“cloud atlas” by devi laskar

This is the big problem about writing something new: you don’t know everything yet, you may not know what happens in the next chapter, or in the middle of the book, you may not know your ending, or even much of your protagonist.

What you do know is the feeling of excitement and that seed of an idea that you think you can flower into a book.  What you do know is that you have something to say, and now you have to find the best words in the best order and make it happen. Don’t lose that feeling!

All great ideas start off this way, and it’s persistence that makes them grow. One way to keep that little seed growing is to take the concrete around you and use it as scaffolding for your book.

I’m bequeathing my “concrete” for today to all those who are reading this blog – take this stuff and use it, and one day, fifty years from now, some poor graduate student will hopefully “compare and contrast” our books. 🙂

Exercise: Look out the window, and notice the weather, the temperature, the color of the sky, the way the light (or fog) is hitting the mountain or the grass or the asphalt. This is what Janet Fitch calls landscape. Now, have your protagonist talk about something he knows nothing (particle physics, time travel, the unpublished work of the French photographer Atget) with the same authority as he knows what day of the week it is, what time of day it is, and how cold it is outside. Limit yourself to 50 words, two sensate details and one killer line of dialogue!

And if you get a chance, post it on the BWW. I’d love to read it, and I promise to comment on each submission 🙂