More brainstorming!

It's time to get back to outlining! I'm working on a very strange outline this week. I'm writing a book where you get to choose which way the story goes. At the end of every page or two, there's a choice--do you do this, or that? The story turns out very differently whichever path you choose! It's been fun to come up with all the branching stories--but it's a very different way of thinking too! I'll have to photograph my crazy notecard board for this one and post it here.

Once I finish that outline, which I should this week, I have some manuscripts other people have written that I have agreed to read and critique. That and the outlining will take up all my office hours this week!

What I'm reading:

I finished Seraphina (terrific!) and The One and Only Ivan (which was also terrific!), as well as the next Hercule Poirot mystery by Agatha Christie--Peril at End House. My family bought that and the next one, Lord Edgware Dies, for me for my birthday. I'm already a few chapters into that one. So, a good lot of reading done last week! Not sure what I'll read after that, but I'll let you know!

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Mash it up!

A friend of mine loves to combine Nancy Drew with other stories, like Nancy Drew vs. Dracula, or Nancy Drew in the Tomb of the Cybermen (see the picture he made, above). The Tomb of the Cybermen is an old Doctor Who serial.

Throwing two things together like this is called a "mash-up." What are two of your favorite stories, series, or characters you could mash-up? What would a story about Nancy Drew battling Dracula be like? (I'll bet it would be awesome.)

Take one of your favorite characters and put him or her in the world of a different story. How would Percy Jackson do at Hogwarts? What if Turtle from The Westing Game joined The Mysterious Benedict Society? How would Meg Murray and Charles Wallace from A Wrinkle in Time defeat Darth Vader? Get mashing!

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What's Your Hook?

All right. You're ready to start writing your story. Where do you start? That's a really good question. Some of the best stories start with a hook--something to get you interested right from the start. Sometimes it's a great first line, like

"Where's Papa going with that axe?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

That's the first line of Charlotte's Web. That's a great first line! Who is Fern, and where is her father going with that axe--and what's he going to do with it? It turns out he's going out to kill a pig--and Fern is going to stop him. That gets the whole story going right away!

To take a very different example, consider the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Here we've got Indiana Jones heading into the jungles of South America, looking for an artifact. He cleverly makes his way past lots of deadly traps, finds what he's looking for--and then has it taken away from him! None of this has much to do with the rest of the story, where he goes looking for the lost Ark, except that it shows us who this guy is and what he's all about.

But better than all that, it's exciting! We're immediately drawn into the action. It tells us we're watching a movie that will have high adventure in exotic places. That's the hook. When Indy licks his lips and wiggles his fingers over that statue up there, nervous but excited to swipe it, we're sitting on the edge of our seats with him.

Think about where your story needs to begin, then think about making that beginning as exciting as possible. That will hook your reader. And once you've hooked your reader, they'll be with you for the rest of the story!

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Stories From History (Kind Of)

This week, I'm working on coming up with the story for the second book in a trilogy. A perfect time for a "Where Do You Get Your Ideas?" post!

This book is alternate history--that is, it takes place in a past that didn't exist. But I still want the past to look like our past, and to feel like our past. So some of the places and people of the past are still there, they're just...different.

Two of my characters are chasing a woman who claims to be a mystic. Looking at the map of the alternate United States I've made, I saw a region I hadn't explored yet: the independent country of Louisiana. Louisiana has a fascinating past. New Orleans was a major center of trade in the colonies, due to its position on the Gulf Coast at the bottom of the Mississippi River. It became a melting pot too, when thousands of Haitian slaves fled there after a revolt against their French masters.

Those Haitians brought their Vodoun religion and beliefs with them, giving rise to what we today call Voodoo. Awesome! I'm already having lots of great ideas about how my two characters can enter a world of Voodoo mystery. I see a lot of reading about the history of Voodoo and New Orleans in my immediate future.

Pick a time and a place in the past, and read about it. Then think about how you could tell a story of something that didn't really happen--but might have if there was magic. Or aliens. Or computers. Or if a major event happened differently. History is a great place to look for story ideas--especially if you're going to change it!

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The Bestest Part!

What am I working on this week? Well, I just finished some things last week that I had to turn in to editors, so this week is all about making up a new story! This might be my most favorite part of writing--coming up with the story!

This will be book two in a trilogy, which means I know some of the characters really well already. And I know big things that have to happen (and be revealed) in this book, so that's helpful.

But what happens from chapter to chapter? How do the characters grow and change? What fun can I have with them, getting to the big stuff? That's what I get to sit around and dream about all afternoon!

Did I mention I get paid to do this?

What I'm reading:

I finished my latest Patrick O'Brian sea tale, Desolation Island, and now I'm reading Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. It's fantastic! I'm only 25 pages or so from the end, and I already want to read the next one. (Which isn't out yet, of course!) After that, I have Newbery winner The One and Only Ivan in the stack. Good stuff awaits!

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Writing Fanfic

 What's your favorite book? Your favorite movie? Your favorite video game?

My answers to those questions change as I read, watch, and play new things. But one thing always remains the same: each time, I think what would happen differently if I got to control the characters.

When I was a kid, my friends and I would pretend to be Star Wars characters when we played. Or we would play with action figures who were characters from the movie. But instead of playing out scenes from the movie, we invented new ones.

Sometimes we even wrote these scenes down. I have an old movie, shot on actual film, that I made as a boy using Star Wars action figures as the players on screen. The story has some elements of the films--Luke's injuries are healed in a Mason jar full of water, for example, just like Luke being treated after his exposure on the ice planet of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back--but many other things are new, like, for some weird reason, Luke, a Bespin guard, and Chewbacca riding a popsicle raft down a stream of water in my bath tub.

Try writing a scene--or even a whole story--based on characters from a book, film, or video game you love. It's okay if they do things kind of like what happens in the real story, just like it's okay if they do crazy weird stuff they would never have done in the official version. This is your story. This time, you get to decide what your favorite characters do...

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