Get ready to write fiction 3

And I continue in the analysis. The website is lying on the couch and I gently suggest in a whisper: is it related to your mother? The website opens its little eyes in surprise. It has no mother or father… Lots of people edit it every day.

Ah, right. I was in the business of writing more advice on getting ready to write fiction (despite the web being filled with advice and advice and there’s no ending to it). Therefore:

Do a rain check using the cube technique:

Oh mein Gott! This looks interesting. Shall we borrow it from the website? No, you better go to the website or google it. They deserve the credit and I’m just a coat tailer. In a big stroke it takes us to examine an event from 6 different angles:

• description of the event (what?)
• comparison (I’d it like this or is this not like this?)
• association (expense? formal dressing?)
• analyze the elements
• appliance (how is it used or what for?)
• evaluate

This is kinda like the deep research to make details credible but is great to bring out good ideas.

Do a rain check using a mental map:

And this is going back to school. This changes with your personality and goals. Mental map or outlaying friends on how much you prefer planning or allowing yourself to go wild. The colour inks to separate character’s plots or wishes on paper and/or on cards… Sewing as you plan the title. The website recommends to identify the relationships between elements… McKee (yes, the guy of STORY: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting) would discourage you to do it until you master the typical intro-development-climax trio. Patricia Highsmith would say not every system is good for everybody. I say, make a map but be prepared to derail.

Rain check for your topic asking yourself what would happen if…:

In my not humble opinion, this advice is by far surpassed by an ideal of Ronald B. Tobías in 20 master plots. «The best plots are those where you have a good point of view against another good point of view»

I’m stealing his example since it is great (paraphrasing not quoting). Take a  Catholic girl who believes in life being sacred[1] (yep, one of those) and make her face rape (yep, we’re facing something awful but it still happens and could happen to me, you… despite civilization). She ends pregnant. She now has to choose between an abort, great sin, or give birth to a sinful, tainted baby to leave it (hypothetical point of view) in an institution. Both points of view are valid. No one should carry a baby that reminds you of a traumatic experience or bond you to look after someone who will be despised and practically abused as a result. And religious convictions should be something people can honour to their satisfaction.
The plot will be good so long you’re honest. Otherwise this plot will end up being propaganda.

Good examples of this are: Kramer vs Kramer (McKee lived the movie and I second the motion) and Ana Karenina[2].

Feed your ideas:

«A good writer is also a good reader and very observant[3]«

Rain check ideas for your topic:

This one to pick a topic is a bit backwards. Normally we try writing part of the plot and researching along the way or research before writing but after choosing the topic. Specially because some details appear only after you’re already writing or facing what you want to write about. Nonetheless, this is to your choice.

Use other inspiration sources:

The website encourages the creation of soundtracks! To me, who can’t play the triangle, sing horrible and can barely salsa…this is outrageous. From the creation of soundtracks to reading the same genre to figure out how to write a novel of the same kind I can add an ideas from Sarah Domet in «90 days to your novel«.

DO NOT WATCH TV cause you will get distracted (add internet says the flea writing this blog… internet is my drug). On the other side, Japanese invented doujinshi. A word any fan file who has been introduced to the world of boy love will understand quickly. All right, all right just in case you’re not a stan and you have no idea. A doujinshi is a spin off created by fans to alter the ending or the outcome of a certain story to fit their wishes. It can also be used to partner in bed, favourite characters who ended with different characters. Just because and without logic. It happens in western media, like the one time I read a Rowling apocryphe with Draco Malefoy falling in love with Ginny. It was to an «t» so alike an original, that only this minor detail gave it away.

Do you remember your bankbook notebook? The one in where we write thing that happens to the ant getting her petticoat wet[4] and we think about? So that! Do it. Besides learning opera, reading the newspaper, reading science books. I’m not inventing, just observing.

Next entry: finally writing!

Now, are you preparing your like or are you ready to give it? Are you subscribing or are you just thinking it? The difference? In one you fail but do and in the other, you never fail but will do nothing either. What side of the fence are you?

Pasto Kalo

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[1] Sorry but for me life is sacred so long it means every life and by every life I mean even the ant in the garden. But given the circumstances, we never treat life as sacred according to circumstances. Ants’ lives are sacred so long they don’t destroy the garden and babies are sacred until it is you who has to clean their poop and pay for their needs when that baby isn’t yours… In my opinion, giving options to the individual brings out the best of the person and avoids children being born into trauma or has parents giving their best. We can’t be prepared for all the possible backgrounds but we can make it possible for people to choose and react accordingly. Would you pay the taxes for sin-born babies to be looked after in orphanages so the holiness of life is kept? Are you personally going to explain to the baby that they are unwanted?

[2] My second hand Porrua edition deserved a homemade bookbinding with rustic wallet and so so calligraphy plus a hard cover in canvas

[3] Taken from the website

[4][4] *»Ahí va la hormiga recogiéndose las enaguas, pobre chorrito la salpicó» There goes the ant grabbing up her petticoat, poor water spring got her wet. Gabilondo Soler Cri Cri.