And goals give you something to look forward to. Is it really all about acheiving these goals at all? OK, so maybe that gives you a hint of how I did this week. It took me until Wednesday to get around to pulling out the stuff I wanted to look at, then I got sucked into it for the next couple of days. So, by Friday I had written one paragraph and had some idea of what I want to do, but really haven't acheived much that can be shown on paper.
Still, I feel good about it. There is definitely a story there, and I am looking forward to telling it, and sharing it with you. Now it's just a matter of putting it all together, one scene at a time. I started a list of scenes that I want to write, and started writing one, but I get caught up in questions like: where exactly should it begin, and where should it end? What should I name the characters?
As I said before, I want to write this story based on actual events, but at the same time call it a work of fiction. One reason for this is that everyone has their own unique perspective, and time and distance can warp memories into convenient fictions of their own accord. Of course I don't remember actual scenes exactly as they happened, and I want the freedom to make things fit together in a coherant way, as they don't always do in real life.
So I struggle with myself a little bit. I'll be writing a scene and a little voice in my head says, "that's not how it happened." And I have to stop and tell that voice to shut up, I'm the one writing this thing. One thing that is tough for me is names. I've decided to rename everyone, even though if any of the actual people involved read they thing, they will know immediately who they are and who most of the other people are. And it's sometimes hard for me to come up with names.
I also feel that I need to simplify things a bit for the story's sake, and that means eliminating some people / situations that were really important parts of my life at the time, but not really important parts of this particular story that I'm trying to tell. And it's really hard for me to cut these people out of my story, because they are not just made-up characters.
So those are some of the issues that I am struggling with. I look forward to talking to you about these issues and others soon.
Cheers
Lori
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Why cut anything at this point? You're percolating in that lovely sometimes frustrating creative primordial ooze - don't take anything out of the equation, because who knows what could be useful later on? If you have a scene that strikes you, write it. See what happens and where it goes, and if it doesn't go anywhere, it may spark something else, which sparks something else...
ReplyDeleteAbout names - the way I've dealt with them is to think, OK, what does this person look like and can I assign a general ethnicity to him or her? If I can - say he's Italian-American - I open any number of online name databases and browse through the lists. It will usually point me in a decent direction, and if it doesn't, I can back up and punt - say, ok, he's not Italian, he's Greek, or whatever. And once a character has a good name, they sometimes begin to fill out and take actions based on their personalities which generate plot points. Which may or may not be useful, depending on how close you want to stay to what people actually did. Sounds like fun, though!