Master Plan: part II

Gen 1: 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
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Well yesterday’s post got a lot of positive responses with the folk over at facebook who I share some of my work here with. :) So today I’m going to write about another master plan and that’s the one you’ll need to write a story.

Whether it is a short story or a novel, you will need a master plan. Not much unlike God’s plan for our lives and all He did to create the universe, our writing needs to shape up just as if we were the Creator himself. We are in essence a god to our characters because we are the creator of our intricate stories. They look to us to feed them and nourish them.

What will we need? We will need to breathe life into a character. Allow the person to shape a world. Make a mountain out of a molehill. Give your character a place to live and play. Give them a strong name. I think Mike and John are overdone. Choose something unique so that your reader will be walking around with the name on their tongue as if they just bit into an m&m or something. Like Odd Thomas, the name is quirky, but it clings to you like gumdrops to the roof of your mouth.

We’ll also need a help mate to carry the story along. Male or female, this character is necessary in creating scenes within this bubble. Allow them exploration of the world you’re creating. Give them full reign of the playground but withhold the ‘tree of life’ from them. As they explore and find the tree, perhaps the antagonist will lure them away with a good conflict that will bring your story to new heights.

An antagonist will surely add to the story to fill in all the juicy parts. Think satan running rampant and wreaking havoc on the earth. Surely your Adam and Eve will be finding new life, discovering new things but they’ll also be tempted to do the wrong thing in this right world that you’ve created.

Now that you’ve had the seed planted, don’t take seven days to create your world, take 30. An entire month of 2000 words a day. Don’t spell check and edit as you go, create! Do you think the Lord stopped on day one and said, “Now let me think, I gave Adam a backbone, but I don’t like it, delete?” No, he kept on creating, and when He had finished, Genesis 1: 31 “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”
 
Write the entire month, no edits, no looking back. Create a masterpiece that the human race will look back on and one day say, “This is very good!”

I sense a good week...

Pss. 3:3 But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
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Well the senses lesson went off without a hitch. I wasn’t let down as writers across the board dabbled in bringing the senses alive.

They made clouds out of marshmallows, the sea became a frothing cup of espresso, a river was birthed, a tree swayed, a path was made and I was led down a writing frenzy. These are supposed to be amateur writers but I was quite impressed with the remaining writers at f2k.

Most of the new folk who had a dream of writing, realized all too soon that they had to actually work at it and writing wasn’t something that they could just do. Their introductions led me to believe that their heart and soul wasn’t into writing and I can usually tell if this is really what a writer wants, but we lost a few.

The few who were lost came and went like a brief spring shower. They’re out there wanting to become a writer but they are not willing to take the long hard grueling steps to becoming a writer.

Now we have a few hanger’s on. These are the ones who are wholeheartedly doing all they can to become a writer in every sense of the word. They’re studying the craft intently, they’re practicing sentence structure, they’re even flirting with new words.

These are the people who have an innate sense of what it takes to be the artist that they want to be. Artist are not just thrown into the world knowing all they can about the craft. They learn on every level, grab hold of the intimate aspect and feed off the style to bring you, the reader, into a realm that they call their own.

Have you ever wondered what Picasso was thinking when he painted his masterpieces? What Stephen King is thinking as he jots down his stories? (Oh dear, I put Stephen King next to the same sentence as Picasso! You won’t see that too often.) Well I’m here to tell you that they weren’t thinking anything. They worked to create and delivered to us some of the worlds greatest masterpieces.

The two artist are a lot alike believe it or not. They love (or loved in Picasso’s case) what they do and shower the public with pieces of themselves through their work. (No pun intended Picasso.)

So why not as a new writer, dig deep into yourself and pull out the artist that you know yourself to be. The person that longs to give society what they’re missing. Give it to them!

And whatever you do...write write write!