Every Book Needs Research

I've been avoiding writing my book for a while now thanks to it not fitting perfectly within the criteria of what makes a book (according to the book I bought to help guide me through the writing process). I believe I've figured out why, however, and just need to put back in a conflict I took out. So that problem was solved today.

New problem. There is no day/assignment dedicated to research. I don't care if you're writing a memoir based on your memories, everyone has to do some form of research. Even though I am writing fiction about a world I've created I need to do research to provide believable details about these characters' lives and there isn't a day or assignment dedicated to that. Thus, I had to stop writing today before I even began, and place books on hold at the library for research on my novel.

Well, I just flipped ahead through the book and found the week dedicated to research. Only it's about four weeks into writing and I'm just starting week three and already having problems. Should I just ignore the problems I'm having with details and names until I get to that week? I don't understand how I can do that when some of the information is so... central to the story. Or maybe I just believe it's central when it's actually just details? However, this book is asking me to write scenes and I'm having to leave blank spaces because I don't know enough to answer a question thoroughly as I know my character would.

This is getting confusing.

This is driving me nuts.

I think I need to sleep on it.

Three Hours? I Don't Think So.

I don't believe this author tried her assignments before publishing this book. If her editor made her, then I think she chose intentionally shorter ones.
In the book, she says you should have about three to fours hours to dedicate to each day's assignment. Each day has its own assignment so essentially each assignment should take three to four hours, right?
Wrong. Since there have been a number of days that I have found myself in this situation, I'll just use my most recent moment as my example.
Day 14 (yes, I'm on Day 14 and I started this project in April). This is apparently day one of my novel. She says everything else was build-up and preparation, this is where we actually do work that is meant to be in our finished novel. This day's assignment is three parts. The first part is writing 20 different first lines for our novel. 20 different ways to begin our novel. The second part is focusing on "Act One" of the story and listing five scenes (and their summaries) we think would be in there. Finally, the third part is choosing one of those scenes and actually writing it.
First off, I ran out of first lines once I got to number six. I managed to list 15. This probably took me an hour, possibly two. Then I came up with five scenes I knew had to be included because I had already written the outline at the start of this project because I was confused. I then summarized them each, briefly. By this point, Starbucks was closing and I had been in there writing for over two hours. I decided to leave the final part for the next day (today).
At five o'clock I entered Starbucks and chose the scene I wanted to write. I chose the very first scene of the novel which meant I had to choose which first line I was going to use. My number eight fit so well with the setting of my first scene that I didn't stress out about which first line to use at all (Thank goodness I kept coming up with ideas after I was stumped at number six).
At 7:53 I realized I really needed to wrap it up because this particular Starbucks closes at eight every night. So it took me three hours to write this scene even when I had the beginning figured out (the hardest part is starting as far as I'm concerned), a general idea of where I wanted the scene to go and every character's purpose in that scene. This book is designed for those who don't even have an idea of what to write when they begin. I had so much of an idea I created an outline, knew my characters' general personalities, and it still took me three hours. Add that to the, minimum, two hours I spent the day before and that's a total of, again minimum, five hours on one day's assignment.
If this were the first assignment I had run into that was like this, I wouldn't be writing this post. Frankly, there are about three other assignments that called for writing a scene that I just flat-out ignored for one reason or another and this still isn't the first assignment I've come across that takes longer than three hours to finish. The assignment on character biographies took me five days to finish. Each character took about an hour because of the list of detailed questions which was two pages long.
Don't misunderstand my venting. These assignments have been incredibly helpful. The character biographies in particular forced me to understand my characters in ways I hadn't considered would be relevant. I'm just saying the estimation is off. Way off.

Beginning the Novel

So this is it. I'm at the part in the book where I apparently start writing the novel instead of doing lots of character bios, making decisions about the plot, P.O.V., etc. And I'm stalling.
I don't know. I guess I haven't written scenes in so long that it feels difficult now, which is ironic because the only way I knew how to write before was by writing the whole thing out scene-by-scene.
Did you know one of the most common misused words is the word "ironic?" I have no idea if I'm using it correctly up there but, if I'm not, I'm letting you know I know it's supposed to mean something that's similar to what everyone thinks it means, but not exactly.
Back to the novel. I have all of the character bios done and the story has taken shape since. The message/plot started out being one thing years ago, then transformed to reflect events in my life at the time and now it's back to the original message/plot which I personally think is more appropriate. I can get out my feelings on earlier events in a far more... I have no clue. It's just not going to be this book.
Have you ever thought about how ridiculous the English language is? I mean, for example, the word "though." Why was the "ugh" even added. "Tho" is perfectly legible, easier to pronounce, and there isn't another word like it. Not having the "ugh" would certainly make it less likely for sleep deprived college students from mistakenly typing "though" instead of "through." They don't even sound similar and yet they end the same way. You throw in the word "enough" and you really want to say "ugh!"
I don't know why this is becoming such a big deal. Probably because it is a big deal. Stories take time to write which I know very well. I've never finished one. I had twenty-two chapters written for a story freshman year of high school and it wasn't even close to being done. That was just part one.... I really should have kept that thing but I think years later I looked at it like "yeah, this isn't mature enough" but I could have saved it. It was a very different story! At least I haven't seen anything like it yet and considering I wrote that over ten years ago there's been a lot of time for someone else to think of it.
Is there a council we can take the problem with "though?" Because I really think it's about time we change it. Especially with Twitter and text messaging- those three extra letters can cost money!

Writer's Block

Well, it's certainly been a while since I posted something. It's also been a while since I wrote something. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I not only found a job but graduated college, had my twenty-fifth birthday, and my whole family is here to celebrate. Add in random babysitting jobs and I'm not getting much done.
But never fear! I'm not giving up! I am merely on a vacation. I want to become comfortable in some type of schedule for work and then I can schedule again the best time for writing. I'm sure this will start as soon as my family leaves and a pattern starts to form in my life again.
But it can wait.

Scene Writing

I've decided the assignments I enjoy the least are the ones that require me to write a 'short scene.' I've always written my stories from beginning to end so that I can feel the same flow of emotions I'd want my readers and characters to experience. The author however must not feel this is very important (or that a writer can achieve the same experience without doing this) because she asked me to write a scene for three characters each where I describe their emotions through physical description. Then I needed to write a scene for one of them where they were feeling one thing but had to hide it for one reason or another. I didn't like the idea of this but it's the assignment so I wrote one.
Unfortunately for me, the assignment was helpful. It was good to focus on one scene including focusing on one skill. I realized I don't describe my characters feelings as much with physical description but with their thoughts on their surroundings. It was good practice but I still hated it. I haven't thought too much about the details of the scenes so trying to write four scenes for three different characters felt impossible. I can only think of one other character and moment to write about.
Today I'm spending the day with a friend of mine, enjoying the nice, summer weather before the storms come tomorrow so I won't be doing much writing today. I suppose I could do some tonight but I doubt it. I have a feeling after I walk around all day today I'm not going to want to walk all the way to the Starbucks that's open late to write some scenes I'm not looking forward to writing.
I will say though, possibly thanks to the fact I spend most of my days inside, surrounded by dogs, or toddlers, or my aunt, that leaving to go write has become something I really look forward to doing. In fact, a couple days ago I finished two assignments in one day! Maybe I'll actually have this book done by July anyway!

There's nothing better than a good pen

I hadn't written in a while due to a very busy two weeks. At least that's what I'm telling myself. Yesterday however, I like to think I made up for that finishing my last character profile and the next day's assignment while drinking a latte in a pastry shop. I think it took me all of an hour and a half. I was about to start the next one, which was focused more on setting instead of characters, but I realized my brain was moving elsewhere. Plus the place was closing. And my favorite pen, which I had bought in China, had just run out of ink.
I moved to Starbucks to sit in their window with a Doubly Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino, thinking the change of scenery would bring more focus. When I reached the cashier, I saw the advertisement for the new caramel drink and decided to order that instead. I also changed my original plan when I sat down and made a face when I saw my back-up pens. I had weighed the idea of buying new ink for my Chinese pen whenever it ran out so I could keep using it. I don't know if you, the reader, write much but if you do and you use pens you know there's nothing more gratifying than finding, and using, a good pen.
Thus, I left Starbucks and worked back to Office Depot to see if I could find some filler ink for my pen. By the way, the new caramel drink is ridiculously caramel and sweet. This is coming from someone who changes the ratio of syrup and espresso in her Caramel Frappuccino so that it's practically a caramel milkshake. I couldn't even finish it.
Anyway, a man at Office Depot helped me find a filler ink that fit the pen and even opened the package and inserted it so I could try it out to see what I thought. It was apparently the generic brand but my test tries were promising so I bought it. Afterwards, I decided to just return home and relieve the dogs and work on the next assignment tomorrow (or since I'm writing this the next day, today). However, I was reminded that on Thursday my aunt has class which means she won't return home until nine. So I left after she arrived and walked to the Starbucks near the L since the one closer was going to close in an hour. It was a good thing I did because it assignment took me about two hours and I wasn't able to finish because the last part required me to research, which I couldn't do without a computer. This time I wised up and got the drink I originally intended to drink.

Improving

Thanks to babysitting jobs, better weather, and Starbucks extending their hours, I've been writing more than I was before. I'm not writing everyday as I started out doing but I'm improving. Each time I write I finish another character profile. Tonight however I managed to finish two. Now I have all of the main characters done and I'm starting on the secondary characters. I think I'm only going to do two of them (the ones most influential to the story) because, I mean, do I really need to do everyone? We'll see once I finish these two- then I'll reread the chapter and see what she suggested.
I'm really curious to see how far I'll be by my graduation ceremony. Hopefully I'll be pretty far and have something to show to prove I've actually been working on something.
I really have to stress how helpful these character profiles are to filling out the story. I've been able to tie up so many loose ends in the story just by creating backgrounds for these people that writing the story will be much easier.

Worries

Message is a big deal when it comes to a piece and sending the wrong message can destroy something.
So remember when I was talking about the names for my different characters? Well, I was thinking about the two I had been struggling with, Goliath and Isaac, and realized if I wasn't careful someone might take it as a biblical reference. Like, I was trying to say something about the old testament with these two characters and then maybe the readers might over analyze the rest of the book, searching for more hidden references. I was really just looking for names, not trying to make a statement about the bible. After this realization, I discarded those names and most of the names I had picked and decided to push my original message even further.
I think this was the right decision but I'm wondering if I was over thinking it. I mean, how careful do I need to be exactly?

Roadblock

I am a name fanatic and have been since I was a kid. I had actually named my sisters before they were born and when I found out I didn't have a say in the matter, I had a temper tantrum. I was five years old.
Today my name fanaticism led to problems. I have the names for the two main characters and managed to come up with the name for a supporting character but that was it. I planned on continuing my character profiles today but the next person on the list didn't have a name yet. This wasn't a problem at first, I figured out the age, occupation (which I had decided on a long time ago), and family members. The next step however was the character history and personality traits and, although I was fairly sure of the kind of person this character was, not having a name made it impossible to have a solid picture in my head. For a while I thought I had wasted my time and I was going to have to return home and search through my baby names book (which I bought when I was sixteen). I really didn't want to waste the effort though. It was pretty big that I not only left the house to write but went somewhere that was open later so I would be able to write more so I took out a piece of paper and just started brainstorming names. After a while, however, I hadn't come any closer to finding a name. I had the brother's name and so I needed a name that was similar enough that you would believe the two were related. Luckily, I have a sister who also writes from time to time and so I called her for help. I must have talked to her over an hour with her giving me lots of names. A few were really good, just not for this character. I had decided by the end of the call that it would have to be a Hebrew name. The brother's name I had decided would be Goliath. I didn't want to use the name David because the two seemed to contrast each other more than complement and the characters were fairly similar. I then tried my mom to ask her if she could look up some Hebrew names for me since I didn't have a computer or smartphone with me. She was in book club and my other sister couldn't help me because she was in her improv class. Finally, in a last ditch effort, I called my uncle. He's a deacon for the Catholic church and so I figured he'd know some Hebrew names. He was willing to help and gave me some more good names and one contender. By this point I think I had spent an hour and a half of my writing time on just coming up with a name and so, without completely selecting a name, I hung up. I finally decided to use Isaac, at least for the time being. After that, writing the profile was a breeze. Who would have thought a name would be so important?

Character Profiles

I finally came across an assignment that I could use to help me write my story. The Day 3 assignment is to write character profiles for some of the characters in the memories described on Day 2 and Day 1. Since I had no intention of writing a memoir or using the people from my own life, I decided to use the assignment to write character profiles about the characters in the book I'm trying to write. It took me a couple hours to finish the main character's and I'm in the middle of the "male lead"'s profile. I figure I'll finish it tonight when my aunt returns from her writing class and I'll go to Starbucks.

Anyway, the character profiles have been really helpful! They really make me think about what motivates the characters and how a character would know this particular information and so on. For instance, I needed the lead character to know a vital piece of information to the story, but I couldn't think of a reason as to why the character would know it. One of the questions I had to answer was about the character's most traumatic event. Who could forget the details of one's most traumatic event? I was really able to better describe the type of person she was and have a viable reason as to how my character would know this random piece of information.

Setback

The assignment for Day 1 was to go back through my memories and write them in as much detail as possible. I did this for a little while but not nearly as long as the time I allotted. I got bored! I already have an outline created for my story! It feels like I'm back-pedaling. Reading Day 2 didn't help either-- she said she hoped I came up with an idea from those memories. I had an idea before I even started the book and then I created the outline beforehand. I mean, I had no idea what to do-- do I just continue through the book as if I don't have an outline already or skip ahead? My aunt gave me the idea to check amazon.com and see what others had said. It turns out the book I chose isn't well liked. Many complained about the exercises being filler. So I started looking for a replacement and I'm completely lost. The best option I've found is Writing Fiction For Dummies. I've looked through and some of the other days like Day 3 or Day 10 I might be able to adjust so they can actually help me develop my idea.

I just wanted something to give me a day by day schedule to finishing a novel. I have the idea, I want to write it, I just get overwhelmed when I think of all of the things that need to get done.

I think the best plan now is to just use the book as much as I can and give it all I got, one day at a time.

Meant to Start

Today was supposed to be the day I started the 90 day challenge but I'm still not finished with my outline. I checked out the book and it just says "Day One" and so on, thus I think starting on Monday won't be as bad as I thought. I'm on scene eleven and I have one more scene to go before I can start. I figure I'll finish the last scene tomorrow while watching the dogs during the day and then begin the challenge at night while I babysit the neighbor's daughter for a couple hours. She'll be asleep so I won't need to focus-- just be there in case she cries. The girl's the quietest baby I've ever seen (and I worked in an infant room) so I'm sure it will be tear-free.

The Beginning

I had hoped to begin this journal April first but I didn't manage my time very well, a problem that's become a pattern recently. I didn't realize I needed to read parts of the beginning before starting the 90 day challenge.
Let me provide some background. I've wanted to write a novel for a long time but have had issues. I'll start from the beginning and try to write it all the way through and lose interest or I'll jump around because I don't want to forget anything and then never finish anything. So I decided if I was ever going to achieve my dream of being a published novelist I would need help. I purchased 90 Days to Your Novel: A Day-by-Day Plan for Outlining & Writing Your Book by Sarah Domet. I picked this book over the hundreds that are out there because she had a tough voice. She makes it clear that the ball is in the reader's court and that work and discipline is required. I decided any type of feel good voice wouldn't motivate me or at least not for very long.
So far the book has been great. I just didn't realize I needed to have the outline of my novel finished before beginning the challenge. Thus, I didn't get to start this blog until after I had read more and figured out how to outline a novel. Today I started writing the outline and I consider that the beginning to writing my novel.
The book has you outline your novel by scene which made sense after reading the the first part of the book. You always hear the word "scene" but having it described and what not really helped me. I finished three scenes today but, again, I kept coming up with ideas and I didn't want to forget them so I started writing them down on the sides. I'm not sure if that's okay, a sign that I can't focus, or what have you. I didn't get much done anyway thanks to my aunt's dogs barking at every person who passed by on this gorgeous day. My plan is to finish the outline tomorrow so I can begin the challenge on Sunday. The book goes by week and most consider Sunday to be the first day of the week so starting then would make it easier for me to remember. Not that it should be too hard to remember since I'll be writing everyday.
A good first day but I need my second day to be better.