Sunday, January 11, 2015

Building Worlds in the Dark by Richard Prosch



I’m currently writing stories set in three different worlds. Not at the same time, but one after another. First I write about Jo Harper, the young protagonist of an adventure series set in 1910 Wyoming. Then I write about Whit Branham, the matter-of-fact deputy sheriff living in Holt County, Nebraska during the 1880s. After that, it’s a story about John Coburn, a wandering gun with roots in the high plains but no permanent home other than the late 1800s. Then back to Jo. 

Each character’s world contains a string of friends, foes, and familiar “landmarks” to help ground the reader in whatever new adventure unfolds. 

And that’s where things get tricky. Really fast.

When I first started writing fiction, I outlined every bit of my stories, practically down to the sentence. In those days, world building wasn’t a separate concept from writing the story. In fact…I indulged too much in that part of it. 

Years of comic book reading trained me well in lining up the continuity of my universe. (And if you’re familiar with Marvel or DC super heroes, in print or the current TV shows and movies, you know what I mean.) I planted, tended, and pruned family trees. I researched details and wrote ‘em in stone. I imposed traits on my characters like iron handcuffs. 

For example, if my outline or bible said Biff was the stoic one, well then, Biff never smiled. If, by 1890, all Native Americans were supposed to be living on reservations, well then, my Indian character wouldn’t appear without a long-winded explanation as to why he wasn’t on the rez. Pretty soon, things got heavy. 

And no fun.

So a couple years ago, I stopped outlining and started just writing stories. After all, the story was the fun part! So, writing without an outline. Some people call it pantsing, but I like what Dean Wesley Smith calls it: writing into the dark. For me, the story became the thing. And, like all of you know, the story often sweeps you along, taking you on its own merry way. 

Along that road, the devil really is in the details. Especially when writing a series.

Does Jo Harper’s friend, Frog, have black hair or brown hair? What kind of gun does Whit Branham carry? What’s the name of John Coburn’s horse? Keeping track of details isn’t too hard for one story, but over the course of a series (and during several months in the real world), it can be tough.

Here’s two things that help me. One is practical. The other might seem sacrilegious. 

First, I have an app on my phone that lets me record voice-to-text memos. So when I introduce a new character, I pick up the phone and say a little about him or her. That becomes a text message that I send myself and include in a story file. It’s quick and I don’t have to open a different program on my writing computer. 

Second, I don’t worry about it. (That really would’ve seemed sacrilegious to me a few years ago.) 

Please don’t misunderstand. I don’t mean I’m deliberately sloppy or that I don’t care. What I’m saying is, I’ve taken those iron handcuffs off my characters. In the real world, people change, settings change. The same holds for fiction. Details are important, but the story takes priority.

So what techniques do you use to keep things straight? How much weight do you put on the details of character or setting? Do you outline, or do you write into the dark?

I’d really enjoy hearing about similar experiences in world building from you Fictioneers.


After growing up on a Nebraska farm, Richard Prosch worked as a professional writer, artist, and teacher in Wyoming, South Carolina, and Missouri. His western crime fiction captures the fleeting history and lonely frontier stories of his youth where characters aren’t always what they seem, and the windburned landscapes are filled with swift, deadly danger. Read more at www.RichardProsch.com

18 comments:

  1. Thanks for the post and an insight into how you handle "series" characters, Richard. Consistency, I suppose, is the toughest challenge when dealing with such characters. But "taking the handcuffs" off makes a lot of sense. Although I've never attempt a series, I would think detail can derail story. Your new approach sounds a lot more flexible.

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  2. Thanks Tom! Everybody writes differently, so it's fun to compare notes.

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  3. Basic premise, you must have an idea for a story and go from there.

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  4. Very useful. As a new writer, it really helps seeing how others make their worlds come alive. For me I have the story idea, but the characters tend to step up and tell their story.
    Doris

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  5. Oh, sorry, very interesting article!

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  6. Charlie and Doris -- The older I get, the less I like the term "writer." We (meaning us in WF) are first and foremost story tellers. I'll bet we've all read stories with great attention to characters, setting, technology, etc. --but not much story.

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  7. You address something that has been on my mind. Our writing methods can be rolling along, going apparently well. Then, we read another author's work–or go back and read our own–and discover (gasp!) a weakness. Cardboard cutout supporting characters. Overuse of particular words or metaphors. Stiff dialogue. We were so blind to it but now it glows like the nose of a certain reindeer. Good heavenly days! What must my readers think of me?

    Changing one's methods takes honesty and commitment. Sometimes the answer is to tighten up. But, as you have pointed out, sometimes we actually need to loosen up–and this can be even harder to do. I guess the theory is that the more experience we have, the more we can stop worrying about the smaller details and protocols and trust the flow of the story.

    Thanks for an insightful post, Richard.

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    1. Great comments, Vonn! I think in the end, if the writing isn't enjoyable for you, that's going to translate one way or other to the reader. I've gotten over the idea that any one book or story is very important. Instead, I'd rather have a body of work that was fun to produce.

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  8. Rich, I am a definite "pantser" and I love that idea of "writing into the dark"--SO TRUE! My first book (which has never seen the light of day and may not ever!) was written from the middle out. I had a scene in mind--the scene where everything hinged on everything else--and I wrote it, then wrote from the beginning to get to that part, and from that part to get to the end. I think I learned more about writing a book working on that than anything else I've ever done.

    A valuable tool that I took from that was a timeline--not an outline--here's what I did. I knew the heroine was going to get pregnant about 4-6 weeks before this main scene took place. She needed to have the baby at Christmas, or near Christmas. There was a cattle drive in there--and that had to take place at a reasonable time period--because the hero and his father have a huge falling out over leaving the ranch with so few men, unprotected--of course, the father gets his way--he IS the boss! And the unthinkable does happen. So, everything depended on how long the cattle drive would take, when the outlaw raid the ranch, when the H/h "do the deed" and she gets pregnant--and everyone must arrive "back at the ranch" just after the outlaws have raided and left. I made a really crude timeline starting with Christmas when the heroine has the baby, and worked backward from that. Everything in that book takes place within one year's time--and it worked great because of the timeline. I use one now every time I write something longer--because it gives me a guide without the "handcuffs"--I like that!

    Great post!
    Cheryl

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  9. Terrific comment, Cheryl! Your timeline sounds like a great solution --especially when you have a cause-effect situation like that (pregnancy). Makes a lot of sense. Similarly, I've heard of writers doing outlines AFTER they write the chapter --so building the outline after the writing (rather than before) in order to keep track of details makes sense to me too. Thanks again!

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  10. I wrote an outline once, and only once, in order to get the contract, then threw it out and wrote the story. Sometimes I don't have the faintest idea of story, instead I start with a character and let him tell his story. That may not be a very good way to do things but it has kept me in beans and bacon for almost forty years now.

    It is always interesting to see the way other writers do these things. Thanks for the post.

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  11. Frank -- makes sense to me! And I'll bet the story didn't look much like the outline --and was much better for it!! Thanks for your comment.

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  12. Like Frank, I wrote a few outlines back in the day in order to get a contract. While I didn't exactly throw the outline away after that, I didn't spend a lot of effort adhering to it either ... I sort of follow a quote attributed to Mickey Spillane: "The first line of your story sells THAT story - The last line sells your NEXT one" ... For me, that means starting out with a title, a premise, and a pretty clear idea of how it's going to end. The title becomes a theme that the narrative tries to maintain, the ending is hopefully strong and memorable enough to make readers want more of either my byline or the series I am writing in ... By the way, if you're wondering why I'm injecting Spillane into a Western-themed blog, in case you didn't know Mickey once wrote a Western screenplay for John Wayne; no movie ever got made from it, but Max Allan Collins has done a novelization of the script that will be out this year. Spillane & the Duke - how would that have been for a team?

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    1. I'm gonna have to keep an eye out for that Spillane story. MAC has done a great job with Spillane's unpublished output. Looking forward to it, Wayne! Thanks for the comment!

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  13. I'm a pantser, too. I've never written an outline. It never made sense to me to outline. Heck, if I know that much about the story, then why take the time to outline when I could be writing the darn thing. *grin* (no offense meant toward the plotters/outliners out there -- we all walk our own storytelling road)

    I have done the 'timeline' strategy like Cheryl explained, when the story is complicated and certain events have to happen in a reasonably logical manner.

    I did, however, design a spreadsheet for a novella in order to meet the publisher's criteria for a particular line of loosely related stories of which I was one of 20 contributing authors. In this publisher's “world”, I could do this, but not do that. A certain character who would show up in the last book of the collection (written by this publisher), had to be mentioned in my story. Certain events in my story had to happen at a specific location, and so forth. I still have that information, which is good, because I recently received a rights reversion to my story. I plan to re-publish it, but I have to purge of all those publisher-points because she claimed 'ownership of them'. 0_o

    I'm awed by authors who write series stories. I'm striving to do that yet in my career.

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    1. Thanks for your comment Kaye. Wow! That spreadsheet novella sounds pretty intense! (And for a novella!) Details indeed!

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  14. I've hardly ever outlined a story, and those that I have generally wander from the outline anyway. Much more fun to just take a general idea and see where it leads you.

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    1. I agree Jim! And...sometimes when you're done you have the idea for the next one! And the next one! And...

      Thanks for the comment!

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