Naomi Dawn Musch

Myriad of methods exist for writers to organize plot and arrange notes. Some programs are free, some are offered for a fee. The Snowflake Method, BubbleUs, Simplenote, iA Writer, Evernote,Wunderlist, Scrivener, and more, beckon us. And most of them work very well, depending on what you want your tool to accomplish.

If more computer programs aren't your cup of tea, you can still use old fashioned household tools to sticky note, story board, story file, or just spread papers all over your office, hoping to find the elusive all-important detail you want when you need it.

I'm not going to endorse any particular system, but as a hands-on approach works well for me, I'll tell you what I do. I've tried some of the above systems, and found them useful when I'm first developing a plot, but for my basic note organization, by favorite system is still the use of notebooks. Old fashioned, colored compositions books in college rule to be precise.

Every time I start a new novel, I pull out a new notebook. Inside the front cover I list titles of resource book I'm using in my research, including the library's dewey decimal number so I can find it quickly again if its borrowed. My notes from these books go on separate pages in the notebook, and at the top of where those pages begin, I repeat the reference information in case I have to look it up again.

I also put the date I began the notebook on the inside cover so I can chart how long it's taking me to write the book. Beneath the date, I even jot my goal, such as write this novel this year, or 2000 words per week, or 100,000 words this year -- whatever the goal is.

On page 1, I blaze the WIP's working title across the top; then I state the Story Goal and Story Themes. Of course, new themes will evolve, or one theme will take priority as the story develops its shape. But by having the story goal and theme clearly stated at the onset, it's easy to remain focused and avoid meandering all over the place. I refer back to page 1 often during the course of writing.

On the following pages, I begin fleshing out characters. NOTE: Here is where I incorporate other programs or character-building plans I've garnered from fellow writers. I write down the basics on these pages, but I do fuller fleshing in a computer program -- even simply in a word processor file. But in the notebook --  one character per page -- I highlight the basics: eye color, age, personal quirks and tics, character goal. On the computer file I fill out their full goals, desires, black moments, all in finer detail.

After the characterization pages, I use a page that simply summarizes the previous pages with all the characters' names, ages, and a basic timeline. This is invaluable when you begin more books in your series. You'll want a quick way to look back and remember how old a character was in Book One, so you'll be able to age them appropriately in Book Three. You'll forget who was related distantly to who, or the names of minor characters making only momentary appearances. LIST THEM so you can flip back quickly and find them. I sometimes transfer this page to a computer file that I can keep open alongside my WIP.

Now I put a sticky note in the notebook as a marker. Here I begin my actual outline. I outline in scenes, dialogue fragments, as well as brainstormed and then this happens... notations. There's not real clean way that works for me. If you plot at all, do it in a way that works for you.

Sometimes, as scenes and plot points are accomplished in the WIP, I cross them out in the notebook. It's easy to forget if you're writing a long novel, or especially if you're writing a series, whether you've covered a certain story point or not, especially if it's a small nuance you intended to slip in.

I also mark off a section of the notebook with a sticky note for jotting down scenes that come to me out of the blue, stuff I might want to develop later. I cross them out once -- or if -- I use them and also if I decide to scrap them.

Half way through the notebook, I mark off a section (with another sticky note) for all my historical or other research notes. Page after page of research gets jotted here. I star sections that I absolutely have to use in the story. I ask myself questions about it as I go, making notations along the edges. My notebook is both organized and messy at once -- kind of like my brain.

SERIES NOTE: Starting on the very last page of the notebook, working backward, I jot notes that come to mind for the next book in the series. I'm not really ready to go there yet, but sometimes a little something will hit me as an idea I don't want to forget. When I buy the next notebook and begin the process again, I transfer those back page notes into thenew notebook and begin the whole process again. For instance, while I was writing The Red Fury, I discovered that collecting roses became popular during Victorian times, and that was also when giving a flower based on the meaning of its color was in vogue. I jotted brief notes about it in the back of my Red Fury notebook, along with websites to refer back to. This worked perfectly into what is now becoming my next book, The Black Rose.

This may sound complicated, but it works great for me. You have to organize in the way that works for you. The point is to do it. Writing a series, or even a single novel, isn't something that you can really do without a good system of organization -- even if you’re a panster.

One more thing:

As I write the actual novel, I keep another computer file open containing a few of the details from my notebook, like I mentioned earlier. They might be the characters names & ages, the timeline, a few things like that. In the actual WIP, at the bottom of the scene I'm writing, I write a very short outline of where I'm heading so that each day I can remember how to pick up. This is extremely helpful during those times when several days pass between writing bouts. This might be short points, or a paragraph synopsis -- just a little something for quick reference to keep me on track from one scene or chapter to the next.

Whether you're writing a single novel or a series, a good system for organizing your notes will keep you on a path through the chaos of creation.

Write on!

Come investigate my series!

http://www.naomimusch.com/empireinpineseries.htm

Book One is on sale for $.99 ONLY through December!

There's nothing very mystifying about unearthing themes for your series. Sometimes theme emerges out of the plot, setting, or period elements naturally. At other times it is the very idea that first churns up a story in your imagination. For instance, in the latter case, after someone you know tells you of the twists and turns they faced with foreign adoption, you may have an idea burst upon you for writing a story about the myriad issues involved in foreign adoption, thus beginning with theme. On the other hand, if this theme were to emerge later, from the plot, it might work more like this. You may think, I want to write about a childless couple who longs to adopt. Then, later you realize, they'll adopt from a foreign country. Oh... there are issues surrounding that!

Usually, when it comes to discovering a theme, you don't have to think much further than the situations and ideals that stir your heart right now.

Your concerns, those passions that are dear to your heart, those struggles you've faced and lessons you've learned are the best source of inspiration for choosing theme. I often find that when a Sunday sermon pricks my heart or thrills my soul, a story theme won't linger far behind.

Most often, new themes emerge in each book one writes. But when writing a series, I've noticed it's entirely likely passions will still be at the same stage from book to book because I'm still engrossed in a continuing saga of recurring characters. As I move from one book to the next, however, I don't want to keep repeating my themes.

Thankfully, universal themes -- grieving loss, discovering love, suffering spiritual or relational disillusionment, paying the demanding cost of pride, and so on --each have a hundred different spins to them that can make them truly unique. As a writer, your job is to take these universal themes and reflect on how you are affected by them in your own life. What conflicts have they been known to  produce? What outcomes? What lessons?

Love is probably the most written about of all the universal themes. Think of the myriad ways it is expressed, won, lost, and sought after. When I wrote The Green Veil, Empire in Pine Book One, I thought of how we are often encouraged to follow our hearts in seeking love. But this produced a conflict in my reasoning, because Scripture tells us that our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and that we can barely know or understand our own hearts. So what happens, really, when someone blindly follows his or her heart? Or at least, what might happen? This is the primary theme that emerged in the plotting of that novel.

Themes give stories their layers.

The really cool aspect of this when writing a series is that you can start to see those layers developing further in each book, thus producing a series arc. I realized as I wrote books 2 and 3 in my Empire in Pine series that the women in a particular family all disliked sewing. It's a generational series in which an impatience toward the craft was apparently passed down. On the other hand, these gals were crafty and artistic in other ways. By the time I reached Book 3, The Black Rose, on which I'm doing re-writes now, I discovered that this simple character trait resulted in a theme -- a poor self-image -- feelings of being unaccomplished and inferior. I'm working now on exploring that theme further.

So, are some themes over-used?

To answer, let's look at the theme of faith, or lack of it. Writers settle on exploring aspects of faith again and again. The entire genre of inspirational fiction is built around it, in fact. Because issues of faith are universal, it can never be overdone as a theme. People will continue to struggle and either search for faith or draw away from it. Therefore, it becomes the characters themselves that make the theme unique. As writers we create characters whose personalities, hopes, sorrows, and situations resonate with readers. In any of a thousand different combinations, the theme develops and finds its sticking place in readers' hearts.

So, explore your passions. Allow yourself to hope and dream and feel anguish. Read and grow and agonize. In all of your zeal and new understanding, you'll unearth themes that weave their way into your series.

Write on!

They say that stories are generally plot driven or character driven. If you are writing a series with a reappearing character, then that character had better be a driving force, by personality and destiny.

The biggest mistake I made in writing the first book in my series was in my first draft. I created a passive character, a character that responded to things happening to her, but not a character that made things happen. Fortunately however, I saw the mistake and corrected it. My protagonist Colette became a woman of determination and choices, even though she sometimes chose wrong -- in fact -- her wrong choice encompassed the theme of the book. But it got things going.

Choosing a character for one book or many takes a great deal of consideration, probably more consideration than any other part of writing the story. While this may seem obvious, it's amazing how many writers still produce protagonists who walk through the pages of their books like puppets rather than people. After only one or two volumes, they are flat, predictable, and utterly forgettable.

PERSONALITY

Therefore, your main character has to be interesting. He should also be decisive, at least eventually. He needs to be involved relationally to all the other characters he encounters. His humanness requires that he has flaws -- maybe lots of them -- and yet we need to find in him some redeeming qualities also. He can be reasonably heroic, or pure trouble with a soft spot and some charm.

GROWTH

If you're writing a series with a continuing character or characters, they must grow. They cannot, cannot remain stagnant. Their story arc is just as ongoing in the drama of the series as our own growth patterns are to our real lives. To create character arc, you need to reveal inner turmoil. The inner turmoil must produce growth or at points, regression -- but ultimately growth. This is important even if the character only appears in one book. A protagonist with no personal story arc has nothing worthwhile to say and does not move the story forward in a satisfying way.

INTERNAL CONFLICT

It is equally important that your main character reveal his or her inner turmoil from a very deep point of view. Deep POV is much talked about everywhere these days, yet it's easy to slip out of it into telling. Telling words like "saw" or "felt" and the use of be-verbs "is", "was", "are", "were", etc. prevent readers from attaching strongly to your character, something you don't want to happen, even if he isn't the main character for the entire series. Keeping in deep POV brings the character to life so that he'll go on living in the reader's imagination instead of them leaving him stuck in the pages of a book.

IDENTIFYING INTEREST

Ultimately when choosing a character for one novel or many, you want individuality honed in a way both you and your readers identify with. Your protagonist may be a Russian spy, a native princess, president of the Smithtown Ladies' Pie Society, or an evil enchantress. But no matter who or what they are, like us, they need to have dreams, goals, and ideals.They need to be vulnerable at some times and strong at others. Readers should be able to cry with them or exult with them, and sometimes they should want to shout at them. If you've taken time to create provoking characters who have something, they will.

Write on!

http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-template/NaomiMusch/Page.bok

There's probably no more difficult aspect to writing any novel than capturing the right beginning. Les Edgerton, in his book Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers, says, "A good quality story beginning is a microcosm of the work entire. If you capture the right beginning, you've written a small version of the whole."

The same thing is true for the first book in a series. If Book One doesn't resonate with captivating characters and a gripping plot, then you won't get a following. We've probably all begun reading a series only to abandon it somewhere along the way. It could be that it was simply not in a genre to our taste. But woe to the author if it was in a favorite genre and yet lacked the ability to make us yearn for more.

See ya. Wouldn't wanna be ya.

It's thrilling to create an idea for a series, but if you don't put your all into book one without the distraction of those other books yet to be written, there's no point. First things first.Write book one. Develop a mind-blowing idea.

Of course, you may be thinking of your Big Idea as being the over-arching vision for the series. For instance, my current historical series is built around the Big Idea of the rise of the logging empire in the Wisconsin wilderness, and how it developed around the lives of one pioneer family over several generations.

But I didn't worry about any of those generations or even how the history evolved when I wrote Book One, The Green Veil. I focused solely on one single story, the tale of a young pioneer woman who loved a handsome woodsman but married a zealous land speculator. I didn't consider what the next book in the series would entail until I was nearly to the end of writing The Green Veil.

I recently played a story-building game with a group of 3rd graders. I set an award (the story goal) on a chair at the front of the room. Then I blind-folded one brave student (the protagonist). Another student gave him directions for retrieving his goal prize. But, I threw down a couple sheets of paper on the floor representing trouble he had to avoid. If he stepped on a sheet -- BOOM! -- the rest of the class responded to let him know. He got to his goal without too much trouble. Only one little explosion.

Then we tried it again, only this time we laced the floor with sheets of paper, all representing a host of problems he could encounter. Boom! Boom! BOOM! We learned that the more trouble our protagonist encountered on the way to his goal, the more adventure he had. Incidentally, his guide was a giggling direction-giver, and at times worked as a bit of an antagonist steering him directly into the paper-strewn path.

That's how gripping stories read.The action ramps up. The character has to face relational trouble, spiritual trouble, physical trouble. There has to be plenty of road blocks to them realizing their deepest desires. And if you want those characters to ring true and capture hearts, those desires have to be deep and universal as well as character specific.

So the first step to writing a series is to really focus on that first novel. Make it great! Write your heart out! Don't get mired down in planning a long chronicle of narratives before you've made a success of the first one. Once you have that first draft well in hand there'll be time to explore the possibilities for book two. Starting with book one, each story must be given your full focus, that "microcosm of the work entire".

Write on!

http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-217/Empire-in-Pines-Book/Detail.bok