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Writing Meta/Filibustering
Feb. 12th, 2007 11:27 pmYoung Adult Fiction-- isn’t it suppose to be less mature than, say, a suspense/thriller? Yet, why are my research notes for my YA project ending up being more sophisticated than for Constant Peril or Bleeding Mercy?
Example from terms yanked randomly from Spellbrook’s notebook: peripety, timeslip romance, liminal, recursive fantasy, the "Ah-ha!" factor, and magical realism. Random much? Yeah, I know.
In other words, the Notebook Method is a success so far, 2+ weeks in. I’m happy with all my work so far, and it feels good to sit down for an hour or so, scribbling away in a notebook dedicated solely to one project, and still have the flexibility to switch to another project by just opening another notebook.
The writing binders are working out very well. Each binder is hierarchically different-- Lovell, for example, has a bazillion tabbed dividers, while Fortune’s Ice has ... two. But I’m enjoying the flexibility of the system much more than I ever did struggling to figure out where I was stashing important story notes on George’s My Documents hierarchic system.
It is so nice to be able to pull down a notebook and scribble a stray note down. It has helped expand my areas of researching without getting bogged down in a Wikipedia Effect, that leaves me with the strange complete history of Connor Kent and Powergirl but still without viable ideas for the project I started reseraching in the first place.
Want to be frightened half to death? Here is a look at the Lovell notebook’s hierarchic system:
Yeah, it scares me too. But unlike my computer’s hierarchic system, this one is useful. I started doing some aimless researching on wikipedia the other day on Almacks and was able to just open to the social notes tab, find the Almacks page, and add in the details I was missing. And then I was able to flip back to the Book 1 tab, find the Scene Ideas List page, and add in a potential scene the information on Almacks had given me. I accomplished something in a fraction of the time it would have with my old system of keeping track of writing projects on the computer.
Another pro to the Notebook Method’s list is how quickly it has disciplined my brain. I’ve kept to doing research or at least thinking of the various projects every day so far, and I’ve almost gotten done with my Lovell 1 pre-writing. In essentially 2 weeks. I’m trying to work to consistantly notebooking every night, trying to trick the brain into thinking “STORYTIME” for 2-3 hours a day. Hopefully this will work to prep the brain for having to actually think up prose, consistantly, every day.
The only con I’ve had so far is having to lug the Lovell binder all the way to PA with me the other day. But at least I *was* able to take it with me, unlike the lack of mobility the My Documents system was giving me.
Tomorrow's list of things to do: WORK ON TAURT AND OSKAR. GO TO WORK. WATCH TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #2 AND GIGGLE A LOT. AND OH YEAH, NOTEBOOK. XD
Example from terms yanked randomly from Spellbrook’s notebook: peripety, timeslip romance, liminal, recursive fantasy, the "Ah-ha!" factor, and magical realism. Random much? Yeah, I know.
In other words, the Notebook Method is a success so far, 2+ weeks in. I’m happy with all my work so far, and it feels good to sit down for an hour or so, scribbling away in a notebook dedicated solely to one project, and still have the flexibility to switch to another project by just opening another notebook.
The writing binders are working out very well. Each binder is hierarchically different-- Lovell, for example, has a bazillion tabbed dividers, while Fortune’s Ice has ... two. But I’m enjoying the flexibility of the system much more than I ever did struggling to figure out where I was stashing important story notes on George’s My Documents hierarchic system.
It is so nice to be able to pull down a notebook and scribble a stray note down. It has helped expand my areas of researching without getting bogged down in a Wikipedia Effect, that leaves me with the strange complete history of Connor Kent and Powergirl but still without viable ideas for the project I started reseraching in the first place.
Want to be frightened half to death? Here is a look at the Lovell notebook’s hierarchic system:
Yeah, it scares me too. But unlike my computer’s hierarchic system, this one is useful. I started doing some aimless researching on wikipedia the other day on Almacks and was able to just open to the social notes tab, find the Almacks page, and add in the details I was missing. And then I was able to flip back to the Book 1 tab, find the Scene Ideas List page, and add in a potential scene the information on Almacks had given me. I accomplished something in a fraction of the time it would have with my old system of keeping track of writing projects on the computer.
Another pro to the Notebook Method’s list is how quickly it has disciplined my brain. I’ve kept to doing research or at least thinking of the various projects every day so far, and I’ve almost gotten done with my Lovell 1 pre-writing. In essentially 2 weeks. I’m trying to work to consistantly notebooking every night, trying to trick the brain into thinking “STORYTIME” for 2-3 hours a day. Hopefully this will work to prep the brain for having to actually think up prose, consistantly, every day.
The only con I’ve had so far is having to lug the Lovell binder all the way to PA with me the other day. But at least I *was* able to take it with me, unlike the lack of mobility the My Documents system was giving me.
Tomorrow's list of things to do: WORK ON TAURT AND OSKAR. GO TO WORK. WATCH TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #2 AND GIGGLE A LOT. AND OH YEAH, NOTEBOOK. XD
