I request a rules clarification! (For Anne Lamotte fans)

[elfs]

I am in the middle of my first official novel written using the Shitty First Draft technique as advocated by Anne Lamotte. After 35 days I am at 39,500 words, so I am ahead of my requisite 1,000 words a day. To be frightfully honest, I managed to acheive much of that by writing 20,000 words in the first four days of the month and then coasting for two weeks with a vague sense of burnout before picking up the metaphorical pen once more. In the past week I have managed to do approximately 1,000 words a day or more, which makes me feel much better.

However, I have now hit upon a conundrum.

The Heroine, having been given handles on the two major intertwining plots (known to my twisted mind as the "Ford Pinto Memo" and the "Duran Duran" threads) has hitched a in a monster truck-train, on the flimsiest of evidences, out to a warehouse on the surface of Mars somewhere between Wingrad city and Seren Corporation's Fissile Materials Mine #2, and one suspiciously close to where the anti-posthuman Bureau of Natural Science and Technology first had to drop nuke on a rogue group of AI scientists trying to bootstrap a hard-liftoff-ready AI.

As I was writing this (and enjoyed writing the scene of two truck-trains of eight 450 metric-ton cars, each piled with three wide by two high by two long standard shipping cargo containers, playing chicken on a narrow canyon bridge during a 200KPH Martian duststorm. "Wave hi to Boris as he goes by!") I realized that her reasons for going out there would be much more solid if she there had been a scene earlier where she had spoken with her uncle, a retired Bureau agent proudly watching his orphaned niece take her first steps out as a rookie, where he encourages her to follow her hunches. He has an ulterior motive related to the nuke crater described above; what neither of them know is just how much crap she's about to fall into. (Nevermind that when the Duran Duran thread starts to close in, she will Come To The Attention of Very Important People)

So, I'm wondering if I should write that scene.

Cons: It's technically against the rules. You're supposed to run as fast as you can to the end of the story, and then do the revision. This is a revision.

Pros: It'll generate word count. It's not really revision; I'm just adding to the story. Also, these are pretty damn good ideas that deserve not to get lost.

So, Anne Lamotte methodists, the question is: When you have an idea like this, do you go back and put it in?

Comments

[anthologie.livejournal.com]

If you feel the rules are in any way important, you could just write it in where you are and then realize it belongs earlier in the story when you're done writing and ready to revise. :P

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

^ this

[whipartist.livejournal.com]

The silly thing is having second thoughts about what she's doing, but she flashes back to the conversation with her uncle and that makes her feel better.

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

Write the scene. The point is to keep momentum in your building of the plot, not necessarily to keep moving rail-straight every onward through time. If you were suggesting going back and rewriting anything, I'd say no. Write the scene, and fit it into the textual flow later.

Not that I've read Lamotte recently - maybe 10 years ago.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Who is Anne Lamotte?

I mean, I know who Elf Sternberg is, and a lot of other writers, and they're different. They tell of different ways of writing a book. And if you realise adding this scene improves the story, and because of this woman's rules you have to write it as a flashback or something, well maybe there's something wrong with the rules.

It's youtr story, not hers. Get it written.

[halloranelder.livejournal.com]

I agree with some previous people. Write it as a flashback type scene (you have to have something to fill in the long drive) and then move it around later if it doesn't work there.

[brentn.livejournal.com]

I'm not convinced that its against the rules. A shitty first draft doesn't necessarily have to be in-order! :)

[xengar.livejournal.com]

I agree with this. The SFD rule doesn't say anything about order, (in fact elsewhere Anne Lamotte has mentioned taking a draft of one of her stories, spreading it out across the floor, and re-assembling it in a more coherent order) it merely says that for a first draft you should always be adding, not subtracting or revising. So the anchors for this scene? the parts that tie it in and would require re-writing stuff you've already done? Those you leave for the next draft, but don't feel guilty about writing this section now.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

I have no formal input on the method, but if you want to stay true to it, just jot down notes for other scenes on the side. Lay it out, get the plot mapped, link it to other scenes of reference, then go back to what you were doing. The next time you come through for a re-write, it'll be there, and you can just pick it up and run.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

Write it as a flashback, and make sure to fix it when you fix the rest.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

Given my lack of success with writing, or even finishing a story, here's my 2 cents...

You're still going pell-mell through the writing process, right? Your brain took a side trip, but you just include it in the forward going narrative. When it is time for revision you go back and put it in the proper sequence along with other revisory (is that a word?) stuff.

'Cause, my understanding is that the most important part is that you write, without impeding yourself with thoughts of "I should have worded that this way". But adding a whole new scene seems to be in line with the whole write until you're done thing.

[orcaarrow.livejournal.com]

I do not use nor due I know of the specific method, but I don't know that it can hurt to add a scene that you realize, in the heat of writing, that needs to be there.

I'd go ahead and write the scene. The intent is that you do not get wrapped up, a big failing of mine, in revising before you finish the first draft.

Content without linking

[norincraft.livejournal.com]

I say write the content of the scene without deciding it's status as a flashback or something to be inserted earlier.

As I see it, SFD is a guideline for the prolific but a set of rules for those who are looking to produce an excellent first draft (but somehow manage to never finish the project).

I understand you're still tweaking your technique of writing, but you have been cranking so much for so long, you clearly don't have a problem with production.

be well.

Re: Content without linking

[elfs.livejournal.com]

No, I don't have a problem with production. I have a problem with maintaining coherency at length. Anything over 20,000 words is intimidating, because I'm expected to maintain both character and event continuity throughout the work. An episodic novel, like Sterlings or Travelogue, makes that easy because there's always a "pick up where the story left off" sense to it. But a multi-plot story like this one requires that characters appear for a chapter or two, then disappear, then re-appear later with some explanation for where they've been and what they've been doing which explains their actions now as they've re-entered the story. That's a bit difficult for me.

Try this ...

[norincraft.livejournal.com]

A lifetime ago, I was complaining to Mark (your housemate) that I was tired of reading Heinlein novels because they were all the same. He basically said that was Heinlien's intention. The story was the framework from which he illustrated different social or governmental experiments.

My point is stories follow a fairly set pattern but you still have nearly unlimited possibilities from them. What I believe you are missing is better framework management. So I don't think SFD will be the solution unless you are trying the accuracy by volume method of writing.

However I do think something like the Marshal Plan (with the workbook) might. My Darling tried it and found it beneficial although she uses a somewhat different method now.

be well