Hearing Your Story
June 14th, 2010 by SaraWriting a new story is like inhabiting a new world. It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing about high school crushes or aliens or high school crushes on aliens, there are strangers you’ve never met, unfamiliar landscapes, traditions you don’t yet understand. And the trick is, you don’t just need to get to know this new world, you have to make it come to life in full technicolor glory.
Some people suggest that when writing crucial scenes in your book, you should employ at least three out of the five senses. As in: “Sara listened to the computer hum impatiently while she tried to think of a good example. She stalled, grimacing as she took a gulp of bitter coffee-gone-cold. The shiny, smooth keys of her computer beckoned her to be brilliant, but alas, she wrote this instead.”
T
his is a great technique and I like to expand it to the story creation process. Because unless the world feels real to you, in all five senses, it’s not going to feel real to the reader. Bringing your fiction into the physical world anchors you in your character’s voice and setting in a way that nothing else does. So in the past I’ve talked about building dioramas, collecting shoe boxes full of stuff my character loves, and, most importantly for me, finding a soundtrack to my story.
In my last project, I incessantly listened to the soundtrack to Battlestar Galactica, letting its Taiko drums and wailing flutes build tension and tone in my writing space. I can’t help but feel that the words are infused with a sense of that music, much like honey is flavored by the flowers that bees visit.
So when I started a new story, I felt lost without music for my new world. I started avidly listening to the radio, asking friends what they were listening to, paying attention to soundtracks in movies. At the same time, I was searching for the voice of my main character. For a while, writing was frustrating, my words feeling more like an outline than a book. Then I found Sigur Ros.
This Icelandic band has a raw tone that feels bleak and wistful and, occasionally, soaringly hopeful. The first song I heard by them stunned me. I could literally see one of my key scenes unfolding in my mind. It was like being given a key to this world I had been circling and spying on for so long. Suddenly, I could walk with my character through the streets of my story. Amazingly, when my husband heard the same song later, he had the same experience. For weeks I’d been talking about this world, about this character, bouncing ideas off of him, and this song triggered the same emotions in him as it did in me. Now I could not only visualize my world, I could hear it too. And in the space of one song, my story had come to life.
Posted in Characters, First draft, Writing
June 16th, 2010 at 10:43 am
i remember my first high school alien crush. the memories are still bittersweet.
this is an amazing post, and it made me remember why i love listening to music so much while i work. and i’m so glad you found sigur ros! it sounds exactly like your book :)
June 16th, 2010 at 11:12 am
I love this post. I listen to music constantly, and it informs me whenever I am creating…not matter if it is design, writing, baking or something else.
Also, I ADORE Sigur Rós! If you haven’t heard it, check out the lead singer Jonsi’s solo album GO. It’s equally fantastic. It’s more upbeat than Sigur Rós’ stuff, while still sounding epic.
June 16th, 2010 at 11:23 am
I _have_ heard GO and I love it! One of Jonsi’s songs is the credit music to How To Train a Dragon… which I also love:) So I became a fan. It’s actually most likely how I found my way to Sigur Ros, now that I think about it.
GO is a little too upbeat for writing to and some of the words are in English, so that doesn’t quite work for me. But it’d perfect for baking an epic pie;) By the way, I always try to put on appropriate accompany music whenever I’m cooking something. So it’ll be infused with just the right flavors:)
June 16th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
I love this tip – finding the music for each book really gets me in the mental place for writing it – I love knowing that it’s something other writers do as well! There’s a tone thing that when you nail it, it’s so great… And funny, I’ve found I listen to the same song so many times, just to get myself back in that space!
Thanks for sharing this, (and now I have to go listen to some Sigur Ros to see what you’re up to!)
Namaste,
Lee
June 17th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
The tone of one song totally helps me write the short story. Funny thing is, the stories are too much alike. :o) Now I know I need a different song for each one.
Thank you so much.
June 17th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Monique… I love this idea that listening to the same song while writing would produce the same story:) I bet it’s a wonderful story though and a wonderful tone!
June 17th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Oh my goodness . . . I cannot write without the soundtrack to my novel playing! And I post-process photos to music, too! It’s just like Lee said, above: when the tone of what you’re creating matches the tone in the music, you feel it. (It definitely affects how the photos turn out!!)
I love the idea of music doing the same for pies and cookies, too. Mmm. It only makes sense!!
June 24th, 2010 at 7:10 am
Nice! I am totally going to check out Sigur Ros. My two new bands are The National & Bon Iver. Music=Love
August 4th, 2010 at 2:37 am
When I was in Iceland it totally reminded me of Sigur Ros. I guess that makes sense right?
Meep Meeeeep!
February 4th, 2010 by SaraLast week, we got a new puppy! Huzzah! Four-month-old Kitsu is adorable and fox-like and endlessly entertaining. But as I’ve watched her stalking dust bunnies, pouncing on shadows, and chasing her tail, I’ve been forcefully reminded of my own writing process.
See, during the past months of revision, I daydreamed about starting a new story. I’d sit next to a waterlily-filled pond somewhere, seized by inspiration, scribbling down long, brilliant paragraphs. (Why a pond? Especially since Laptop+Water= Tragedy) Anyway, my thoughts would weave themselves together, creating a manuscript with a beginning you couldn’t put down, an intriguing middle, AND a surprising, yet inevitable ending.
Instead, I’ve found the process of writing a first draft just like I remembered it, clumsy and full of doubt. And clumsy isn’t fun. Surprisingly, neither is doubt.
And suddenly, I wished I was revising again. In hindsight, revision seems like strolling through a lovely greenhouse, rearranging plants, watering this one here, pruning that one there. Now, I find myself back on a dusty plain with a handful of seeds and a empty watering can. True, I can create whatever I want in this vast open space, but first I have to find some water, figure out what kind of seeds I have, and get digging. All of this is awkward, hard work that leaves your hands calloused and caked with mud.
Wow. Sorry, I guess I got a little carried away with myself there. Plus now, I have two competing metaphors. Puppies and gardening. Hmmm… better throw in a third one, just for good measure.
Vroom! Meep, Meep!
Right now, in the middle of my first draft, I can hear the Road Runner, I can see him, but he just keeps racing in dizzying circles around me. For the last few weeks, I’ve been forging ahead anyway. Since I know my beginning and I know my ending, surely I can find a path between the two points. But somewhere in the middle there, the story gets boring. And I’ve learned to heed the warning signs. When you sit down to write a scene and you think to yourself, ‘Ugh!’ then whoever reads it is going to think ‘Ugh!’ too.
I’ve figured out that something is missing in my story and it’s as elusive and taunting as the Road Runner himself. But this morning and 
every morning, I will sit down at my computer and start again, creating contraptions, building traps, and scheming new schemes. After all, I’m Wile E. Coyote, Suuuuuper Gen-i-us and I’m bound to catch him sometime, right?
Right?
Posted in First draft, Revision, Writing
February 4th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Ha ha! Very funny. I feel like I’m chasing my tail with the first draft of my WIP right now too. Maybe a greenhouse is what I need. Kitsu is adorable.
February 5th, 2010 at 11:25 am
Thanks:) She’s definitely stolen our hearts. Peggy, I wish less chasing of our tails and more mice catching for us both. Figuratively, of course:)
February 8th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
In my version of Looney Toons, Wile E. Coyote catches the Road Runner and Sylvester eats Tweety Bird. ;)
February 9th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Awwww, what a perfect end image!
I love the writing/gardening metaphor! The grass is always greener on the other side: except in your version, one side is a desert and one a greenhouse. What a fun place this is.
I dreamed of dogs because of you. In real life I’m not comfortable around them, but the premise of the dream was that I loved them and that, in fact, all these dogs in my house were mine. So I was going up to them, making myself pet them and say their names and not be afraid of these hyperactive creatures–reminding myself they were mine–wondering why I felt so weird.
February 18th, 2010 at 10:43 am
Right!
Sara – this was great! You sure do know how to wield a metaphor, and you somehow always manage to make it about writing. Wow. I wish I knew how you did that. Love the video and photo of kitsu…
Namaste and a Hug,
Lee
March 11th, 2010 at 8:26 am
I wanted to let you know that I gave you the “One Lovely Blog Award” today. :)
Eating Paste
March 4th, 2009 by SaraOkay… maybe not eating it.
So I finished my revision… now what? As a way to deal with the dismal No Man’s Land that lurks between revisions and new projects, I’ve been getting crafty. This past September at the SCBWI Working Writers’ Retreat, the creative Julie Williams gave us some unusual ideas about how to build an authentic world for our stories. Found-book collages, paper dolls, and object-inspired writing exercises made me realize that there’s more to grounding yourself in a new world than outlines and brainstorms.
I’ve had some ‘in between’ time on my hands, so I pulled out my notes for my next book and got to work. Or play, rather. You can see I’ve made a mess. But that’s what it’s all about. Or is that the hokey-pokey?
As I construct this world in a literal, hands-on way, specific and rich details are floating into my brain like gifts from the ether. Scenes have begun playing themselves out in front of me and characters are finding forms.
It’s been a fantastic way to travel from the analytical territory of revisions to the open space of creation. And it’s reminded me that this whole venture is supposed to be fun. Here’s a peek at the world I’m just starting to imagine.
Posted in Characters, Conference, First draft, Revision, SCBWI, Writing
March 4th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Sara,
that’s so cool!
Very “right brain” of you…
Can’t wait to hear more about this new world!
Namaste and a Hug,
Lee
March 4th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Whoa! Look at that! You broke out the crayons and the pencils! Or the chalk anyway. I think I see chalk.
March 5th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Yummy. Glue.
I love Julie’s exercises. Have you seen her blog? Cool new mixed media.
March 8th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
in the third picture, why do those blocks look like packs of C-4 explosives?
:)
Brainstorming without consequences
October 31st, 2007 by Sara
I’ve had the pleasure this week of looking over a couple of friends’ fantastic picture book manuscripts. Since picture books are my life right now, what I’m reading, what I’m writing, even what I’ve been dreaming about, it’s been a bit of a greedy endeavor.
It’s wonderful to be presented with delicious stories and get to dream alongside the creators. I don’t have the stress of actually having to come up with the ‘right’ solution. I don’t have to judge the worthiness of my ideas. I just hand them over to someone else who has to do the tough stuff. It’s brainstorming without consequences.
The experience has taught me a lot about my own revision process. The pressure and restrictions I put on myself to ’solve’ my problems. Now, I hope to bring some of the freedom and creativity that I felt on the sidelines into my own work.
Posted in First draft, Picture books, Revision, Writing
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:24 am
Hi Sara,
I love the notion of “brainstorming without consequences” – and it made me think about how sometimes when I’m trying to solve a problem in a story, I can come up with a solution – but if it’s the first solution, it might not be the best – I usually try to think of at least one more before I decide which is best. I bet if I forced myself to come up with MORE, like five solutions, I’d have a really inventive, unexpected one in there to use…
That’s the great thing about revisions – you can really take it to the next level.
And with the picturebooks especially, you get the chance to make every word count. (Okay, okay, I know I need to make every word count in a novel, too) – but you get where I’m going with it, right?
Write On!
Lee
The technicolor yawn of the writing world.
October 3rd, 2007 by SaraThe first draft.
Starting a story is actually my favorite part. It’s fresh and perfect and you’re sure that this time you’re going to be able to put it all down exactly like it is in your head. If I could spend my life writing the first 20 pages of stories, I would.
Unfortunately, you have to move on to page 21 and page 59 and page 167. Oh yes. They’re out there right now. Waiting for you.
But for now, I’m in bliss. I’m starting a new story and I’m using everything I’ve learned with the YA novel I’ve been slaving away on to help me get started. Suddenly, outlining is my friend. Character development. Story arcs. Research. I’m no longer afraid that these things will take the magic out of the story. And I’m already wielding them with stealthy ninja skill.
Also, I recently discovered Scrivener. It’s one of the many great writing programs out there. With it, I can compile my research all in one place. I can create notecards of my chapters and tack them up on virtual corkboards. I can see 2 documents I’m working on at the same time. I can use my nunchucks to bring rogue words into line! Oops. Got a bit carried away there.
But all the computer programs and notecards and sparkly pens in the world don’t change what I have to do. I need to sit down and, as quickly and truly as possible, disgorge the story. The dream draft, someone once called it. More like the technicolor yawn of words.
Posted in First draft, Writing
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Okay, so I’ve totally heard about “vomiting” out the first draft, but I much prefer your “technicolor yawn of words!” “Dream Draft” is pretty cool, too.
It’s a bit like an action sequence (though so much is for me…) where you can’t slow down, you can’t look back, you just have to keep pressing on, making little notes as you go about things to fix, gaps to fill, and just plunge on to the finish, where, exhausted, you’ll feel great, look at your 200 page first draft and go, “I did it!” Which, of course, will be quickly followed by, “I need to re-write ALL of it!” But your post wasn’t about re-writing at all, was it?
Heh, heh…
Yay for first drafts!
Lee
