After getting my list that I talked about in my last post, I created index cards. Then, I put these cards in categories for places where they happened, i.e. school, STAC, camp, regular friends, Minnesota, folk dance, Venezuelans, etc.
Luke recommended I try the Pomodoro technique. This is where I got after two pomodoros.
A few days later, I invited my dad to see some of my work and asked him for advice. He told me something very useful.
"You need to think about the ending first."
He was quite right. My wall was filled with great premises, but I hadn't even considered how each tale would end outside of their original endings, which, in the nature of life, were generally incomplete and unsatisfying.
One car that I showed him was "Porch texting and dog walker." One time, my friends and I were sitting on Jess's porch. Julian was showing me Orange is the New Black on his phone, Jess was on tumblr, and everyone else was on their phones. Jess's neighbor walked by, completely astonished. "If you guys are just gonna be on your phones, why do you even bother hanging out?" We told her, "we like to be antisocial together."
I thought this could be a lead up to a story about the strange things my friends and I do when we are bored. My dad recommended at the end that we all watch a youtube video, and we realize the dog from the video is the one we saw in the beginning.
It's the twists like that which link the story back to the beginning that make the story truly entertaining.
Another example of this is the card I labeled "Locker Stalker." I once had a friend who was creeped on by a guy who would leave notes and gifts in her locker. Actually it was kind of scary and not necessarily very funny. But my father recommended that I end the story with the stalker discovering that he was using the wrong locker the entire time.
I worked with that and started moving cards from column to column. My original wall became my source pot.
And I used another wall to try and form coherent stories.
After gathering a few tales that seemed vaguely coherent, I attempted to start writing. I decided at first I would try to write in a journal the way I always have, because it could help me feel my natural narrating voice. However, I find that my mind moves faster than my hand can write, and leading to some dissonance. Perhaps it would be better to work with a computer, where I can write faster and paste things in between paragraphs.
In English we've begun reading Frankenstein. Mary Shelly wrote the book when she was 18, and that inspires me, because it shows that even at my age, it is possible to create greatness. She was probably more advanced in writing than I am right now, so I don't expect my first novel to be like hers. Still, I feel an emotional link to Frankenstein, even though I have yet to read past the first chapter.
Frankenstein is an epistolary, which means that it's written in a series of letters. Perhaps I should write my stories in an epistolary manner. Who would I be writing too? I don't know yet, but I think it could be a good idea. Perks of Being a Wallflower was also an epistolary, but I don't want my future book to be too similar to that, because I don't think it shares the same level of emotional weight. What appeals to me about the idea of an epistolary is that it's focused and each story is inherently short. It seems like a less intimidating way of writing a novel, and also a fun way.
At the moment I am not obsessing over this project, but if I made the effort, I could probably bring myself back into that mindset. I think I need to get some more concrete writing done instead of discussing the theoretical. Perhaps I need a few more Pomodoros.
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