It never ceases to amaze me how much of a character will “spring” from finding the perfect name.

In writing the book I’ve always wanted to read (somebody help me with the credit on that line), I knew I wanted to have at least one family whose child-bearing pattern would actually match that of a pre-birth control era.

You ever notice how few children are in most folktales?

As a storyteller/writer I can appreciate trying to keep things simple for the sake of the story, but I feel that (especially in the space a novel allows) the reality of the era ought to overshadow a bit our subconscious expectations.

So I planned for two of my major (not main) characters to be siblings from a big family, then I sketched out time line that would have their mother pregnant at intervals reasonable for the era.

This allowed me to set them into the birth-order in ways that explained some of their behavior (very fun) but left me needing to create at least names for all these other children.

I finally did that today, and I was surprised at how much I could get from nothing more than a name/birth-order combo. A short sampling of new “extras”:

• The stolid oldest son of average intelligence who enjoys working with his father
• The “joker” younger son who embraces the role of “village idiot” and uses what he learns (his part looks like it’s definitely going to grow— another spontaneous creation)
• The “invisible” middle child (even his name is boring)
• The sweetness of a little girl who becomes her brother’s first failed rescue and undeserved guilt. (This sets up a whole character arc).

This all falls under background work, and may never see the light, but (especially the bit with the little sister) it clarifies a major character’s background and motivation and clears the way for better writing.

I love playing with names.

Oh, and remember the event/age matching I mentioned before? A very kind friend did make me a custom Excel program, and it’s been awesome.

I’m still working at entering formulas to calculate dates (rather than dates themselves, in case I end up needing to move something), and adding events and individuals.

This program allows me to include more characters in the calculations (since I don’t have to iterate everything out for each minor player), and helps me better keep track of everyone.

It enables me to seriously juggle this huge family and quickly compare where new people fit in.

Thanks Tom!

But it’s working….

I finally opened a spreadsheet and did a Y x X of characters and their ages at major events.

This precipitated the necessity of starting a second sheet verifying the dates of said major events, and deciding how the calendar is ordered in this region/age.

April through March, in case you wanted to know.

Before too much longer I’m going to have to figure out some cartography, which will in turn necessitate wraping my mind around the concept of scale– something that heretofore has eluded me horribly in all fantasy contexts (books, games, movies, whatever).

I start out wanting to tell a story, and love how the “fantasy” can just happen (Hey, cool! no research required!). But while I really hate the act of filling in the little squares– connections of age, event, etc., I have to admit it’s been highly useful in rounding out character interactions and even motivations.

Rats.

Has anyone already written an Excel program for this? It seems eminently doable in such a formula-based program, I just don’t know how.

*Okay.* Vent over. Back to punching numbers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Edited 2/28 to add:

Here’s my second Blogiversary. Just thought I’d mention it, though I think I said everything pertinent in my First Blogiversary post a year ago.

God continues to be faithful, I continue to learn. (And I praise Him for both.)

I think this is
The prettiest world— so long as you don’t mind
a little dying, how could there be a day in your whole life
that doesn’t have its splash of happiness?

Pie crust Promise (“easily made easily broken”) coming up:

I need to avoid printing out my novel until I’ve got it completed in rough-draft form.

As-is I’ve got some major parts left to finish writing, but printed it anyway. Since printing I’ve had two *major* mental revisions and clarifications.

• Among them
  • Changing the identity of a major character
  • Eliminating a formerly major character that the previous change overlapped (Tanith, mentioned in my song post)
  • Clearly dentified the three main story lines I’m weaving together
    • This helpful suggestion was from Chapter After Chapter— a book to take with a grain of salt— and stabilized the whole project.
  • Discovered my main POV character. So. cool.

So with all of this, do you think I’m ready to line-edit what I’ve got printed out? No!

I’m doing the work of weaving the life of the new discoveries into the sense of the established order.

And it won’t really do just to say “keep the chapters that don’t get changed.”

One of the intimidating-but-exciting changes that is happening this round is more scene-cuts and interlacing (the “braid,” CAC calls it; “writing for suspense,” Stein calls it).

This work both disrupts the established order and makes very clear what sections are useful and which have no value.

I’ve only done this for one section so far, but reading the result gave me goosebumps.

I used to be embarrassed to admit my own writing can affect me this way. It sounds very unsophisticated and self-exalting.

But at the writing conference I went to in October one of the editors basically said we need to be affected by what we write, because if we aren’t, what makes us think anyone else will be interested.

Anyway, I’m excited to have again a clear “next step.”

This time I’m planning just to write as I go, rather than trying to outline to the end.

For one thing, I’ve done that twice already, and know the process saps so much of my creative life I have no “oomph” left for actual creating of story.

And for another thing, I think it’s negatively invoking this principle. I no longer feel the need to tell once I’ve told all.

I mentioned last week how helpful it was to have Jay (in particular) to bounce things off of, but that was for twists and concepts that were half-formed and needed airing for clarity.

The current idea (and I’m nearly giddy about it– though I don’t yet know where it’ll ultimately go) dropped fully formed into my mind.

I told Jay I wouldn’t tell him this one, because I want his unprepped reaction when he discovers it.

Now if I could just find where it belongs…

We mothers at home occasionally have to fight feeling defensive when asked if we “work.”

Sometimes I feel the the same urge to defend my writing.

With my recent explanation about my connections between music and my novel I honestly cringed at some points, expecting a voice to ask accusingly why I was wasting time linking videos or talking about my novel instead of working on it.

I felt really guilty. Because I’ve got this solid inch of paper to read and edit through, and here I am…not.

Today I talked to three different people about how I’m at this crazy crossroads with my novel. How I’ve totally revamped the time-line for a more consistent internal logic, and how I’m beginning to question the amount of spirituality conveyed or emphasized in the story.

Then with the third regurgitation (this evening, with my husband) a bunch of stuff just came completely together.

And I suddenly realized I have been working this whole time. The music, the listening, the thinking, the saying something (over and over) until it made sense.

This is how storytelling works.

You tell and retell, because it’s refined each time as your brain tweaks and keeps the best parts for the next telling.

I talked for maybe half an hour (the longest so far) about my proposed changes, and Jay didn’t have any corrections. “Sounds good,” he said. “I like it.”

I love living with someone who’s read my stuff. It makes big questions and shifts like these so much easier to talk about.

So I started writing the skeleton of changes and ended up with over 1300 words in one sitting.

I still don’t know if I’ll start working through my manuscript when my children are awake (something I’ve been avoiding so far) but at least now I know better where I’m going, and this editing isn’t just walking into a dark tunnel.

Trust me, I’m working.