okay, looks like something happened to me last night and i snapped. actually, it wasn't me snapping, but more like a slow revelation over the course of a half an hour trip on the skytrain. something just wasn't right with cooler than the millions, and i guess it all came to a head last night. i realized that all i had were a bunch of scenes, with no real cohesive narrative. so i've dumped the whole book save for the opening chapter, which in my mind, is still the best writing i've ever done. the rest was just shite. juevenile. i wanted a sophisticated political story, but what i got was something that just degraded into bits and pieces of violence and random politics. i think i actually revealed a few plot points way too early. it was a mess. that august 31st deadline is looking pretty crazy to me right now. we'll see how much i can get done.
I've always been daunted by the thought of writing my own novel, and that's one of the biggest reasons - cohesion. I am always impressed when storytellers can pull hundreds of scenes together into a driven story arc, like in most Joss Whedon stuff (especially Angel season 4). But for me, I always get caught up in the details, in realism, and in logic.
ReplyDeleteIn Angel season 4 everything seems to work towards driving the story forward, and even if it ultimately doesn't make sense it's camoflauged well enough that you don't think about it too much. I'm not really sure how the writing staff does it, but I suppose it helps having a hierarchy. Joss is there to build and look out for the big picture, and then there are individual writers looking after specific scenes. Do you find that as a novelist, you take on both roles? Or is it just one big process?
I'm too am impressed with how shows like Angel were able to function. You'd think that with so many different writers, you wouldn't get any cohesion, but I guess that's where someone like Joss or David Fury come into the picture: they read over every script, making sure everything is on course.
ReplyDeleteI think that when writing a novel, for me anyway, it is sort of like one big process, but at the same time, you're going into the specific scenes, making sure they work.
My problem with cooler than the millions, was that i had a bunch of scenes that worked, but they didn't seem to work very well together. As it turns out, all that was needed was about a dozen pages in the beginning to glue the characters together a little better. Plus a few extra personal touches.
I now realize that a lot of the scenes just have to be re-written, so there's no need to really scrap the whole book. I just have to tinker a little more to make the individual scenes work towards the bigger picture.
Basically, what it comes down to is that you can have great indivudual scenes, but if the big picture doesn't work, the book is useless. On the other hand, you don't need perfect individual scenes to get the big picture to work. If the big picture ultimately works, the details don't really matter.
I guess that's what makes Josh such a good writer. He understands that the big picture is what is ultimately important. It doesn't matter if there are a few holes here or there, or if something didn't quite work. So long as the end result is people understanding what you were trying to do.
Wow, that seemed confusing. Whatever. back to writing. Oh, and incidentally, the book has pretty much changed completely in tone, and is no longer called Cooler than the millions. Currently untitled. And it may end up being twice as long as i intended.