Lately, I’ve run into a lot of people I used to know thanks to the new social web media revolution. Yes, I think that means most of my old friends are a few years behind the times, or more likely, I’m a few years behind the times now that I’ve escaped the cocoon of my former day job. Inevitably, during the exchange of “What have you been up to”s and “What do you do for fun these days”s, the subject of writing comes up.
“So, what’s your book about?” they ask.
I give the screen a frown. I feel a crease form on my forehead as I will words that don’t exist into being. Eventually, because I need to move on, I jot down some demoralizing words about my own writing, tossing in a fair quantity of the word “tropes” into the explanation.
“Its a fantasy novel,” I say. I can already sense the looks and I haven’t even sent the message yet. “You know, your average High Fantasy with all the usual tropes and trappings, but its fun to write and its the kind of thing I like to read.” And that is usually the end of the “how’s the novel coming along” questions.
But the frustrating part for me is that I don’t know how to answer the question. When I’m writing, I’m usually in the world of the character at the moment (there’s multiple points of view in the book), and each one has their own little world of goals and frustrations that interact with each other. I feel like I’m quoting “Christmas Story” with this, but there isn’t an overarching theme to the story.
Or is there?
Because as soon as I type those words for this blog page, I can feel my inner author revolting at the thought. There is a theme, an overarching story that guides and blends them all together. I just can’t put my finger on what it is.
So, my first draft still in the stilted pieces stage, I’m outlining the sucker. I’ve got a copy of freemind up (its free, semi-visual, and does the trick if I’m careful with it), and I’m doing my damndest to capture both the overarching bits I wanted to convey for the story at large and the minutia for the individual chapters. But I can already see this is going to take a while (days? weeks?). I guess its a good thing I’ve got revisions for CTE and a story still to write to keep the creative juices from drying out and turning into that crusty stuff you find on cheese slices where the plastic has pulled back a little in the fridge and changed soft, american cheese into dark orange waxy crap.