"Why I Love" Wednesday: Leverage, Part II

"Why I Love" Wednesday is an occasional feature focusing on things that I love and why I love them. It gives me a chance to celebrate some of my favorite things out there, and it covers a broad spectrum. I try to be light on plot discussion, but I cannot guarantee that what follows is spoiler-free.

I know I've discussed Leverage before, but I recently bought seasons 1-3 on DVD and I'm watching my way through the show again.

As I mentioned last time, the relationships between the characters (relationships of all of types, not just the romantic ones) are my favorite part of the show.

In the first episodes of the first season, these five people could barely stand each other. They bickered throughout their first job (and through all the jobs since, but the type of bickering changes as they grow closer), and they're less like a team and more like a group of lone wolves struggling to work in a pack.

This is no longer true by the end of the first season. There are still some rough edges (Nate's an alcoholic, Parker fails at typical human interaction, etc.), but they've learned to fit together. They've survived a rough patch and come out stronger, growing in their relationship into the second season, which I'm almost at the end of now.

I just watched The Future Job, which (in addition to being one of my favorite episodes) presents several examples of the close connections between these characters.

The mark in this episode is a fake psychic. Early in the episode he cold reads Parker, revealing that her brother died when they were children. Parker runs away and Hardison, as a witness, can't help but angrily remark, "He needs to be shot."

Hardison isn't the only one expressing concern for Parker. Back at Leverage HQ, everyone gathers to help her understand how the mark was able to use her reactions to figure out her past. There's nothing demeaning in the way they do this, although they are gentle with her. However, they respect her boundaries and don't press her with questions, or try to force her into anything. Then, when Parker asks if they can kill the mark, Eliot offers to do it.

This is the kind of thing I love to see. It makes me really happy to see the team members care for one another (despite their flaws) and support each other (even though they sometimes drive each other crazy). It's Hardison telling Parker, "I like the way you turned out." Sophie's concern when Eliot has to throw a boxing match. Eliot clinking his beer against Tara's as he says, "Now you're part of the team." Eliot saying he's got Nate's back "all the way down". Little moments.

That's why I love Leverage.

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(image copyright TNT, used without permission)

Putting the horse back in front

Writing is a series of steps. Have an idea. Develop the idea. Begin writing. Keep writing. Keep keep writing. Finish first draft. Rewrite. Rewrite again. Etc.

After all these steps comes an entirely new set of steps. Write a query. Study the market. Research agents. Rewrite query. Prepare synopsis. Follow submission guidelines. Submit. Wait. Research more agents. Etc.

Everyone makes their way through these steps in their own way. I've been trying to mix-and-match. Researching agents, studying the market, and developing ideas/writing all at the same time. It's not working out for me. When I don't even have a rough draft, it feels like a mistake to spend a big chunk of my too-little time reading blogs and twitter accounts belonging to various agents, editors, and publishers.

These resources are invaluable to writers and I can't say that the time I've already spent reading them and absorbing their advice has been completely wasted. However, it does mean that I'm focusing on steps that pay off until much, much later in the process.

Following these twitter accounts and blogs is less work than actual writing, so I'm not surprised that I've ended up sidetracked by them. It's a way of feeling like a part of the publishing world while remaining firmly perched on the outermost ring of it -- the lurker zone.

Lurking is not writing, and it's writing that I need to do more of. My progress is glacial even when I'm at my most productive, but when I start falling behind it slides into the realm of abysmal. Aside from a handful of notes, I'm no further in my research than I was a month ago. I'm reading the wrong things, not spending enough times reading, and getting distracted -- basically sabotaging myself. If it seems like I'm having to constantly overcome my hangups, that's probably because it's true. At this stage of the game, the only person holding me back is me. And I've had a lifetime to get really good at it.

It comes down to the fact that I need to get focused. I'm at the point now where a zero draft is feasible, so I should be working on it. That means that I'm going to separate myself from my distractions. I'm already on an internet diet, but I think it's time to cut calories. For the time being, that means lowering the number of blogs and twitter accounts (especially twitter accounts) that I read regularly. And, more than that, it means a greater exertion of my willpower to keep distractions at bay.

So here's to my own version of BICHOK (Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard). Engage the mind, sideline distractions, head down, and get to work!

Project Status: The "Sad Realization" Edition

"You are coming to a sad realization. Cancel or allow?"
"... Allow."

The current project status is inspired by what is, in my opinion, the funniest I'm a Mac/I'm a PC commercial that was made.

I don't know if I would call my recent realization "sad", because it's a good realization, but it does mean changing a few things in my mental picture of CHANT.

Originally, I began my story the night before everything changes, before the inciting incident that sets off the story. I kind of knew the whole time I was writing this scene that it was the wrong place to start, but I ignored the sensible little voice in my head. It sounds so much like the little voice of self-sabotage.

Then I read this tweet from literary agent Nicole Resciniti:

"Writing Tip: One and done. If you don't hook the reader in the first page, your book needs to open elsewhere..."

Bolt from the heavens!

This is why I love twitter. Sometimes it gives you the kick in the pants you didn't even know you needed.

So I'm starting CHANT at a later point, fast-forwarding approximately twelve hours in my timeline to start the story just before the inciting event. I think it's the right choice.

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(commercial copyright Apple Inc., used without permission)

Project Status: The Swan Dive Edition

I decided in October of last year to take a step back and try a new approach to my writing. The plan was to research, take notes, outline -- the whole works. It's only been three months, but I'm starting to get itchy. I've done a lot of (very) basic worldbuilding and a lot of research. There's more of both to do, of course, but the scene ideas are starting to pick at my brain. I've sketched out a few pieces here and there, but I'm eager to jump in. So I'm going to.

My hope is that I'm not leaping too soon. I don't want to derail this project by getting tangled up in self-sabotage, but I also don't want to plan and plan and never get anywhere. There's always more worldbuilding and more research that can be done. I need to start writing.

So, starting today: zero draft. This term is one that I'm borrowing from Lilith Saintcrow, who uses it instead of first draft because, "to [her] a first draft is one you can let someone else see". There's less pressure, I think, in writing a zero draft because "Zero drafts are messy and they suck." I can get behind that. The primary rough draft is always going to be terrible, despite whatever romanticized dream of writing we might have. (Mine is that the words of a novel pour forth in pristine, perfect condition. Haha.)

I'm going to write a terrible, awful zero draft. I'm going to keep researching and worldbuilding at the same time and, if all goes according to plan, the drafting should highlight the areas that need more of these things. Updates will be sporadic. I don't have a word count goal because my only goal is to write any words at all.

The temporary title for this project is CHANT, which I chose mainly so I can call it something other than "my project".

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(image adapted from an original by dewittn/Nelson de Witt)

Where do ideas come from?

The frequent question most published authors find themselves dealing with has to do with the origins of their stories. Being asked "Where do you get your ideas?" must be difficult because it doesn't have an easy answer.

Stephen King tells a story in DANSE MACABRE about a girl who he calls Little Miss Nobody. After a fire broke out at a circus in 1944, a young girl's body was found and, despite many attempts, she was never identified. Stephen King uses this story to describe an author's creative method, saying:

"Someone else looks at that item about Little Miss Nobody ... and says, 'Jeez, you never can tell, can you?' and goes on to something else. But the fantasist begins to play with it as a child would, speculating about children from other dimensions, about dopplegangers, about God knows what."

In an essay on the subject, Neil Gaiman said:

"You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it.
...
Sometimes an idea is a person ('There's a boy who wants to know about magic'). Sometimes it's a place ('There's a castle at the end of time, which is the only place there is...'). Sometimes it's an image ('A woman, sifting in a dark room filled with empty faces.')"

If asked, I would say that I get my ideas in a similar manner to what is described by King and Gaiman. Sometimes I come across one sentence in a work of nonfiction, or have one spark of an idea and it'll get me going down the road of What If into all kinds of new directions.

For example, I was reading THE RESURRECTION OF THE ROMANOVS, by Greg King and Penny Wilson, a month or two ago and came across the following quote about the fate of an imperial pretender:

"In 1606, Dimitri was overthrown and killed, his body burned, and his ashes fired from a cannon west, toward Poland [his country of origin]."

This single sentence gave me an idea for a worldbuilding detail for my WiP. It's not important, no more than a brief mention in a single scene, but it helped to make the world come alive in my mind and it inspired other ideas. Looking at it now, I can think of a dozen ways it could have been used to create other stories. This is the way a writer thinks. On the other hand, a non-writer might've thought, "Wow, that's harsh," and gone no further.

In order to generate ideas, we have to train ourselves to think about What If and (as Gaiman adds) If Only and I Wonder. "Those questions, and others like them, and the questions they, in their turn, pose ... are one of the places ideas come from."

Or, at least, mine do. YMMV, and I'd love to hear more about how other people brainstorm ideas. I always love to try out new tricks!