Comments on: Cindy’s Puzzle Method, Day 4

By: Christophe Desmecht

Christophe Desmecht — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:23:40 +0000

Well, Cate’s comment from yesterday already fired me up enough to go ahead and try her method. Your comment only pushed me even further over the line. Yesterday I only managed to free enough time to write down the jest of the next chapter that I have in my head, so hopefully today I’ll be able to sit down and write it.

I’ll make sure to keep you posted on how that went.
Thanks for the advice!

By: sesgaia

sesgaia — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:51:48 +0000

One thing I might add about veering off track- I found myself doing that once when I didn’t want to get into writing a difficult emotional scene- so instead my character “detoured” around it and started off on a safer track. So while sometimes a new track means the characters are coming alive in new ways, it might also be a way of avoiding intensity. I found myself being bored by the new track, often an indication that I’m not pushing the edge.

By: Camille

Camille — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:47:42 +0000

I like that…Puzzle Flake. Count me in. That’s what I am. Er, I meant what I do.
I started the story with characters, a couple key scenes and an ending. Then came those marvelous revelations that struck while in the shower or in line at DMV or Starbucks or worse - while working at the paying job - that I had to stop and write down.

I carried a spiral notebook around until the voices quieted down, which happened about the time I started snowflaking. I still have it - it’s full of sparkling, disjointed revelations. It’s underneath a fat stack of books writing and a number of well worn articles on how to write the perfect scene and how to build a snowman. Er, snowflake.

One thing I found I couldn’t do was get real deep with a character sketch, at least, not all in one sitting (as is my nature-do all or nothing, all at once) and the reason - I felt too forced to make up things about my character on the fly that aren’t natural. I discovered more about the character as they came to life through the writing, sort of organically. (oo, hippie word) I had to give myself permission to put some of the planning aside, and let some of it happen. Not easy for us control types, but more rewarding. I’m more in awe of my characters when they come to me, so to speak, and I don’t create them. Sort of like idol worship - if you carve the fat little buddy out of wood and then try to treat it like it’s alive, you’d always know in the back of your mind that you MADE it, wouldn’t you? Sort of takes the magic out of it.

By: Christophe Desmecht

Christophe Desmecht — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:58:01 +0000

Puzzleflake seems to be catchy… maybe I should copyright it, but then I’d probably get in trouble with Randy and Cindy

By: Morgan

Morgan — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:34:12 +0000

Yes, Puzzleflake is a great term! I’m one of those schizo’s who is both far right brained and far left brained with no middle ground I start out my story by just letting my imagination run with scenes, character development, and dialogue as it pops up (my laptop is always open, ready for me to write; I’ve been known to have it propped open on the washing machine so I can catch anything running through my mind while folding laundry :).
However, the logical side of me then takes over: how is this all going to come together? How is this going to end? Is there a logical flow? I’ve cut scenes that did not go with the story, I’ve cut characters after realizing they did not belong and I’m very strict on logic, if the scene, emotion, whatever does not convince me, it either gets put through again or chopped.
So I do my puzzle, then structure it after a few weeks of letting the story simmer. Another way to put it is my imagination is all the trees and details of the forest and I don’t want to miss them, but the path through the forest is my structure to make sure I make it through to the end of the forest.

By: D.E. Hale

D.E. Hale — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:03:05 +0000

Andie wrote:
I’m trying an experiment today by taking the different parts of a scene: description, involuntary reactions, dialog, internal monologue and nonverbal communication and write these each separately then go back and layer them.

I do that! Seriously, I really do. When writing a new scene, the first thing I start with is dialog, because for me that comes easy. I don’t want to waste my time, at that point, with description or anything else. I just want them to spit the words out. After that I “layer” in the rest, taking each thing one at a time. It works really well for me.

By: Karla

Karla — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:09:59 +0000

I have a question about point of view. I know this sounds so elementary, and maybe you’ve already discussed this in the past and I missed it. But I’m trying something new with my current WIP and I’m writing in first person. I’ve never done that before. I’m curious, if you’re writing in first person, that doesn’t mean that the voice is always the point of view, right? Did I just make any sense or am I being a flaky puzzle?

By: Cate

Cate — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:23:30 +0000

Karla–

As I understand it, first person is usually narrated by the acting POV character, but sometimes the narrator is describing the actions and thoughts of another (like Harry in John Le Carre’s The Russia House) in which case the character doing the actions would be the POV character, not the narrator.

Hope that helps!

By: Kristi Holl

Kristi Holl — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:44:26 +0000

Snowpuzzle may not sound as catchy, but I think that’s where I am. Snowflake first (because it gives me such a good skeletal structure, one-line summary, query paragraph and one-page synopsis for a proposal.) Then Puzzle away, letting imagination roam on how to flesh out the skeleton. Love this idea!