by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’m going to spend the next few weeks doing the reading and development that I did not get around to doing when I started this massive project. Each character, idea and place associated with the first novel now has its own document and I’m going to go through and write out something concrete about them.
This way, I will know what my canon is.
Another aspect of doing development is I can better understand, in concrete terms, what the motivation of the different characters is. Plot tends to spring from character and motivation and by locking down such basic things, the plot will flow a lot a better.
This is going to be a lot of work. But it will be worth it if it helps take the final product to the next level. I have invested a great deal in all of this and I need prove to myself — if nothing else — that I can get within shouting distance of something as good as what Gillian Flynn might write.
But what Flynn writes is so tight that Gone Girl-style writing is very aspirational for me. And, yet, I have to accept that it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever get anywhere near that.
I’m much more of a Stieg Larsson-type writer than I am Flynn. But I really believe in what I’m doing and things should move a lot faster once I get this basic development down.
