My 2012 Writing Goals

Image courtesy of Nasirkhan at morguefile.com

Now that my first year of motherhood is behind me, I am beginning to think about how I can create a daily writing habit. My little guy and I seem to have nap times and bedtime flowing a lot easier, so finding at least 10 minutes to write each day should be within the realms of possibility. (But one of the things I've learned this past year is that baby and I can sometimes have Challenging Days. And when those Challenging Days crop up, it's best to ditch Plan A and flow gracefully into a Plan B. )

Researching plot and structure

Despite my earlier post on letting things go, I just cannot let go of my story idea or my three beloved characters.

I've done a tonne of research on plot structure. I've looked at the 8-point arc, the 3 act structure, the four part structure, the hero's journey, the Witch's Hat, the modified plot triangle (similar to the Witch's Hat except that  the "hat" has no point), the Snowflake Method, StoryWeaver, Martha Alderson's plot planner, a SavvyAuthor's workshop on The Right Way to Plot, and a wide variety of worksheets and questionnaires which various writers have kindly made available as writing resources for other (newbie) writers. (This is the tip of the iceberg; I haven't mentioned everything I've come across.)

I'm an intelligent human being. I understand everything I've read, and although different people have slightly different ways of plotting, and use different structures, each of the methods I've researched makes sense. A lot of them are very similar.

But I still had difficulty getting my story off the ground. Sure, I knew what was supposed to happen if I referred to any of the plot blueprints, but no matter what ideas I came up with to fit the blueprint, something felt wrong. Deep down inside I wasn't getting a "YES YES YES!" feeling.

And then, a couple of days ago, I had an insight into why that might be.

Jodi Henley, in a blog post, wrote:

[...]the trouble with character-driven stories. They’re hard to plot because motivation isn’t always linear.

Jodi Henley is running a workshop on SavvyAuthors starting 2nd January called Showing the Transformational Character Arc: a practical hands on guide to what, why and how. I've registed for it.

Not only that, I've ordered Dara Marks's Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc from Book Depository (and I've also reserved a copy at my library in case I might be able to dive in before my purchased copy arrives in the post...)

The goal here is to learn about the transformational character arc, how it affects plot, and how I can weave the character arc through the plot so that I'm satisfied with what I'm creating. (I know first drafts aren't perfect and I'm not looking for perfect, just that what I'm doing feels right.)

While researching some old links I had for plotting, I came across Andrea Sokoloff's blog and website and I've added her Writing Love: Screenwriting Tricks for Authors II to my writing resources. I've only glanced at a few of the pages, but what I liked was the checklist for the different elements that need to appear in each act (she uses the 3 act structure). This is a more uptodate version of her Screenwriting Tricks for Authors, but it uses examples from the romance genre to demonstrate the points she makes.

Playing with the Writing Muse

I also read a good article by Mary O'Gara entitled "What can you do in 5 minutes a day?"

Five minutes of play keeps the juices flowing, the ideas moving, the characters talking.   And it’s fun.
You can sketch, write a poem, make a list of character names, freewrite about your next scene, or send yourself a text in five minutes or less.   You can take a picture for research, clip images from a magazine, or find color names in a thesaurus.
It’s the daily “call” to the core of your being that keeps something important alive until the next time you sit down for focused work.

So another writing goal for 2012 is to play.

Elsewhere among her posts, she also mentions that character templates are great tools to play with. I've got a few templates on my hard drive that have interesting and unusual questions on them, and I plan to fill one in every now and again.

Writing Process

Another goal for 2012 is to build a writing process that works for me, and it links to the goals of playing with the writing muse and going deeper into plotting via the character transformational arc.

I know that the characters in anything I write are immensely important to me, so I've decided that it makes sense to build them from the inside out.

With that in mind, I will be writing character journals for my three beloved characters. I want to get to know them VERY well, and writing a journal from their viewpoints will not only help me do that, it will also be tremendous fun. Yay!

It's funny how I'll be doing something on the internet and all of a sudden I'll find something that links to writing. I was reading up on decluttering and getting organised around the home and the site I was on included a link to http://smallstepstobigchange.com. I checked out the link and found that Lynn Johnston had written a resource for writers called The Kaizen Plan for Organised Authors. It's available as an ebook on Smashwords and I've bought and downloaded it. This book aims to help writers discover the writing process that works best for them and organise their tools so that they can be their most creative. I can't wait to get started!

Final thoughts... and a question

I've been thinking of checking in on a daily basis with Kirsten at Write A Book With Me (WABWM.com) The goal for members of the site is to reach 500 words per day. This is an achievable goal for me, although there will be days when I'll have to resort to a Plan B, but that's ok. :)

This has been a longer post than usual, so I shall finish up now by wishing you all a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2012!!

Do you have any New Year's Writing Resolutions?