A Novel Idea Part 4: iFrame

My Fellow Contributors,


I want to take a slight detour before I get into the structure of a frame.

This past Saturday was our one year anniversary. There are a lot of things that have changed over the course of this year. We have added more people to the original four. We have a blog, an online store, and a publishing company. We're on Facebook and Twitter. We've hosted open mics, book launches and late-night meetings fueled by caffeine.

But through all of these changes, our commitment to bringing you the best pieces of Individual Expression has not wavered. We are still a collective of human thought and insight and continue to strive to bring you the best product possible.

We seek to continue our goal of bringing people together in multiple mediums so that they may have meaningful conversations.

I want to end this by thanking all of the people that have made this possible, and for all of you who continue to read and share this magazine.

Thank you.

Now, onto Framing.

So below I have posted a photograph of what a page from my notebook looks like.



There are three key features that I would like to point out and each is marked by a different color and shape. Each color coded section refers to a different question I ask myself before I start any frame.

Who are the characters involved? What is the plot/conflict? What is the narrative voice?

By asking these questions I give myself a clear path to follow and it makes getting a few lines onto the page a little easier.

The first section, "Characters Involved" circled in green, helps not only to get you thinking about the who of a frame but allows you to group related frames quickly and easily.

The last section, "Narrative Voice" highlighted by a yellow rectangle, is important because it makes it explicit how the narrative is going to be told. In my frames I have used several narrative voices. For example Jacob's narrative is told in 1st person while Mark's narrative is told in 3rd person witness. I have also tried experimenting with narrative voices.

A new voice I am experimenting with is for William's narrative. I call it 1st person witness testimony (I'm sure there's some fancy literary term for this, but I'm a Law Student so please humor me). In this narrative voice there is no dialogue. Everything we get is from one person's mouth and by that fact hearsay. But what will make this narrative voice work will be the frames before this one. If I put frames before this that make William seem sympathetic then you will be more inclined to believe what he says. If I have a frame before this one where he is cheating on his wife, then you are less inclined to believe him.

The most important part of the Frame outline by far is the Plot/Conflict section underlined in red. This section helps me avoid writing meaningless details in the body of the frame which only serve to distract from the dialogue and narrative. This section also helps me to keep the pacing of the frame quick.

One additional benefit of writing out the Plot/Conflict before hand is that if I have to step away from my writing I already have a summary or rather an abstract of what the frame is going to be doing so I can quickly pick it up.

It' s important though to remember that just because you have outlined it in your Plot/Conflict section doesn't mean you have to follow it strictly in the body of the frame. The Plot/Conflict section is more of a guide to follow and is meant to help you. It should not be treated as though written in stone.

Remember, inconsistencies in your Frames are fine, and I would argue that they are preferable. These nuances and slight variations allow you to explore multiple ripples in the time/space fabric of your ever evolving world. These wrinkles will be ironed out in subsequent drafts so don't slow down your writing by trying to solve everything now.

Well, that's it for this week. Next time I am going to be finishing the second part of Framing and discussing how your Frames should work within their respective local narrative as well as the over-arching narrative.

Until next time,

As always

Undoubtedly Yours,

Bermuda the Man

A Novel Idea Part 3: Your Writing Road-map

My Fellow Contributors,

The novel is progressing and the characters are inviting me into their world. I am currently done with 30 frames of my 50 frame goal.

And with that I reach the topic of my blog this week: Having a plan of attack for your novel. Establishing a series of goals and checkpoints that allow you to mark tangible progress in your novel writing process.

But before I get into my writing road-map, I wanted to discuss how I am breaking away from the social norm of how most authors think about writing a novel. Where most authors see themselves as writing a book, I am going about it as though I am writing a screenplay.

A screen play has limited narration, simple stage directions and thus is mostly dialogue. This allows the director more freedom to create the film how he sees it and not how the writer envisioned it himself. Which sounds more user friendly given that in the Novel-land, the director is analogous to the reader and the screenwriter analogous to the page-writer.

When writing your first draft, I find this approach, putting less attention on the details and more attention to the character-narrative, not only more desirable but also healthier.

It is more desirable in the sense that you are able to get through many different frames without being bogged down in one particular part of the story. By not being concerned with every little detail of your narrative the first time through, you don't have to worry about contradictions that will inevitably show up through out the frames of your first draft as you get deeper and deeper into the local narrative. This type of drafting is also healthier than the traditional A to Z appoarch because you are able to amass a large amount of clay from which you can shape subsequent drafts. You don't get lost in a narrative and then end up giving up because you can't decided whether your heroine is wearing all black, or white lace and how this will impact the rest of the novel. You don't feel like you have to answer all of your Narrative's questions or tie up all of the loose ends in a given chapter.

REMEMBER:

Always leave more to write.


So now on to my road-map.

Like any long, continuous project, it is important to have goals. Not only does it give you a sense of accomplishment but it also gives you a way of holding yourself accountable. By giving yourself steps, you are more likely to make it to the next level, no matter what the endeavor.

My first goal is to get to 50 frames.

Why 50?

I chose 50 for several reasons. First, it gives me a large amount of clay to work with and shape. Second it was a large number that, while obtainable, would require dedication and commitment to reach. It should be noted that my novel will more than likely consist of more than 50 frames.

Frames are awesome Bermuda, but how long is it going to be? How many words do you have written?

A friend asked me these same questions and you know what, I told him this:

I have no idea.

And you know what else, I particularly dislike that way of thinking for a lot of reasons but the major one is because thinking about writing length in terms of word count is very demoralizing and limits yourself in the early stages of your writing process. I would much rather think of a goal in terms of writing frames rather than writing words. The smaller number of frames relative to the tens of thousands of words in a novel makes me feel like I can achieve my goals and makes the project seem less daunting. Another reason this way of this is detrimental is that it limits you. Don't worry about length, about making it this long or this short, just write until the narrative tells you she's all done.

Alright, Respect. So, what do you do when you have all your frames?

After I've finished the 50 frames, I am going to type all of them into my computer. As I mentioned in Part 2 of this series, the act of typing is in essence a revising step. Once all of the frames have been typed/revised, then each of the frames gets a title.

The title will then be placed on an index card. Much like a story board I will then place frames out until I have a straight forward narrative. This step is important because I don't write the frames in a linear fashion. Frame #23 and Frame# 24 for example are not apart of the same local narrative. By laying out each local narrative, I am able to see the holes or rather gaps in each of them. Once the gaps have been identified, I can begin the third draft which will consist for the most part of me filling the gaps in each of the three local narratives I have in the novel and shaping smooth transitions between frames of a given local narrative.

Once the local narratives have been laid out and frames have been added to plug the holes, all of the frames now get put on another round of flash cards same as before. Each with a title for the frame. This is where the magic happens. This is where you weave the three local narratives into your main over-arching narrative. This is where you will spend most of the time editing; moving this and that in an effort to create a tempo for your novel that maximizes the meaning.

Well that's it for this week, my Fellow Contributors.

REMEMBER: set goals for yourself that are obtainable and challenging. By breaking up your writing process into steps, you'll be surprised when your standing on top looking down on the world as they read your finished novel.

Next week I am going to be posting a picture of my actual notebook and going over the structure of a Frame. What should it include, what the structure is like, how long it should be and how it should function in relation to the local and main narratives.

As Always

Undoubtedly Your,

Bermuda