Don't Get Rigid in Your Writing Practice

how book 2 changed the way I write plus how I made the props for the series (a "Behind the Curtain" article)

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This is expanding quite a bit on a Note I wrote in early February and I’ll conclude with a collation of all the videos showing how I made the props for “discovering” the journals in this series.

Stick With What Works, Right?

Absolutely. Until it doesn’t work any more. Then what? If you stick to your way of writing (be it in a notebook, or typing it, or dictating it; or you always plot first or create a character first, etc etc.), you might get a break through (I have been known to plot and character sketch until the cows come home).

We all have our ways of breaking through creative blocks or dealing with massive plot holes.

But sometimes you just need to try something else and give the creative mind a bit of a shake-up. Branching out and trying a writing prompt without a plan, or planning if you’re a discovery writer.

I’ll share how my own writing process changed in order to handle a very difficult book two.

Where Did I Start?

When I first started to write it was pen and paper but in my quest to become a traditionally published author (back in the day), I switched to typing directly into the computer. Having deadlines made that essential.

I still do this for my monthly serial (Hiraeth) because I have less than a month to get the next episode ready but when I came back to writing, back to pen and paper I went, because it was fun.

Who on earth handwrites a novel these days?

My normal writing process is to write by hand (preferably using my vintage Parker pen and black ink) and then type it into the computer when I’m done (using the Mac’s word processor).

But then…

Writing Process Upended

Book two has seriously been the problem child. Let’s see: we have timeline issues, writing scenes out of order, adding in a subplot, and oh yeah, relationship issues. But we’ll get to that in a moment.

First, I thought book two would skip forward a year and start with a new Arthurian quest. I had it all plotted out and started writing. Yes, at the start of book two I was a “plotter”. I needed to decide about Eidothea’s relationships. A year from the ending of A Grail for Eidothea, who would she be with?

Llyr, certainly. He rescues her, they are bonded in typical fantasy trope style, of course they would be together, right? Right?

You’ve read this thus far in A River Trembles. The course decided, I started to write but the next conflict soon loomed large: the book needed to fall into the timeline of real history — the battle of Waterloo in June 1815. And by my best guess, I’d only written about a month’s worth (getting me to May 1814). You see my problem. (By the way, Book 1, A Grail for Eidothea, is tied to the historical event of Napoleon’s first surrender in April 1814.)

No problem, I thought. I’ll just do a quick plotting outline of what would have happened in that year, and not actually write it and then I’ll know exactly how in love Llyr and Eidothea are.

Umm hello? I’m writing a romantasy. The romance should not be happening off-page.

And thus a whole new book inserted itself into The Môrdreigiau Chronicles. Unasked for, unbidden, and it’s being realised in instalments right now.

But the “fun” was not over, my friend, oh no.

The writing was by this point more than a little bit of a hot mess. The scenes started coming out of order. I would rewrite, add scenes and do the dreaded: “Go to K page 25” and “Go back to page 13” and tape in scenes and so on. I started to struggle with the thought that maybe I had written this scene before (and I had, twice).

So by February of this year, the writing wasn’t going so well.

Because I had a timeline to fill, I also needed to figure out the “when” of each scene, just in case I wrapped things up too quickly. Again.

How was I going to figure this out when I was writing everything by hand?

I had to change the way I write, without giving up the joy of handwriting a first draft.

Enter Scrivener. Thanks to Simon K Jones posting an introduction to it, I took the plunge, spent two days learning how to use it and four days later, not only did I have my already written scenes bramble sorted out but in switching to corkboard view, I could work on plot and timelines.

In outline mode, Scrivener has a host of fields you can use and you can create your own. With a date field, I was able to easily track the passage of time in the story, and be able then, to drop in phrases like “A week later…” etc.

With the new outline I printed out, I went back to handwriting … and I updated the outline again once I realised I’d fallen head over heels for a new character (you’ve already met him if you’ve kept up with the series) and had Eidothea fall for him.

Yeah, don’t worry, that’s not in the version you’ll be reading. I personally blame all the historical Korean dramas I’ve been watching. I mean…

Ahem. But wait, it gets worse. Eidothea was attracted to Emrys but loves Llyr deeply. And that’s how it was in the first draft.

Only, when I read through it, marking it up to become the final draft … and it came to her declaration of love to Llyr, I didn’t believe it. And no matter how much I rewrote it, I still didn’t believe it.

Just like that, the romance exited the room, stage left. But she couldn’t still love Jasper after his horrible betrayal, right? Right? And yet she’s kept the button she tore from his waistcoat.

Honestly, I don’t know how that’s going to go either as here I am in book three (formerly book two), A Sword for Wellington, and attempted murder isn’t so easily overcome, you guys. Eidothea will probably tell me in second draft of that book. She better.

The change in the primary romantic relationship meant a radical rewriting of scenes and because I’ve promised romantasy, another couple has had to step to the forefront. And in a way, two couples kind of did that for me.

I’ve started book 3, A Sword for Wellington and again, Scrivener has helped with creating an outline as well as dropping in pieces from the old manuscript I’m pillaging for the purpose. So far it’s all moving in a straight line but I fully expect trouble, especially once the two storylines merge. Do I keep writing in a notebook or do I fully transition to the computer?

Maybe this time I’ll be ready for it?

Sometimes different books require different writing processes.

If your writing practice isn’t working for you, try something different. It might still not work for you … but you might be able to get unstuck enough that you can see your way forward and go back to your usual writing process.

Start Here: Hiraeth

Making the Props

To have the conceit of finding a diary from 1814 (and I just unearthed a book I own from 1816 and I’ve realised I need to make these books look older) … where was I?

I needed to make props to show as part of the conceit of finding the diary. Diaries now that we’ve made it past book one. I’ve pulled together a selection of YouTube videos below for you to binge at your convenience that show either the making of, or flip-throughs.

Just a note — most of the making does tend to occur off screen mainly because I kept dragging the pieces closer to my eyes and out of camera range … and I’m already in bifocals (*sigh*).

Making Eidothea’s Diary:

What’s in my Ephemera Box?:

Project Starfish (The Môrdreigiau Chronicles’ old code name) Progress:

Hidden Journaling Experiment:

Spring Update:

Flip Through of the Journal:

The Making of the Red Book of Rhiannon:

Making the Lapbook of a Sea Dragon Researcher

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Next month, we’re going down the research rabbit holes that informed both a short story in The Red Book of Rhiannon, and later the research rabbit hole that helped clarify the origin story of the dreigiau môr.

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