I don't plot in any detail, hoping beautiful ideas will come to me as needed throughout November. But that year, it didn't happen. After a good first day, I found myself stymied. I'd written a promising set up, but couldn't think what to do next. So I deployed this diversion - a short story insert.
It is very, very simple. For whatever reason, the main action of the story takes a back seat and the characters follow a discrete plot line for a while. Then, once it is resolved, they go back to the main story.
When I got stuck, I was writing a hardboilled murder mystery. My over arching plot (such as it was) involved my gumshoe witnessing the murder of a singer and investigating it. Day 1 had been very good - I'd decided that he was romantically involved with the singer, which would motivate his investigation, and had fun with him apprehending a small time blackmailer - which turned out to be one of these random pieces of inspiration that makes freestyling rewarding (see below).
But on Day 2, I stumbled. So I sent my PI back to his office, where someone turned up to hire him for a job. This was the start of my short story, and you can read the result here (1). It isn't a great story and as a mystery it is pretty weak, though mystery buffs will spot that it is a tribute to the Sherlock Holmes story, Silver Blaze.
Point is, it kept me writing, meaning I didn't fall behind in my word count, and by the time I'd finished writing about her family, I knew where I wanted to go with my main narrative.
If you're writing a traditional fantasy story, where the main plot depends on restoring the four parts of the sundered chalice of Warghhu, and your heroes arrive at a village, discover it is populated by cannibals, you're writing a short story insert. Or if the villagers ask them to find a child who has gone missing. Or negotiate a truce with the local Goblins. As long as these events have no direct bearing on your main plot, you're writing a short story, contained within a larger narrative.
The other advantages of short story inserts is that they allow you to work niggling ideas into your story, so they stop bugging you.
The disadvantage is tha sometimes they can break loose, like ancient evil behemoths, and porve uncontrollable. Remember that small time blackmailer I wrote about on Day 1? The plot involving him eventually developed into a full blown, 62,000 word novel in its own right. Little seeds, mighty oak trees, and all that.
1 - If the embedded link doesn't work, try this one: http://writehandpalm.blogspot.com/2007/08/disappearance-of-naomi.html. Or look for 'The Disappearance of Naomi' in the archive (August).
2 - 'The Wyahia,' in the July archive: http://writehandpalm.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html. This story was written for a weekend challenge, not as part of nanowrimo, but it is written as if it were part of a larger narrative.
No comments:
Post a Comment