get something doin'

If it were bizarro world, we'd be able to reference tabulated transference. This is much less sane, somehow the past may have been changed.


I think I'm going to write about this, even though most of the people I talk to about it also read this:

The book I'm working on, with the same name as this blog, has been aided up to this point by the use of a system that I think might be semi-innovative. I'd like to expound on it a bit:

The general idea is that I've created a surfable website (not actually on the internet, but viewed through Firefox and threaded together with hyperlinks) containing every character sketch, metaphorical concept, chapter summary, setting description, etc. The impetus for this was that I, being thoroughly disorganized by nature, needed to come up with a new way to keep my thoughts together in a meaningful way that would be minimally taxing to review and edit. Thus, I dug up every notebook I'd used to catalog ideas and spent a great deal of time entering old writing. While it would have been less time-consuming to do this from the beginning, I already had a very general concept of where the book was going to go before I started visualizing it in .html, so this provided me a good opportunity to fill in the blanks and revisit some concepts that might have seemed a little dated.

It didn't take me long before I moved beyond simply connected sheets of text. I inserted images of people that looked similar to my character, and of places reminiscent of the settings I would be using. It also allowed me to draw out floorplans, and paste them in at a reasonable juncture. Particular pages also benefit from having links to actual websites containing more factual background. Thus, when looking at the sheet for the main character's place of work I have a description I worked out, snippets of text that may actually make it into the book, floorplans for key locations, images of other corporate headquarters around the world, and references to information about american corporate hierarchies, typical security protocols, legal points on surveillance, etc etc. Whatever has relevance can be placed on that sheet and while writing any scene within the confines of the workplace, I can pop open my browser and make sure I'm knocking off all my picture frames.

I guess the point is, this is the way to write a novel I think. It might not produce a good novel in my particular situation, but it's an excellent way to stay organized and allows your creativity to roam free without missing details.