I've been spending quite a bit of time expanding the middle portion of my novel-in-progress, and this week I'm taking a break to re-map the thing.
I've mapped this novel, which takes place in a fictional version of my hometown on the Northern California Redwood Coast, twice already. Once after writing the first 50 pages, and then again after the first 150. I like to write stories that connect and interconnect in many ways, and as I write more, the novel becomes more complex. In addition, as the story changes over time, I find a map helps me go back to earlier portions that now need to be revised due to revelations later on.
Mapping a long work is different for every writer; it is my belief that most writers of long works do this in some way. I did attend a lecture by Carol Muske-Dukes once in which she claimed, to the surprise of others in the room, to do no such organizing - in fact, she didn't seem to know what that was even about - but then again, she's a poet, and writing novels is not her strong suit.
Some writers use a box of index cards to organize. Others draw elaborate maps on large sheets of paper. I prefer to create a written outline that reads like a detailed synopsis, mapping out, outline style, the entire book. The first time I did it for this book, which I'll nickname HH, the latter half of the outline was thin and speculative.
Now I know very much how this book is going to go up until the last couple of chapters. So, with a lot more work done, it's time to take the old outline and rewrite. I'll take two Word documents and put them side by side, the old outline on the left, and retype the whole thing. I find that exercise forces me to examine every element in the pre-existing outline. I then save the outline with a new name, and that way I have a copy of my old versions of the map.
Enough procrastinating...a-mapping I will go...
Random pic: view from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
I've mapped this novel, which takes place in a fictional version of my hometown on the Northern California Redwood Coast, twice already. Once after writing the first 50 pages, and then again after the first 150. I like to write stories that connect and interconnect in many ways, and as I write more, the novel becomes more complex. In addition, as the story changes over time, I find a map helps me go back to earlier portions that now need to be revised due to revelations later on.
Mapping a long work is different for every writer; it is my belief that most writers of long works do this in some way. I did attend a lecture by Carol Muske-Dukes once in which she claimed, to the surprise of others in the room, to do no such organizing - in fact, she didn't seem to know what that was even about - but then again, she's a poet, and writing novels is not her strong suit.
Some writers use a box of index cards to organize. Others draw elaborate maps on large sheets of paper. I prefer to create a written outline that reads like a detailed synopsis, mapping out, outline style, the entire book. The first time I did it for this book, which I'll nickname HH, the latter half of the outline was thin and speculative.
Now I know very much how this book is going to go up until the last couple of chapters. So, with a lot more work done, it's time to take the old outline and rewrite. I'll take two Word documents and put them side by side, the old outline on the left, and retype the whole thing. I find that exercise forces me to examine every element in the pre-existing outline. I then save the outline with a new name, and that way I have a copy of my old versions of the map.
Enough procrastinating...a-mapping I will go...
Random pic: view from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
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