Tying up loose ends of your novel via Post-it Notes

Everyone gloriously blogs about Christmas and gifts, and here I am, blogging about novel writing. I have scratched my head a lot on this, but so many of you asked me about my post-it notes board from this picture, and since I'm finishing 3rd draft of ROSEHEAD next week (can you believe it?!?!?), I'm tying up loose ends via using my post-it notes on my board, and I thought I'd share with you my process in detail, because it helps me keep my sanity. It's only my 2nd novel, technically, since SIREN SUICIDES can be all called one novel and my 1st, although I had to break it into 3. There are almost 30 characters in ROSEHEAD, and a whole living garden, and a whole lot of plot twists, and sub-plot twists, and lost berets of 4 different colors that surface in places at times, and other things to remember. I have found myself yesterday staring at the wall, completely lost in one sub-plot twist and rewriting it, only to cut it out this morning when I realized that I have already covered the problem by explaining it earlier in the book. Duh! The notes above my head saved me. Here is how I do it.

A sticky note goes for every object in the book. Call me anal, but I like it when everything in the novel is accounted for, and if something shouldn't be there or has no purpose, I cut it out. I'm talking about things like handkerchiefs, or pens, or bow ties, or a particular pair of shoes, or garden shears, or whatever it is your characters are using. For each of those I write a quick note and stick it up on the board. As I start editing/writing/rewriting the very first chapter of the 3rd draft, I start putting them up in order (as they come up). For example, Lilith Bloom, my main character, loves her berets and keeps losing them in places, which, naturally, lands her in all sorts of trouble. They are of different colors, and I had to remember which one she lost where and who found it and how. As I keep writing/editing, some things cease their purpose, so I take the sticky note off the board. Then later I might stick up a new one, and so it continues until I'm done. In the end, my goal is to wrap up every object used.

A sticky note goes for every character's goals. In every chapter something happens, some dialogue, some action, and the characters resolve to solving some problem, it could be small, could be big. Now, I'm not as sophisticated a writer yet to have multiple characters with multiple goals (one day, I hope... right now my secondary characters have one goal each), so most of my notes are about Lilith. I write a quick list of things, like she decided to do this, she is determined to do this, she hopes for this, she really might not be able to do this, and I stick them up. Then, as I keep writing, I glance at them occasionally, to make sure I don't leave anything out. When in the next chapters something new happens and her goals change (the big overarching goal stays the same, of course), I peel off those sticky notes and add new ones. Seriously, I think Post-it notes is one thing I now depend on. Like a visual representation of what happens in the book. I know some people use white boards, write on them and erase stuff, but I find immense satisfaction in being able to physically peel off the note, crumple it, and throw it into trash. Yes! I did it! One more thing done! Well, being the crazed Seattleite that I am, I later throw them into recycling. Still. 

A sticky note goes up for every question I have. You know how you read a book, and you wonder, hey, what happened to so-and-so, or hey, where did this thing come from, or, hey, where are they going? I hate it when there is too much infodump, and I try not to give out any information at all until the characters themselves deem it necessary. So I stick up notes with those questions, and then occasionally glance at them when writing, and when there is an appropriate moment, I insert an explanation. I also keep them up there to make sure that even if I have not found a good place to insert this information, at the end of the book I do it for sure, I make space for it, because if I have had this question while writing, my reader will have the same question when reading. And keeping track of all of them in your head is pure hell, though I'm noticing that I'm getting better at it.

Random suggestions also each get a note. I have some strange random notes in the bottom right corner that sort of remind of me of how to write things. I have one that mentions sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. When writing descriptions, I sometimes get carried away and delve into visual too much, forgetting that I can inject smell or taste or texture of whatever, so that's that note. A few others, funny enough, have already crept into my head for IRKADURA, the novel I haven't started writing yet (first week of January!), and I empty my brain into those notes and put them up. I also have a list with the names and one liners for every character (it that hangs on my board by the magnets). At one point I had notes screaming at me LIMIT THE USE OF "WAS"! or CUT OUT AS MANY ADVERBS AND ADJECTIVES AS POSSIBLE!. Stuff like that. Glancing at those helps me remember these things as I'm still discovering my style as a writer, being all green and a newbie and whatnot.

Bam. That's it. No big mystery, see? But it definitely is a process I'll be using in the future, because, well, Post-it notes are so gluey and yellowy and stuff, I love them. Oh, and for the next post let me know what you want me to blog about. I thought since it is Christmas, maybe I should compile a list of books that I'd buy someone as gifts? Just a wild idea. Anyway, let me know. xoxo

Starting and ending chapters, or where the hell am I supposed to cut it?

By popular request, I shall devulge on this topic. But before I do, let me preface it with an important statement. Everything I'm writing here is NOT the truth, like, I will repeat, it's not, people! I'm a very very green writer, only started writing last year full time, so the things I share here are the things that work for me. They might be completely off the wall and totally immature and very much against the grain of big important writers. There are a gazillion more writers out there better than me, more experienced than me, and such. With this in mind, everything you read (if you read it it all, that is), please take with a grain of salt. I'm sharing my little triumphs, things that worked for me. They might work for you, they might not! The ony thing I know is that I try to simplify my little successes to the point where they seem very easy, to hopefully help you, if you happen to be blocked in that particular spot (that's what I do for myself, simplify things in my head until they are so simple that I'm not scared anymore). If it's not helping, please, throw hot potatoes at me! I don't mind. Just wanted to warn you, that's all. Because I'm about to share with you how I cut up my chapters, and this might not be how it's typically done, but it works for me.

The opening of the chapter is the summary of the chapter. Whereas I have sort of adopted the guideline on the opening of the novel being the summary of the whole novel, going as far as trying my opening sentence to be the summary of the whole novel, in chapters I sort of summarize the whole chapter in the first paragraph. I try to give enough of the space and time and who does what to sketch out what's about to happen, like, setting a stage, then for the rest of the chapter I simply expand on it. For example, right now I'm writing 3rd draft of Rosehead, and the current chapter I'm working on is called The Talking Heads. Oh, wait, I also try to name my chapters in the way that will tell the reader what they're about, like mini stories. Anyway, here is a litle excerpt, where I set the stage but I don't exactly mention what will happen, only hint on it, so that the reader will want to keep reading (hopefully), because in the rest of the chapter I expand on it. So, here is the opening of The Talking Heads: 

"Thud. Lilith heard something heavy fall and something round roll. Again. And again. It took her sleepy brain several minutes to process this information, before her eyelids finally fluttered open. Moon shone into the room, coloring it silver. The sweet stink of the garden acquired an almost metallic tang. Someone breathed laboriously outside, performing what must’ve been a strenuous physical task. Lilith rolled off the bed and crouched by the window, peering from behind the curtain. What she saw froze her to the spot. She didn’t even feel Panther brush her legs and plop his head on the windowsill." 

Start your chapter as close to the end as possible. This is kind of my personal style, though I think I have heard this advice applicable to novels, starting as close to the end as possible. Also, in my screenwriting days, I remember reading about starting in the middle of the action. So, with chapters, I like to dive right into the meat of things. Again, remember, this is what works for me, and not necessarily what would work for you. But at the beginning of the chapter you want to grab your reader. You might have the luxury to slow down a little in the middle, but not much. You have to keep the reader turning the pages, and for that the reader needs to know what the hell is happening. If it's ot clear what's happening, you will lose the reader, and you can't afford that. Every page is precious, every sentence is a hook, at any moment the reader might get interrupted and not get back to your book at all. Treat your chapters like mini stories, with their own beginning, middle, and end, and the hook and the payoff. I found that naming chapters has really helped me define what each chapter is about. In SIREN SUICIDES, my first trilogy, I named chapters according to places where things happened, and it didn't work as well as it's working in ROSEHEAD, where I name chapters according to what happens in them. I stole this idea from Harry Potter.

End your chapter on a cliffhanger. This is my favorite way of ending chapters. Lead that mini story to some sort of a conclusion, then throw in a detail that just begs for a continuation of the story, and stop right there. Bam! You hooked your reader, the reader wants to know what the hell happens next. Well, sometimes I cheat and do a quieter ending of the chapter, when I know I have built enough suspense in the book overall so that I can get away with it, which typically happens closer to the middle. Somebody told me in the past that my approach is a classic one. Whatever they meant, I don't know, classic in what sense? I just like clear beginnings, middles, and ends, maybe that's why I do this, I don't know. But I can't simply cut a story without somehow wrapping it and throwing in a wrench. Here is the ending of chapter 4 of ROSEHEAD, called Through the Arbor, so you can see how I was leading up to chapter 5 (hopefully!):

“Oh, don’t mind her.” As usual, Lilith held her true opinion to herself. “Mothers and daughters historically get on each other’s nerves. She’s just worried about me. Listen, let’s talk about solving the mystery… Let’s talk about… What was it I wanted to talk about… Was it the garden’s mystery… no, it was the mystery’s garden…” She mumbled some more and soon drifted off into dreamless sleep, not knowing that she’ll be rudely awakened in a few hours by wet chopping noises, as if someone was chopping off something with an axe."

In general, the longest chapters I've had were 20 pages, about 5K words each. The shortest 7 pages, about 1.4K words each (I calculate it at about 215-250 words per page). I find that writing shorter chapters works better for me, also because I'm not writing as much fluff anymore. Will it be the same in my future books? Don't know. So far its flowing, and I let it flow as it wants to. Was this helpful to you? Yes? No? Also, what would you like me to blog about next? I got an email from a reader, asking me to blog about naming novels. When to do it, how to do it, etc. I've written a post on how to pick a title for your novel, but I haven't written on when I do it. I shall blog about that next, unless there will be any other suggestion. Happy writing!

Closing your novel

This is a very scary topic for me to write about, because even though I've written 3 books of SIREN SUICIDES, technically, it's 1 book broken into 3. It has 1 major ending, and it didn't come to me until Draft 4, despite the fact that I planned it out beforehand. As I kept rewriting, the ending kept changing, until it felt right. Now, with ROSEHEAD, my second novel, the story is completely different. I didn't meticulously plot it like I did SIREN SUICIDES. As of this moment, I'm about 90% done, with 31 chapters of Draft 1 completed, at about 92K words and 4 or 5 more chapters to go, meaning that I'm smack in the middle of this wonderful topic on how to close a novel. And I have no idea how it will end! Scary, eh? I think so far from my experience (please bear in mind that it's been only 1 year since I started writing full time) is to let your story close itself. Meaning, keep writing until you can't write anymore. Here is what I mean by it.

If ending falls short in 1st draft, it will expand in the next drafts. Don't freak out if at 30K words you suddenly can't write anymore because it seems like your story has simply dried out. It happened to me with SIREN SUICIDES, at one of my earlier attempts, and I thought I would never return to it, shelving it. But the story kept living on in my head and wouldn't let me go. In short, I have gone through about 4 completely different endings until I found the right one. So, rule number one, remember, your story is like an accordion, as you write it, it will expand, then shrink, then expand, it will keep doing it until it can't do it anymore. When it will stop, you should stop writing it, and whatever ending you end up with, will be your end. If you don't like it, please don't try fixing it. Instead, be done with this book and move on to the next one, because you will see the ending forming in your head quicker than your first time writing, guaranteed. 

A novel is like a bundle of ropes woven into a braid. It doesn't matter in what genre you're writing, your novel will have multiple plots simply by the virtue of having at least 2 characters, because without conflict there is not story, and there is no conflict without at least 2 characters, even if one of them is the inner representation of the other. Each of the characters will want something, or something will happen to them, or they will mention some secret about something. Whatever it is, my method is to write it down on sticky notes and pepper my writing desk with them, to remember what loops I opened, to be able to close them at the very end. So I imagine they are ropes strung through the fabric of my novel, and I need to touch upon them as I go, more so on the bigger ones, less on the smaller ones, but I need to close every single loop, or finish the braid, at the end of my novel. What inevitably happens in multiple drafts is that some "ropes" fall off and new ones develop, so that by the end I don't remember what started where. If you feel the same, it's okay! That's what multiple drafts are for, for polishing to tucking those loose ropes into the braid so it looks nice and snug. It's even okay if you don't close all of them, just read 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami and you'll see what I mean.

Each character must reach her or his goal in the end. I touched upon this a little befote in describing plots, but this is a slightly different thing called a character arc (or, at least, I think I remember reading about it called like that, so don't kill me if I'm wrong). In the simplest sense of the word, every character wants something and by the end of the novel it will either get it or not, therefore causing the character to undergo a major change. This is why we read stories, we want to see how a hero overcomes a monster, to be able to believe that it's possible and do it in real life. This means that if by the end of your novel not all of your characters have gotten their goals, your reader will be disappointed and not very happy with the book. We like closed loops, we don't like feeling confused, we like seeing the hero succeed and the monster defeated. Keep writing until you resolve each character's wish, even if it means writing a very very long draft. Remember, it's like an accordion, in the next draft you will shrink it, cutting out the water and keeping solid stuff.

Above all, you must feel you're done with it. It all comes down to you. You're the writer, the creator, and you will know in your gut when your story is over.  As soon as you feel it, stop. It might be an arbitrary moment, nothing spectacular, but if feels right, it must be the end. Here is the trick. If you were truthful to yourself, if you really opened up your guts and spilled your deepest emotions on paper, the ending will not only feel right to you, it will feel right to your reader, because the reader connects with you emotionally, and there will be nothing worse if you force the ending because you read in some book that it's how it's supposed to be. Even this blog that I wrote, take note of it but still listen to yourself. Disregard what I wrote here, feel. Does it feel right? Then your story is over. Is there more? Then write more. The only rule you can apply here is this: KEEP WRITING. The more books you will write, the faster you will read your inner signals at how to properly close your novel.

Whew. I hope it made sense to you and was helpful. I'm still working out this for myself, like I said, being in the middle of closing my 2nd novel, so feel free to chime in the comments and let me know what you think!