Hey Folks,
Well, the beat goes on. Just as I ended last year with the passing of my lifelong friend Kenneth Flowers in late December, this month was marred by the passing of my dear friend Penny Porter.
Probably you’ve never heard of Penny, but she was a major help to writers around the globe as well as an excellent writer herself.
Penny, along with her friend Dale Adams, was intrumental in starting the Society of Southwestern Authors (SSA) in Tucson Arizona. In its heyday, the SSA held an annual conference rivaled by few others in size and quality. In some years, they had to turn away would-be walk-in participants at the door of the hotel.
I was a regular presenter at the conference for several years beginning in 1989 or 1990. Penny was the seemingly tireless conference coordinator for several years. Penny, sporting a head full of blazing red hair, always had a ready smile and she was a walking information booth.
She will be missed.
Topic: On Series Style Sheets and Reverse Outlines
Yesterday in her newsletter, Linda Maye Adams talked about creating and using what she calls a
“series story bible.”
In it, she notes “details mentioned in the books that are repeated later.”
I assume those details include descriptions of recurring characters, descriptions of various settings that will be revisited, the specific spellings (including exact capitalization) of streets, businesses, and other locations that will appear more than once, and so on.
This is all about being consistent through a series and, for that matter, through a novella or novel.
When I was editing full time and encountered a series, I did the same thing. The only difference is that I called it a “style sheet.”
Now, in my own writing, I do exactly the same thing with my reverse outline.
Note: I never outline anything in advance. If I’ve already written the story in outline form — if I know the major plot points, the major twists, and the ending — why bother writing it? That would just be majorly boring. Besides, if I did that, I’d be forcing my will on the characters, and that’s just wrong.
But I do create a reverse outline, meaning I outline after the fact. I keep it open in a Notepad (text) document off to one side.
In the reverse outline, I keep a running list of character names and place names (cities, towns, businesses, pubs, etc.) at the top of my reverse outline as they appear in the story.
Then, as I finish each chapter, I take a few seconds to jot down a few notes about what happened in the chapter. I also note any descriptions of characters or settings.
If a character first appears and her physical characteristics are described in Chapter 5, in my notes on that chapter I include “DESC, Jane Doe.”
I do the same thing (“DESC, Jane Doe’s office” or “DESC, Old Town Pub” etc.) in the chapter notes the first time my POV charater enters (and describes) a major setting.
So when I need to refresh my memory of a character or a setting, I can see at a glance which chapter holds the description.
If I know I’ll need the description often, sometimes I include the actual description directly in the reverse outline.
Hope this helps. Any questions, as always, please either ask in the comments section or email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
***
Just as I don’t create (or recommend creating) an advance outline, I also don’t recommend creating “character sketches.” I much prefer allowing the characters to reveal who they are as they appear in the story.
That being said, I understand not everyone subscribes to my way of doing things. With that in mind, I listed the first item in “Of Interest” below in case some of you might find it helpful.
***
I started to keep the typical diary-like notes about the day, but I kept getting distracted. Suffice it to say I wrote. Sort of.
A lot of cycling (the psychological stuff) by noon I had written only a little over 1000 words.
Then I got the notes back from my first reader on my Blackwell Ops book, so I took the diversion and read over them, made the changes I agreed with (almost all of them), then revised and uploaded the documents. It will release to the public on March 1.
So a very light day today.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Creating Characters: You Can Always Start With the Car” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/01/creating-characters-you-can-always-start-with-the-car.html. Note: This is not a technique I recommend or endorse.
See “Why I Disagree With the Konmari Tidying-Up Method for Books” at http://www.thepassivevoice.com/why-i-disagree-with-the-konmari-tidying-up-method-for-books/. You can click through to the original post too, but TPG’s take is hilarious.
See “Schedule Price Changes and Promos with Draft2Digital!” at https://draft2digital.com/blog/schedule-price-changes-and-promos-with-draft2digital/.
Via Linda Maye Adams, see “New Writing Scams to Look Out for in 2019” at https://annerallen.com/2019/01/new-writing-scams-2019/.
Via Anne R. Allen, see “Army of Clones, Part 2: Twenty-One (More) Publishing and Marketing “Services” to Beware Of” at https://accrispin.blogspot.com/2018/12/army-of-clones-part-2-twenty-one.html.
Also via Anne R. Allen, see “The State of the Publishing Union – 2018 Edition” at https://russellblake.com/the-state-of-the-publishing-union-2018-edition/.
For Anne R. Allen’s most popular posts, see https://annerallen.com/archives/.
Fiction Words: 1049
Nonfiction Words: 890 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 1939
Writing of The Case of the Mourning Widow (novel)
Day 1…… 2784 words. Total words to date…… 2784
Day 2…… 3250 words. Total words to date…… 6034
Day 3…… 2507 words. Total words to date…… 8521
Day 4…… 1049 words. Total words to date…… 9570
Total fiction words for the month……… 11218
Total fiction words for the year………… 11218
Total nonfiction words for the month… 9190
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 9190
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 20408
Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date………………………… X
Calenday Year 2019 Novellas to Date…………………… X
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date……… X
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 37
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 193
Short story collections…………………………………………………… 31