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I love my subconscious
May. 22nd, 2006 09:00 amI really wouldn't be able to write well without it.
Yesterday, my partner and I went to NYC. I spent way too much money and walked way too far, BUT on the drive home, I had the entire base structure of The Vacant Throne handed to me by my subconscious. I've been flailing around with the writing because even though I know what the emotional plot line of the novel is, I haven't had a clue what the base plot line was (the action, the movements of the people, the battles, etc). However, I now know . . . or at least think I know . . . what everyone does. They move here because of this, then this happens because of this, and the domino effect sets in and they have to go here and in desperation do this, and that changes this, and . . . Well, you get the idea. I frantically scribbled what I could down on a receipt. Then I sat back and began analyzing it, looking for connections I hadn't made yet, looking for plot holes, things that wouldn't work, etc. I ended up making more connections. Some of the characters who weren't doing anything (but needed to be doing something because otherwise readers would want to know why they dropped off the face of the earth) came forward and said, "I'm doing this, because if I don't, this over here won't work! See how helpful I am?" And things like that. There's still enough that I don't know that the writing will be interesting, but it feels good to have a decent idea of where it's headed. And I've realized that there are certain elements that are going to require . . . research.
I hate research. It's absolutely and totally necessary if you want things to actually WORK and be BELIEVABLE, but I feel like I should have some kind of connection between my brain and all information in the world so that all I have to do is say, "I need this!" and the information is core dumped into my subconscious. I know this isn't how it works, ever, but I'm a fantasist. I like to dream.
In any case, the most obvious area of research for this book is going to be . . . ships. Boats and specifically how to build them. From scratch. How long does that take? What's involved? What resources do you need? (Timber . . . lots and lots of timber.) And what's the difference between building a trading ship and a ship of war? And these aren't little rafts. I assume it takes . . . a long time. I have motivated people however, and I have magic that I'm assuming will help speed up the process somewhere along the way, but how long it takes to build boats is going to seriously effect the plot structure. If it takes 5 years to get one ship built, then the plot structure I have currently won't work. I'll have to come up with something else or figure out how to get ships some other way besides building them from scratch.
Yesterday, my partner and I went to NYC. I spent way too much money and walked way too far, BUT on the drive home, I had the entire base structure of The Vacant Throne handed to me by my subconscious. I've been flailing around with the writing because even though I know what the emotional plot line of the novel is, I haven't had a clue what the base plot line was (the action, the movements of the people, the battles, etc). However, I now know . . . or at least think I know . . . what everyone does. They move here because of this, then this happens because of this, and the domino effect sets in and they have to go here and in desperation do this, and that changes this, and . . . Well, you get the idea. I frantically scribbled what I could down on a receipt. Then I sat back and began analyzing it, looking for connections I hadn't made yet, looking for plot holes, things that wouldn't work, etc. I ended up making more connections. Some of the characters who weren't doing anything (but needed to be doing something because otherwise readers would want to know why they dropped off the face of the earth) came forward and said, "I'm doing this, because if I don't, this over here won't work! See how helpful I am?" And things like that. There's still enough that I don't know that the writing will be interesting, but it feels good to have a decent idea of where it's headed. And I've realized that there are certain elements that are going to require . . . research.
I hate research. It's absolutely and totally necessary if you want things to actually WORK and be BELIEVABLE, but I feel like I should have some kind of connection between my brain and all information in the world so that all I have to do is say, "I need this!" and the information is core dumped into my subconscious. I know this isn't how it works, ever, but I'm a fantasist. I like to dream.
In any case, the most obvious area of research for this book is going to be . . . ships. Boats and specifically how to build them. From scratch. How long does that take? What's involved? What resources do you need? (Timber . . . lots and lots of timber.) And what's the difference between building a trading ship and a ship of war? And these aren't little rafts. I assume it takes . . . a long time. I have motivated people however, and I have magic that I'm assuming will help speed up the process somewhere along the way, but how long it takes to build boats is going to seriously effect the plot structure. If it takes 5 years to get one ship built, then the plot structure I have currently won't work. I'll have to come up with something else or figure out how to get ships some other way besides building them from scratch.
