CHAPTER SIX

SOME PROCESS HINTS

 

 

In this chapter, I’m going to talk about some process hints before we go any farther.

Remember, trust the process.

That takes a belief system in your own work. Of course, believing in our own work is where the critical voice hits us all the hardest. And where our wall against the critical voice is the weakest.

But writing into the dark takes a belief system in story. It takes a trust that your creative voice knows what it is doing. And it takes a vast amount of mental fight to walk against all the myths and let the fine work your creative voice has done alone and not ruin it with rewriting.

Writing into the dark also takes a complete awareness that uncertainty is part of the process, a normal part, not something to be feared.

Remember, if you start focusing on the uncertainty too much, you allow the critical voice to come in and stop you cold.

So you have to know uncertainty is part of the process, but not focus on it or care about it.

So now to some hints about major areas we all run into while writing into the dark.

 

 

PLOT TIME JUMPS

 

First off, when dealing with time jumps in a plot you don’t know, remember that it is fine to write extra words. You should have no fear of writing extra words. Writing extra words is often part of the process.

So in the book I talked about in the last chapter, I ended up having three major time jumps in it.

Of course, when writing the book I didn’t know that. But as I was writing, working my two characters in alternating chapters through their journey, it became clear from what I had set up that there needed to be a section break and a time jump. The characters basically had nothing to do that was interesting for an entire year.

But where to jump to? When to jump to?

Without some sort of idea where the story was even heading, I had no idea.

So I kind of sat there and looked at what I had written and went, “It seems logical they would jump to this point in time.”

So I jumped there, put them back into a rich, thick setting with depth, and started typing. About two thousand words in I discovered the point where I should have jumped the characters.

I shrugged, cut off the extra words I had written, and just kept on going.

I was not afraid to write extra and just explore.

Back to the exploring a cave analogy. When exploring into the dark, we are often faced with two possible paths: one cave goes to the right, one to the left. We have no idea what is ahead, so we pick one and explore.

If it’s the wrong path, we back up and go the other way.

Part of the process.

Have a belief in the process, and jumping ahead in a story will never be a problem.

 

 

BOGGING DOWN

 

Every writer I know bogs down in a story at one point or another. For me, and for most writers, it means we have done one of two things.

First, we have written past an ending of a chapter or scene, and the creative voice is just going to make us stop typing.

Second, we are on a wrong path with the plot. (Wrong branch of the cave.)

The subconscious, when it realizes you have taken a bad path, will just bog you down and stop you from typing.

What I do when this happens is simple. I look back at what I have written in the last three or four pages.

Writing past an ending on a scene or chapter is usually very, very clear. The ending almost always just pops off the page.

So I cut off the extra typing, do the scene or chapter break, and head forward with the characters.

When I am on a wrong path, I go back searching for the branch in the cave, keeping that analogy going.

When I find the one spot where I could have gone another direction, I cut off the extra words and go off in the new direction. I’ll know I’m going in the right direction because suddenly the story is flowing again faster than I can type.

So bogging down is part of the process as well.

Expect it and don’t be afraid to write extra words or cut words to get back on track.

 

 

END OF BOOK

 

When you bog down near the end of a book or a story, it often means you have written past your ending.

I do that all the time on short stories. I’ll be typing along with the sense that the ending should be coming up soon and then I’ll just bog down. Usually I’ll sit there trying to figure out the end before I have the realization to look back a little bit at what I have already typed.

Often, more times than not, the great ending is back a hundred words or so. I wrote it and then just kept typing.

 

 

THE ONE-THIRD POINT OF A NOVEL

 

On novels, almost every writer I know hits a stopping point about one third of the way into writing the book. It does not matter if you are writing into the dark or outlining—this one-third point is a deadly spot for all novelists.

And most beginning writers working at their first novel never make it past this spot. This one-third point stopped me on all my first attempts. On every novel, I still have troubles with it.

The reason I want to mention it in a book on writing into the dark is because this one-third point stop is often blamed on writing into the dark. Blamed on not having an outline.

It has nothing to do with it.

Nothing.

Here is basically what happens:

As writers, we are all excited as we get started into a novel. The characters are fun and new, the promise of the novel is like a shining star, the words are all golden, the story flowing like a perfect stream, everything is just powering along.

Then you hit that one-third spot.

Suddenly, your critical voice comes roaring in. And it’s loud. Damn loud.

Everything you have written, all those golden words, suddenly look like crap. The middle boring part of the book is ahead, or if you are writing into the dark, the fear of not knowing what is next rears up and becomes a monster.

And then the critical voice hits you with the thought, “This book is so bad, so much work to finish, what’s the point?”

That’s the end of the book. It goes into the unfinished file with a promise to yourself you’ll come back to it, but of course you never do.

Critical voice has killed the book dead.

Critical voice: 1. Writer: 0.

There have been some amazing articles written by professional writers about this spot in a novel. It really is a deadly spot.

So how do you get through it?

There is only one way.

Suck it up and write the next sentence.

And then the next.

You must be aware that this stopping point in a book is part of the process and you can’t let the critical voice in the door to kill it.

There are no easy solutions.

And sucking it up is not an easy solution.

Just keep writing, shove the critical voice down into the corner again, believe there will be value in your work, and stay inside the character’s heads and keep writing.

Do not let yourself make any stupid promises to yourself. You are still writing the book, period.

Don’t get sloppy because the writing suddenly got difficult.

Just stay with the characters and stay in their heads and write the next sentence.

Trust your process.

Eventually, the excitement will return and you’ll find the end and be very glad you kept going.