Following a Character into a Book

by Linda Rodriguez

Lately, I’ve been intensely writing a new book. That’s a fairly common thing around here. Several times a year I follow a character into a short story or book. After the first draft is finished, I still refer to the much more I know about that character from writing that first draft as I revise and edit and edit, still following those characters as I chip away whatever doesn’t matter to them or what doesn’t fit. In a way, you could say that I spend most of my professional time chasing after characters, and you’d be correct.

Some people have the idea that plot is the be-all and end-all of the mystery writer, but I see it as story. I can write a book based on a clever plot with all kinds of surprises and twists, but if the reader doesn’t care about the characters or if the actions taking place don’t ring true for the characters, it’s no good. And yes, I know there are books like this that are published and sometimes very successful, but I still think it’s really story we need in the mystery, a story where the actions rise organically out of the characters and their motivations, where we care about the characters and what they’re trying to do because we know why it’s so important to them to succeed in their attempts.

When I’m looking for story, I start with character. As I start to know that character better, she or he leads me directly into story. A nice complex, twisty narrative with surprises and suspense comes from following all the major characters as they lead me on their path toward their goals in the story and come into conflict with each other or help each other or, sometimes, both.

When I run into problems with story as I’m writing a book, I go back to the characters involved with the aspect of the story that’s giving me a hard time. I sit down and have them write their situation, feelings, and problems with the story’s direction in first person as if they were writing diary entries or letters to me to tell me why they won’t do what I think they should do. Always I find that there’s something I’ve overlooked with that (those) character(s). I’ve been trying to steer the plot in a direction that’s false to the character(s), and I have to learn more about each character in order to find out the direction the story needs to go.

I’ve always been glad I take the time to do this, even as I whine about taking that time in the middle of a book with a deadline facing me. Often it leads to big changes—once I even had to change the villain into a possible love interest—but it always makes for a stronger, more vital story. And that’s what I’m after.

Right now, I’m chasing another set of characters into a book that I’ve tentatively set up to go one way, but I know that, as I get deeper into this story following these characters, I may find we’ve gone a different way into a whole different and much richer story. It’s the ultimate adventure, following a character into a book.

Linda Rodriguez's Plotting the Character-Driven Novel, based on her popular workshop, and The World Is One Place: Native American Poets Visit the Middle East, an anthology she co-edited, are her newest books. Every Family Doubt, her fourth mystery novel featuring Cherokee campus police chief, Skeet Bannion, will appear January 17, 2018. Her three earlier Skeet novels—Every Hidden Fear, Every Broken Trust, and Every Last Secret—and her books of poetry—Skin Hunger and Heart's Migration—have received critical recognition and awards, such as St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Best First Novel, International Latino Book Award, Latina Book Club Best Book of 2014, Midwest Voices & Visions, Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award, Thorpe Menn Award, and Ragdale and Macondo fellowships. Her short story, “The Good Neighbor,” published in the anthology, Kansas City Noir, has been optioned for film.

Rodriguez is past chair of the AWP Indigenous Writer’s Caucus, past president of Border Crimes chapter of Sisters in Crime, founding board member of Latino Writers Collective and The Writers Place, and a member of International Thriller Writers, Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers, and Kansas City Cherokee Community. Visit her at http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com

Go, Slow, Stop: Pacing and Drafting

At this very moment, I’m about two-and-a-half chapters from finishing my current work in progress.

Three scenes.

And then I’m done.

Well, with the first draft, anyway.

About fifty read-throughs later and it’ll be ready for beta-reader consumption. I’m sort of kidding, but really, I’m an over-reader—I have a hard time letting go until everything is perfect.

And that’s exactly why those three scenes might take me the next ten days or so to write.

Even though I will write for an hour or two each day Monday through Friday this coming week.

Yes, I am excruciatingly slow at the end of a manuscript.

Even though this is technically the first draft, I’m constantly editing myself. To move forward, I must read what I wrote the day before. Then I’ll add to it a phrase at a time. Building at the pace of two steps forward, one step back.

I’ve noticed I tend to do this on nearly every manuscript I’ve ever written. I am super slow in the first 10,000 words—careful to make sure my set up is completely perfect. And then I’m super slow again during the final 10,000 words—careful to make sure the pay off is completely perfect.

I know I could just bang it out. That’s often what I’m doing in the middle of a first draft—a chapter a day or more. But I often feel like if I take it slow and get it just right the first time, I save myself tons of work and heartache later.

So, as much as I would have liked to type “the end” this weekend, the earliest that will probably come is next weekend.

That said, I know plenty of writers who plow through the first section of their novels as well as the last section and tend to struggle in the “soggy” middle.

Have you noticed you do one or the other? Or do you keep the same pace? Or do you do both and find it depends on the manuscript?

As I plod away, I’m quite curious.

Writing For Me: An Update

In my first post of the new year, I wrote about how I wanted to try to write just a little bit—100 words—each day for 2015. I’d had a really heavy few weeks (death sucks, ya’ll) and decided that in 2015, I’d try to do something that makes me happy every day, i.e. writing.

The key word there is “happy.”

In the original post, I talked about wanting to keep things fun, which is why I made my daily target amount so small. It’s modeled after the “run streak” phenomena, which is basically where a runner tries to run at least a mile every day for a set period of time. I’m big into running and I’ve known several people who have done this for a month, a year, etc.

So, there’s the background. Time for a progress report!

As you may have guessed from my theme of happiness and fun, I do not have a perfect streak of writing every day. Because, honestly, life happens.

See that March calendar up there? The red stars are for 100 words, the gold stars are for 1,000 words, silver is for revision and purple is for client copy editing (because that takes up writing time).

As you can see, there were three days I didn’t even manage 100 words. Why? Because my baby got the Norovirus (24 hours of puking) and then gave it to me.

Yeah, so no writing those days. And forcing myself to do it would have gone against the “fun” principle aka “the whole point.”

So, I’m not perfect. But I am having fun. It’s nice to see actual visual progress of my writing (more than just a climbing word count) and it’s also nice to see what I’ve been doing career-wise over a period of time.

If you’re going to try out the calendar and sticker method, here are a few things I’ve learned:

1. Give credit where it’s due: I didn’t add my copy editing to the calendar until March. I did so because I had a lot of editing to do in January and February and it was taking the place of a lot of my writing and revision time. Basically, I wanted to give myself credit for working my butt off on writing-related things.

2. Adjust your progress reports: So, as you can see, I had very few 1,000-word days in March. I prefer to write 1,000 words per day when I’m writing a first draft, but, honestly, with the baby and life, that’s just not happening this time around. That said, I have had many, many days where I’ve written 500 to 700 words, yet all you’ll see on those days is one lousy red star. Thus, I think I might start giving myself gold stars for 500-word days in May.

3. Buy lots of stickers: I’m already out of the red ones. Huzzah!

How’s your work-in-progress treating you?

The Beauty of 1K a Day

It can take forever to write a novel.

Months. Years. Half-a-decade.

But it’ll take a lot longer if you don’t actually sit down and write the thing.

As you may have gleaned from my last post, I really don’t have a ton of time to write. Between being a mom, having a full-time job and a healthy freelance writing/editing career, I am often SWAMPED.

But dang it if I don’t get stuff done.

Because I’ve learned the art of chipping away.

On every project I worked on last year, I attempted to average 1,000 words a day during the first draft stage. That’s not much. Maybe five pages, double-spaced. For me, that’s about half a chapter or one scene. 

Not much at all.

But when staring down a 90,000-work book from page one? Totally doable.

I can fit in 1,000 words on my lunch break at work. Then, by Friday afternoon, I’ve got 5,000 words I didn’t have at the start of the week. Sure, that’s slow progress—especially when compared to those “fast drafters” out there who crank out 10,000 words a day—but it’s just enough that I feel like I’ve accomplished something—and moved closer to my goal of finishing a manuscript.

Some days I can’t write. Too many family obligations or too much work or freelance to do. So, I double-up the next day. Or go on a tear during a few precious hours during a weekend. As long as I average 30,000 words for a month, I’m pleased. That’s not Herculean. But it’ll get me there.

I’ve written nearly four manuscripts with this technique. Two that were completed in 2013, and two (a solo project and a joint project) that will most likely be finished this month.

They say that to be a writer you must write every day. I don’t necessarily believe this to be true, but I do think that to be a writer who finishes projects, you need to write as often as possible while in the drafting stage.

Not because that makes you a writer, per se, but because it will make the act of finishing a book A. less daunting and B. easier, in that you’ll be in the story every day (aka not staring at the computer screen because it’s been a week). And finishing is the goal, right? Right.

How do you approach the act of finishing a manuscript?