Prose anyone?

Chamber005

Chamber005

Carbonite Member
So inbetween shooting I've started doing something I haven't done in years -- writing prose.

While I think that writing with a budget in mind forces me to really get creative about scenes and content, it's been really freeing to just go all out with a big sci-fi/fantasy thriller.

Years ago I would have been relatively strict about a 3,000 word per day goal, but I've been a little more lenient on myself only asking for 1,000. I'm at about 20,000 words right now after a few weeks and things have been going really well. I'm hoping to be at around 120,000 words when it's all said and done. Additionally I've made the protagonists 10 and 12 year olds and have tried to squeeze the subject matter (or at least the protagonists' perception of the subject matter) to Young Adult "guidelines" for an easier sell.

It's been forever since I've submitted a short story or anything anywhere, so it will certainly be interesting to see how all that pans out. I've still got a few people and connections I developed before deciding to leave prose for screenwriting, so we'll see if anything can come from that.

Does anyone else use some of their writing "down time" to work on novels?
 
Sounds great, man. I wish I had your dedication - it takes me a week to get 1,000 words. <grin>

I just recently started novel-writing again. Mostly because I just recently started novel-reading again. There are fascinating differences between novels and screenplays, and I personally find the former a bit easier to write. And I agree, it's very fun to not have to worry about budgets and other production realities and just let your imagination run. Fantasy is one of my favorite genres of fiction. It's what got me into writing in the first place.

I stopped writing novels for a long time, though, once I started writing screenplays. Initially, I found it difficult to switch between the two. Screenplays were supposed to be brief and concise, only describing what is absolutely necessary. Novels, I thought, were supposed to be long and descriptive. I noticed that the novels I was trying to write, while better in story terms, were not as well-written as the one novel I'd finished (which I then lost when my computer died completely... <sigh>).

Then I started reading novels again recently. Particularly Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." In that book, I learned that you don't have to describe everything and go on with long paragraphs of exposition about the characters. That book is so visual, it was like a Godsend. And it got me back to writing.

Michael

Sorry for the long post! <grin>
 
I haven't written much prose for a few years, but I reccomend every screenwriter write a novel or other substantial piece of prose at least once. I noticed a profound improvement in my screenwriting after writing my first novel. As well as just improving my skills at putting words together, it forces you to consider the interior lives of your characters more deeply.
 
My first novel I was adapting a screenplay I wrote, so I just used that as an outline. The children's book I wrote was based on a treatment I wrote with some friends. My other unfinished novel I did some minimal outlining. The more I write the more I prefer to do as little outlining as I can get away with. I like to keep the work as fresh and alive as possible. Going methodically through preprogrammed beats gets boring to me. I like to leave enough of the story and characters undiscovered so they can surprise me.
 
Cool beans. I outline almost all of my scripts, but I really haven't done an outline for the novel I'm working on. Right now I'm enjoying the ability to just write, like you said, and see what happens. If I never finish and it never gets published, I'll still have had fun writing and hopefully gotten better at it.
 
In my experience the worst thing you can ever do with regards prose is write a "detailed outline". I think there are writers who write and story tellers who tell stories. In my opinion there is a distinction between the two. You'll have to figure out which one you are. A writer can be a journalist the same as they can be a novelist; a story teller probably not so much. It's all about what motivates you to write. Is it language and communication or is it story and characters?

If it's story and characters, writing a detailed outline, in my opinion, will castrate any chance of finishing a complete and rewarding piece. My dad used to always say about his writing, "I don't want to queer it by talking about it." For me, the same goes for detailed outlining. If you write your story before you write your story, the thrust is depleated if not gone entirely. The story teller wants one thing: to tell his/her story. Once that's done, what's the point?

As a rule I like to detail the scenes of a given chapter. "Mary and Greg in forest. Greg wants to talk about his mother. Reference the oracle."

Unlike some fiction writers, I have to know my ending before I really commit to a complete first draft so I know what each scene needs to entail prior to writing it. But you have to leave reams of room when assembling your collection of scenes, and you can't go too far out from where you currently are in the story because your characters might surprise you, opening up the story to scenes you hadn't originally foreseen. Character motivation and "plot" point are the only essentials in scene-building and only essential to act as goal tenders for the next bit of writing (e.g. word count); everything else should be left to the moment IMO.

And you really should be pushing for 2,000 words a day. Start at 500 and then move your way up from there. Even if you end up writing crap that never makes it into the final draft, you're writing -- which is what writers do; and you're existing in your story -- which is where a storyteller needs to be everyday until the story is complete.
 
Great post, Chamber. I'm the same way, I have general ideas about how things will go, and I usually know the ending before I start - but other than that, I mostly just go with it.

Do you do the same thing with screenplays, or only prose?
 
Screenplays and stage plays are pretty easy for me. Once I've let the story knock around in my head for a few months I can usually get the first draft out in 10 days to 2 weeks. And yeah, I do it the same way.

Screenplays and stage plays are, for me, much more rewarding than prose writing because the story gets put to paper much faster. Novels, on some level, are never really finished. You could literally write the same novel for your entire life, always editing and re-tooling the narration, the same way you could shoot a single film over and over again unto forever. But because novels only rely on my own endurance and timeliness (not the endurance and timeliness of others), I can complete a finished work without interference which is what urges me to come back to them during long shoots.

Dialog is the only honest thing in a story for me, so that's what I'm drawn to. A character speaks and, for the most part, I don't interfere. They say what they mean to say in the moment and at most I might delete something they've said, sometimes entire blocks of things because of length issues, but very rarely will I change the words I leave in. How could I? If I do that then I'm the one deciding what they're saying instead of allowing the characters to exist as they are. That truth of moment comes from dealing with your characters' motivations honestly and allowing them to authentically interact with the other characters and conflicts imposed by the story.

In short you're the story teller. You've got a story to tell. Your characters didn't ask to be in the situations they're in, but here they are -- that's life. Once they appear in the middle of it all you have to turn your back on them and any notions of plot. But because we're imperfect beings we will always end up guiding our characters towards the ending we wish them to have. If I've seen in my mind's eye Paul get run over by a cement truck, then by god Paul will get run over by a cement truck regardless of how many walls I have to build and obstacles I have to plant in order to have him meet that fate, but what Paul does while he's here, all the love and meanigful trifles that make up his life are his to own.
 
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