Going Back to the Start

Last month, I attempted National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as NaNoWriMo. The idea is that writers need to lay down at least 50,000 words over the course of the month of November. I think I hit 5,000. The book I’d been planning to write stalled out after the second chapter. I tried to resuscitate it by turning it into an historical fiction novel. It died again after about three chapters. Then I spent the rest of the month hunting down my inner editor, trying to shut her up. I was unsuccessful.

While NaNoWriMo didn’t go as planned, I did learn a lot about my writing style. Primarily, I learned I need to bind and gag my inner editor before I start writing. Otherwise, she’s like a greased pig and there’s just no stopping her squealing when I’m in mid-sentence and she doesn’t like the direction I’m going in. I also learned that it’s okay to let go of a project and move on. I may come back to my idea, but for now, I’m revising a middle grade manuscript I’ve been working on for a while.

I’m spending some quality time re-examining it using Martha Alderson’s PlotWriMo series (International Plot Writing Month). I’m getting back to basics. I’m going back to the start. While PlotWriMo has been fantastic for refocusing my manuscript, another useful analysis tool is Amazon.com’s “Look Inside” feature. You can read the first few pages of a fair number of books, which is a great way to get a sense of how to craft a good beginning to your novel.

 

 

Exercise for Today: Plotting the Wizard of Oz

I’ve been getting ready for the NaNoWriMo challenge next month – 50,000 words in 30 days. To prep, I’ve been organizing my would-be novel. And while my idea seemed so plump and full of words in my head … on paper it looks like a shriveled up raisin and maybe more like, I dunno, 50 words?

Panic is no longer taunting me from afar. It has moved in. Suddenly, those 50,000 words have gone from simply imposing to downright impossible. My plotting efforts feel like a lump of wet clay on the pottery wheel that keeps spinning round and round, refusing to take shape.

So I decided to take a break from plotting my story and for my little mental holiday, I’m hanging out in the land of Oz. My hope is that by identifying the plot structure of an existing story – the inciting incident, foreshadowing, turning points, dramatic action, crisis points, climax,and whatnot – it will help me to establish the same in my own.

The great thing about using a story like The Wizard of Oz as a plotting exercise is that it not only provides an easily identifiable plot skeleton, it does so while delivering a wonderful set of characters, strong settings, difficult hurdles, and meaningful messages. By picking this story apart, I have begun to see just how important each element is to the whole.

Characters

Image via Wikipedia

You’ve got your innocent, sympathetic main character, dreaming her big dream, finding herself in it and deciding it’s not for her. The wicked antagonist who wants her cool new shoes and will kill for them. The elusive bubble mentor, giving just enough advice to set the protagonist off on her quest, but not enough answers to satisfy that burning need to know how to get back to where she started. You’ve got your flawed supporting characters, each on their own quest, mirroring the universal quests for thought, compassion, and a little bit of courage in life. And let’s not forget the all-seeing, all-powerful false prophet. Each of the characters in the story have clearly defined roles. Even the little dog, too.

Settings

Who wouldn’t want out of that old world, dipped in sepia tones, dust, and austerity? When the protagonist steps through the door into the new world, it is so flush and lush with color and weird people with bad hair, that you can’t help but want to explore it with her. Then she enters into the forbidden places where nature acts unnatural and monkeys aren’t cute anymore. And how about that cold castle of fear imprisoning all hope and goodness? It still sends chills up my spine. I get clammy just thinking about it. To me, the settings in The Wizard of Oz are as strong and individual as the characters.

Hurdles

Who can forget the obstacles the protagonist has to overcome? Out-running a twister, desperately trying to get to the people she loves and having to settle for riding out the storm by herself, terrified, in her bedroom. Then she finds herself over that rainbow she was wishing for earlier, only now, she’s lost in this new and twisted place, trying to find the exit sign. She meets up with characters she’s not sure are friend or foe, makes a leap of faith, and helps them out of their predicaments. She sees her goal in the distance, but gets so tired, she just has to stop moving. Then she  finally reaches her goal, only to find that she needs one more crucial piece to complete her journey and it’s smack in the middle of the antagonist’s lair and the only way to get it, is to defeat the green chick who wants her shoes.

Messages

The Wizard of Oz delivers many pearls of wisdom along the way. The messages I see are: Be grateful for what you have. Be careful what you wish for. Live by the Golden Rule. And believe in yourself.

Believe in yourself. How fitting.

Any others out there with some mental tricks to help them through NaNoWriMo?