Plot

After my mind map I worked on a summary/synopsis of my novel yesterday. With the amount that I've been banging on about the first draft it felt strange not to share the plot with you all.

This is just the start of it obviously (I'll fill in the rest as each story's plot and link is more solid) but it should give you a rough idea:

'The Decalogue' consists of ten short stories loosely based upon each of the Ten Commandments and set in modern-day Dublin. The Dubliners each face a moral dilemma in a society where Catholic values clash with an encroaching materialist and permissive way of life.

(I must add that 'The Dubliners' refer to my characters and not the traditional Irish band. Hmm, maybe I should change that bit.)

Slacker

I have about a month until I start my training course, plenty of time to finish my first draft. So I've decided to drop my minimum word count from 2000 to 1000 for the time being, so I can slow down, add more colour and generally improve the quality of my writing. Today I wrote 1200 words until the scene I was working on came to a natural end. I'm going to figure out the details of the last section today.

Unfortunately I still haven't decided on the plot of my last story; I have a few in mind but none of them have grabbed me yet. I'm not worried though. As my deadline looms closer and closer I will pick up the pace. Four weeks seems like a lot now so I'm slacking off a little, but panic will set in soon. And from previous experience that's when I deliver my best work!

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Getting ideas

I only managed 1500 words today – normally a below average day but that was the amount of words that brought my seventh story to a natural end! Now I have only three more stories to write until I finish the first draft of my novel.

I was speaking to my friend the Filmmaker yesterday. He's taking a break from writing scripts at the moment and he's found that he doesn't construct scenes in his head anymore, while he would get loads of ideas when went about his day when he was writing regularly.

I found this interesting, because hardly ever think about my novel outside of writing it. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not inspired, (scary thought – let’s put that aside) or because I try not to as it can get me worked up. Last night I found myself creating dialogue and imaging scenes, and I had to stop because there was no way that I'd get to sleep at a decent hour if I kept down that road.

When I do let myself think about the story I'm working on outside of writing hours, I tend to enjoy it, mainly because it all seems fantastically interesting, amusing and inspiring in my head. (My psyche is very modest.) However, when I sit down to write it I always end up moving in another direction, or it doesn't quite fit. Strange really.

It's actually easier to plan the story and dialogue while I'm actually writing, as when I need to I'll pause, look into space, hopefully get an idea, then continue. The flipside of this is slightly unpolished dialogue and weird twists, so I hope that my editing skills will prove to be up to the now mighty job. Dialogue needs to be either funny, quirky or clever, not as literal as I'm writing at the moment.

(By the way I think about my novel the most when I’m in the shower – I’d rather not examine that fact too closely though.)

Not over yet

Feeling tired but happy after a great weekend. I'll be working on the plot and characters for my seventh story tomorrow, I'm determined to get it done in a day so I can start writing on Wednesday. I should be starting a legal secretarial course in July - I want to work part time or contract from now on and legal secretaries seem to be paid the best - so I'd like to finish the first draft of my novel by then.

But until then I'm just relaxing, watching tv and catching up with emails on this bank holiday Monday.

Character research

A lot of writers don't seem to do a lot of preparation before they start writing their novels. I envy those people, because I'm unable to start something without knowing vaguely where I'm going and having a rough plan in place.

Before I started writing my novel, I worked out the premise and plot of each story and the motivations of each character. Each story is roughly 9000 words long so I had to 'research' the main characters before I began, as I don't have a lot of time and space to figure them out as I go along.

First, I worked out how the characters fit into the plot and the point I wanted to make through them. Why are the characters acting like they do? If they are in conflict with each other or with the situation, why don't they just walk away? What has brought them to this point in their lives? I answered these questions by creating back stories for each character. With ten stories there were a lot of main characters and a lot of work to do, but it's paid off in the long run.

When writing each back story I thought about what would make a person behave and feel like my character. I considered their upbringing, what their parents were like, and any disappointments, expectations and setbacks they may have experienced in the past. For example my character Jessica feels conflicted between her sexuality and her mother's wish for her to marry and have children, and the guilt she feels is the main reason she is unable to break away from her mother. Her mother wants Jessica to marry well because Jessica's father died when she was young, leaving her mother broke, lonely and bitter. Jessica was brought up to think marriage to a wealthy man is the ultimate security. She also feels responsible for her mother's happiness, who emotionally manipulates Jessica to keep her in check. Both mean that she feels guilty about her sexuality and finds it hard to come to terms with it.

Other things I worked out was my character's personality and appearance, which also drive the plot and help to explain why the character is struggling to break away. When a friend of Jessica realises she is having cold feet and asks her about it, Jessica is roused from her usually passive demeanour and snaps at her friend, unwittingly exposing her feelings of guilt and shame. Her reaction and behaviour isn't random or out of turn.

Once I've finished shaping a character I moved onto the other characters in the story, explaining why they are preventing Jessica from coming out or why they are putting pressure on her to break off the wedding. These people add to Jessica's conflict and move the plot along in a realistic way.

Knowing my characters inside out means that I'm less likely to have stereotyped or two dimensional characters in my writing. I also am more likely to avoid plot holes and unrealistic behaviour or events. These preparations are not set in stone; I have changed the plot and my characters as I've gone along, which I'm happy with because I'm not writing by numbers. The initial research just serves as a starting point.