actions throughout the story, and your readers will need to know them too. There has to be something that drives them. An aimless character is a boring character (in my admittedly humble opinion), so you need to figure out why they do what they do.

All this is pretty simple stuff, and you probably know it already, but although it's simple, it's not only something that is essential to your storytelling, but is also something that we sometimes forget to do. Answer the five w's before you do anything else, and you'll be off to a good start with your story.


Image courtesy of publicdomainimagesdotnet.

(Ooh, only twenty minutes late posting.... not bad at all!)

Topical Tuesday- Girl Effect

Last week, I found myself in Rural India. Not a place where I would normally find myself, but when you work for a non-profit stranger things happen. Calling the place a village may be a bit of an exaggeration - it was a hamlet of 17 homes, most of them little more than rude huts. And the entire population of the village could be captured in one frame -

It was a village forgotten by progress. Where people were no better off than they must have been a century ago. Where livestock and farming were the the only livelihood options; both barely enough to keep people out of poverty.

But what you noticed most about the village was the fact that women outnumbered men almost two to one. It was not that every family in the village produced more girls than boys, it was just that the men had all migrated to the nearby towns and cities in search of work, leaving the women behind.

And a highly articulate bunch of women they were.

There was the 17-year-old girl who had been forced to drop out of school in Grade 8, because she needed to take care of her sick mother. The girl had a better grasp of the problems facing her village than any other person of her age, and she was willing to try out new ideas that might bring increased prosperity.
"What is your deepest desire?" I asked her.
Pat came the answer - "I want to continue my studies, and do something that improves the quality of life in the village."
She clearly knew where her priorities were.

There was the grandmother of indeterminate age who had got her friends together to form an Emergency Fund. All the women contributed Rs. 100 ($ 2.50) a month to the Fund, which they would dig into in case of medical emergency, to fund small community driven projects, and to meet various contingency expenses. The lady didn't need much prodding to stand up and explain why the women had decided to create the Fund. "There is no way we can predict when we will need money," she said. "And when we need money, nobody has any to spare. This way, we each put away a little bit when we can, and we can all benefit." Was she encouraged by stories of the Microfinance Revolution? She'd never even heard of it, and couldn't be too bothered by it either. Her solution was to take care of a specific problem - it if corresponded to a type, she was not particularly bothered about it.
Would she consider entering local politics?
Why should she? What would politics give her that she did not already have?

The women brought home the fact of the Girl Effect better than many slickly produced videos. Enable women, and you can change the world. And if it takes a video to get that message across, I am more than happy to give it screen space -

What did I Read?

I thought maybe this week as we head into the release of the 7th Harry Potter movie, that it might be fun to look at what makes a book REALLY MEMORABLE.

The Harry Potter books obviously succeed on MANY levels... not least because they urge me to read them again and again, and repetition increases recall, but what OTHER books have you read that really stuck with you... you know... FOREVER.... And perhaps more importantly... WHY? So here are some of the truly memorable reads I've had... (chronologically, because that is how my brain is organized).

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott: My mom read this to me my first time, but I think I've read it twice on my own. It's funny, as I age, how my preference for sisters has morphed. As a 9-year old, I liked the petulant Amy, though it was Beth who moved me... sickly and weak, but wise. It's clear as an adult that Jo is the real heroine, but I think my draw to this story is the SISTER tale. I was an only child, and I think I fell in love with this interdependence—being able to lean, but being leaned on in turn.

Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain: This is another I read with my mom first, and then read alone (I've even read this one to both my kids). This tale is fabulous, because you don't NEED to know it is important to enjoy it, but it IS important—perhaps less obviously than Huckleberry Finn, but it gives us a slice of history (a not always pretty history) with truth and humor. Mark Twain will always be a favorite of mine.

The Shining, Stephen King: I loved the paranormal piece of this... a hotel as an entity, causing people (and ghosts) to do things... the evil underneath... This book was really the single work that made me a READER. I mean... I could read, obviously, but the kind of girl who carried her book along with what was needed between classes and rushed in and opened my book while everyone was getting sorted...

A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens: I struggled through this—it was required reading when I was a freshman in high school, but this book has the best beginning lines and the best ending lines in literature, and in reality, the story itself is quite elegant. I think Dickens takes a little sophistication, language-wise—but it is simply a matter of how language has changed and it takes a little while to fall into it. I've fallen in love with other Dickens' tales over the years, most notably David Copperfield (a character who, oddly enough, was Daniel Radcliffe's first acting role, but I digress).


The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas: OH, this is a good tale! Betrayal, revenge, intrigue... I think this is the best example I can think of of a REALLY elegant PLOT.

I remember Five Smooth Stones and The Fountainhead holding important places for me here, but barely remember the plot for either—they were more philosophical prods than memorable books...

All of the above books I read before I finished high school. There are a lot of great books since then, but I think the power may be definable at this point. The books that stuck with me from childhood—more than 30 years in some cases, were all written by people who have lasted as household names. In fact, only Stephen King is contemporary, but even with King, one can hardly argue people don't know who he is. He is the leading man of a certain genre and probably will not be dethroned in his lifetime, or even after.

I have fallen in love with other classics: War and Peace, Les Miserables, Don Quixote... and other nearer contemporaries... Lolita, The Poisonwood Bible, The Drifters, Jitterbug Perfume... I think, though, it is of note that among my list is no author who was a one-shot wonder... I suspect there is a deep resonance of voice that has caused me to truly love—that unique sound that tells us who is speaking, and begs us to continue... As a writer that is encouraging and discouraging at once... in the positive, it seems that if we are true to ourselves, we are more likely to have that voice that continues to come through, but in the negative... think how many hundreds of books I've read that didn't quite stick...

So who are the voices who ring true to you?


Little Women Permission
Tom Sawyer Permission
Don Quixote Permission

Who am I? Friday: Double Dutch and Pumps

Bronx Stories: Playing in the Pump

I was ten years old in the summer of 1983. It was an extremely hot and humid summer day. You felt like you just wanted to melt into the street like freshly laid asphalt. I was sitting on the stoop of my building praying for a cloud to offer some shade from the oppressive heat. No such luck. It was, unfortunately, sunny with not a cloud in the sky.

I would usually play double-dutch. For those who don't know, it is when you jump with two ropes swinging towards each other in a rhythmic motion. There are two double-dutch turners on either end of the ropes, as pictured above. There was a double-dutch game I played called "D- I- S- H- Choice" This was chanted over and over while the person is jumping rope. When the person messes up and stops jumping (or trips on the ropes as I often did), you would have to perform whatever you landed on. For example, if you landed on "D" you just jump double-dutch as you would normally do. However, if you land on "I", you must pretend to lick ice cream as you are jumping rope. The letter "I" stands for ice cream.

Regrettably, it was too hot to play double-dutch. It was too hot to play "Tag" or "Catch and Kiss." One of the teenagers on the block borrowed his father's pliers and turned the fire hydrant on. It was a glorious relief to feel that cool water course down my body. We would get plastic bottles and fill them up, in an attempt to wet unsuspecting friends who came out of the building. One person took a metal can (like a soup can) and opened both ends. He then straddled the hydrant so that he could place the can over the water. He directed it into a beautiful arc that reached the steps of my building. It made a rainbow and I thought that I had never seen anything so pure and beautiful in my life.

After approximately an hour, the sun began to set. I was still playing in the pump (our ghetto term for hydrant) and was not paying attention. I went to cross the street and a station wagon had side swiped me leaving me dazed and sprawled on the asphalt in between two parked cars. A family friend, Hector, carried me to my third floor apartment and my mother lay me on the top bunk of my bunkbed. My legs were bruised and purple for days. What had begun as a great day turned into an unfortunate disaster. To this day, I wonder why my mother never took me to the hospital. I didn't break anything but it seemed like getting hit by a car warrants a trip to the hospital.

Tasks for DISH Choice, Criss Cross, All Around the World, Pop-Up
1. D= double dutch jumping
2. I= Ice cream licking while double dutch jumping.
3. S= Sleeping Beauty (close your eyes while jumping)
4. H= Hopping in place on one foot.
5. Choice= You pick the task
6. Criss Cross= cross your legs in and out while jumping rope.
7. All Around the World= hopping on one leg and rotating 180 degress at a time.
8. Pop Up= jumping straight up and down for as long as you can.

First Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DoubleDutchBA.jpg

Second image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philadelphia_fire_hydrant.jpg

Eleven Eleven

I could talk about the historic armistice of 1918, of course. Eleventh day of the eleventh month, at the eleventh hour, wasn't it? In a detached car from the Orient Express, if I remember correctly.

Or I could go slightly sideways and discuss the sheer fun of Bilbo Baggins's "eleventy-first" birthday party (yes, I realize I'm missing one "1", but oh well).

I'd rather talk about my dorm room during my second year of college. Its number? You guessed it - 1111. In fact, I picked it for its number, as it didn't have much else to recommend it. In shape, an irregular pentagon that was very difficult to arrange furniture in if you wanted to have floor space. In size, well, you might be able to swing a cat in it, but only if it were a small and quite complacent cat. There were four of these rooms on each level of the tower in our dorm; not-so-affectionately called "wedge rooms", they were generally inhabited by sophomores (as were all four of them on the 11th floor). They absolutely sucked for having friends come and visit, as there wasn't enough space on the floor for anyone taller than about 3'9" to stretch out, and if you just wanted to hang out or do a group project of some sort, forget it - definitely had to shift to the lounge.

Yeah, okay, pretty boring. A room is a room, after all. So just for the heck of it I Googled "1111". Let me tell you, there is some seriously weird hooey out there. People babbling about angels hanging around when you notice the clock reads 11:11, for example - now, there's some delusional folks for you, sure enough. These so-called "mysterious" appearances of the number - hate to tell you guys, but *whispers* they happen twice a day. More if your clock is broken so it never leaves 11:11 in the first place.

How about looking at the number as its own entity? Factors, those are pretty cool - 1, 11, 101, 1111... I'm getting the strange urge to switch to binary at this point, anyone else? It's next year that it'll be super-important though, when 11/11/11 fits the bill. I'll bet there are already tons of weddings booked for that date.

As for me, I'll certainly keep my eyes peeled for anything odd around 11 o'clock today - just because I don't believe in something special doesn't mean it might not happen anyway...

Guest post by Clarissa Draper, "My First Draft"

The Burrow is pleased to welcome Clarissa Draper as our guest blogger today. Clarissa and I go back a long way, and I am proud to say I started following her blog "Listen to the Voices" when the number of followers was still in single digits (she is nearing 400 now). Clarissa is a person I truly admire because she gives back to the writing community a lot more than she gets from it - if you aspire to write mysteries, you should not miss her weekly feature "Mystery Writer's Guide to Forensic Science", and all writers can benefit from the "Chapter Critiques" she publishes every week. If you are not already a follower of her blog, I urge you to become one - you will not be disappointed. Since almost everyone seems to be a part of the NaNoWriMo frenzy, Clarissa has chosen to write about the "First Draft". Without further ado, over to Clarissa!

My First Draft
What makes a great novel? A complex, dynamic, seamless piece of work. A theme, a mood, and a style of writing that lasts the whole story.


However, one thing I've noticed when I edit my first draft is, because I write over a period of time, the writing takes on various moods. Mainly because I'm a moody person. One second I'm happy, the next I'm yelling. My husband has a saying: 'Wait ten minutes and her mood will change to grim.'


Well, actually, he doesn't say that, and if he does, it's not to my face. And rarely do I yell. More likely, I'll probably ignore you.


Kidding aside, you will notice that after watching a romantic movie, you'll be more likely to write romantic lines into your scene...even if it's a mystery novel. Or, if you've had a fight with your kids or spouce or mother-in-law, you'll tend to be more testy with your writing.


Also, even if you have an outline or a way you think the novel is headed, as you write, you discover new links and connections and you learn more about the characters as you go along.


If you like improving your writing skills as you write, you will find the ending in better form than when you started. That's why if writers want a solid, uniform piece of work, writers need to edit.


Does anyone else notice that their mood affects their writing?

_______
Thank you Clarissa for joining us today. Incidentally, Clarissa recently landed a publishing contract for her first Evans/ Blackwell novel, with the publisher showing an interest in the rest of the series also. Yeah!!!

Why???

With everyone either writing for NaNo, or knowing someone who is writing for NaNo, we all know how manic November can be, so I have to wonder why the brains behind NaNoWriMo picked the thirty day month that is probably the worst out of the possible choice from four.


September could have been just as bad, I suppose, with new terms (semesters?) at schools and colleges and whatnot, so I guess I can understand why that particular month was vetoed. But what about June or April? Over here in Britain, June may cause problems for those who are busily preparing for their GCSE or A Levels at school, but I'm not sure how the rest of the world would fare. Judging by the variety of ages from the participation of this year's BuNoWriMo ( The Burrow's June wrimo that stole borrowed the 50,000 words in 30 days set-up), I think June would probably be quite good. And as for April, I don't know of anything that might interfere (though I freely admit to ignorance on a large scale, so I could be completely wrong in my assumptions regarding April's suitability).

So why November?

OK, maybe you might be thinking what's so wrong with November? Let me ramble a bit [more]...

Quite apart from the pre-Christmas higher stress levels and general rushing around like idiots, this side of the pond we have Bonfire Night, which although is technically celebrated on the 5th, in reality tends to last around seven to ten days. To work around school nights, work nights, not to mention the inevitably (if you are in Wales, that is) rainy nights, firework displays and bonfires are events that end up happening on an almost nightly basis. And even if you don't attend them all, they still end up distracting you.

And for my American friends, there is Thanksgiving. I don't really know a lot about this holiday, and I can't be bothered to look it up because one, I am lazy, and two, I haven't written a single word for my NaNo today and I really need to get to it (erk, I didn't write for my blog either, [it is Monday evening here, and I should be blogging today according to my unofficial schedule]. What I do know, though, is that preparations for this day of celebration are almost as convoluted as preparations for Christmas day itself, so I understand how a one day holiday can turn into a week long time-sucker.

Quite apart from all of these distractions, I (of course) have had the Month From Hell so far this November, which I rambled about on my last blog post, and will no doubt grumble about on my next post too. Depending when I get to it, that is. Possibly December. Maybe.

In the meantime, despite the distractions, I will keep going. But even as I do so, there'll be that little question niggling at the back of my mind.

Why November??

Along with that other little question... why me? *snort*

Image courtesy of publicdomainimagesdotnet