Satima's Blogspot: Planning and Flimmering

Monday, 8 January 2007

Planning and Flimmering

Monday, January 08, 2007 |

Posted by Satima Flavell

Ye gods and little fishes, is it really the 8th already? I've actually been writing - two new chapters of the first book of the magnum opus (a fantasy trilogy), editing of a lot of stuff already written and a revision of the entire outline. Isn't it funny how once you start writing, you have to keep changing the outline?

By nature, I'm what some call an "organic writer" and others call a "flimmerer". Whatever you call it, it's a tortured way of writing because you haven't a clue where the story's going until you get there. I've tried to get a decent outline down this time, with things like "precipitating incident","first disaster" and "denouement" marked in. That much, at least, I'll try to stick to. I suppose if you have a plan you have something to depart from - and something to go back to when the departures lead you astray. And they do lead me astray. At one point I found I had seventeen point of view characters and a storyline that was not so much a plot as a melee in a department store at sale time. I've promised myself - and my critters! - that I'll try to do better this time.

Wish me luck:-)

10 comments:

Unknown said...: I write in exactly the same way 9 times out of 10. Works brilliantly for short stories, where I often set out with only the flimsiest (if any) idea of the ending.

Hard work for novels, though. My first novel I plotted quite tightly, and then the characters took me away from the plot anyway. The second I'm working on now, and I've basically said to the characters "Okay, where's this all going?"

Turns out, so far, that it's going to the pub :); Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Satima Flavell said...: Sounds good to me, Lee. I wish my characters would take me to the pub! Over a few drinks they might tell me where the story's going...; Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Glenda Larke said...: Flimmerer. Love that word!; Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Satima Flavell said...: Hey Glenda, thanks for stopping by! I think someone from Romance Writers of America invented "flimmering", based on an obcure verb "to flimmer", which means just what it sounds like - to flit, flicker and glimmer without taking solid form. I'm dying to write a scene with will o' the wisps in it Just so's I can say "they flimmered across the bog" or something:-); Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Anonymous said...: Flimmer! What a great word! That may describe how some people write, but I think it pretty accurately describes how I live!

Glad you're getting some words on paper :-); Thursday, January 11, 2007
Satima Flavell said...: He heh - it's how we all live, when all's said and done. We make plans but we finish up going elsewhere and doing other things at least 70% of the time. In fact, I reckon it's a rare person who can seriously say when they retire that life has gone as they planned it when they left school!; Thursday, January 11, 2007
Helen V. said...: Okay now I know what my writing style is called. Love that word. Well paid would be others I could come to love.; Friday, January 12, 2007
Satima Flavell said...: Hey, Helen, when you've extracted all the juice to be had from the Clarion pineapple you'll be on the road to being as well paid as any other writer in Oz*g*.

It would be nice, though, wouldn't it, to make a living from writing, even if it's only a meagre one. In fact, any payment is good, as it's a validation of kinds. We do have this thing in our society that if you do anything for nothing you're a either a fool or you're not good enough for anyone to want to pay you. It's sad for those of us whose talents lie in fields where money doesn't grow.; Saturday, January 13, 2007
Anonymous said...: There's a lot to enjoy about flimmery, Satima, and I agree with Lee B about it being good for short stories. I've written some that way. Structure has benefits too - especially (as Lee mentioned) for larger or more complex works.

It takes time to learn to use unfamiliar writing approaches (I'm agonising over one now), but having more than one approach gives you some flex as to what you tackle, and how you do it.; Saturday, January 13, 2007
Satima Flavell said...: Ruv, I especially like your musings where you conclude "...if you want to write a psychological story, the speculative elements should help to: make the setting and characters more exciting and relevant, the plot more interesting, and the imagery more vivid....Actually, thinking about it, this probably applies to spec fic in non-psychological tales too."

How right you are, Ruv. There's nothing more inane than a story purporting to be SF in which the speculative elements are just window dressing. You don't see much published work along those lines these days, but they turn up all the time in crit groups.

OTOH, maybe a story in which the MC's growth is painted on afterwards is just as inane. I think I have a topic for my next blog entry:-); Saturday, January 13, 2007

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