Forum: Author Hangout

What do You Remember?

Uther_Pendragon 🚫

When you have your characters moving through a house, you have to have some sort of a floor-plan of that house in your mind. Otherwise, they wil move through one hose in chapter 3 and another house in chapter 8.

It wasn't until I was writing _Heart Ball_ that I realized that I was always using the same floor-plan. Usually, that doesn't matter; if the house is really important, what makes it important generates another floor plan.

In _Heart Ball_, though, the f-lead babysits; that takes her into numerous houses. They can't plausibly all have the same design.

Where this leads back to the subject of the post is that I have *never* set this plan to paper. It's entirely, and indelibly, in my mind.

On the other hand, I start a story by opening a folder, copying in a blank Word document and a blank notepad file, and then open a Notepad file called "Names."

That's where I keep the names of the protagonists, their relations and co-workers, and the other characters.

Even so, Denny caught my switching names of the (maybe) 4th most important character in the long story to start next.

I keep a floor plan in my head forever; I can't keep the names of the characters straight.

Actually, the names are the things about the characters I have the most trouble keeping straight; I can hear their voices; I know what they'd never do.

The Brennan story running now involves 6 major characters; two of them have been featured in 25 previous stories, several hundred thousand words. The others come in and out or grow up. I almost never go back to see how the character would react.

(One thing I have put in lists -- none available to me now -- is the words each character would use for what might be called "sex things." Penis, cock, rod; breast, boob, tit; condom, rubber, contraceptive.)

So, what do you remember easily, and what do you need to write down?

Replies: Ernest Bywater Ernest Bywater Reluctant_Sir Vincent Berg

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Uther_Pendragon

In _Heart Ball_, though, the f-lead babysits; that takes her into numerous houses. They can't plausibly all have the same design.

It's obvious you've not been in some of the medium sized housing estates where the developer uses two or three house plans and just rotates them along the street for the entire development. A real good one will take three plans and do mirror reverses of them to give himself six variants to build.

Replies: Uther_Pendragon

Uther_Pendragon 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

It's obvious you've not been in some of the medium sized housing estates where the developer uses two or three house plans and just rotates them along the street for the entire development. A real good one will take three plans and do mirror reverses of them to give himself six variants to build.

I actually thought of that. This story, however, takes place in a small town built over the years. It's not the result of one developer, and even the outer shape of houses changes over time -- one-story to higher and back again -- in real towns.

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Uther_Pendragon

So, what do you remember easily, and what do you need to write down?

While writing the story I have a notes section at the back with the character names and important points. If the list gets big enough it because a cast list I include, if not it gets deleted at the completion of the story.

I do building and grounds plans when they're important, and I'll often include them in the story as an image.

Replies: Keet

Keet 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

I do building and grounds plans when they're important, and I'll often include them in the story as an image.

I like that a lot. Sometimes descriptions are just to vague or complex to get a good idea of what something looks like. Your included images solve that perfectly.

Replies: Ernest Bywater

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Keet

Your included images solve that perfectly.

I'm glad someone likes them, because they take a lot of time and trouble to get right in the spreadsheet and then more work to create a jpeg image of it. I started it because a reader asked for one. I do try hard to get the perspectives right, but sometimes I have to let that slide to get it all in, but that's not often. I also make higher quality copies available on Dropbox and give the link for those who want to use it.

Replies: Keet Vincent Berg gruntsgt

Keet 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

because they take a lot of time and trouble to get right in the spreadsheet

You're drawing floor plans in a spreadsheet? That must be grueling work to do.
A tip for you: SweetHome3D. It's open source available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Create the floor plan, take a screen shot and you're done.

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

I'm glad someone likes them, because they take a lot of time and trouble to get right in the spreadsheet and then more work to create a jpeg image of it. I started it because a reader asked for one. I do try hard to get the perspectives right, but sometimes I have to let that slide to get it all in, but that's not often. I also make higher quality copies available on Dropbox and give the link for those who want to use it.

You might want to try one of the simpler (i.e. "Free") CAD/CAM programs where users can plan out the layout of their homes in order to arrange furniture for their optimal placement. That way, you could arrange everything, including showing where various tables, chairs and tables are, and then simply do a screen capture, rather than sketching them all in a crude draw program.

Just sayin'.

gruntsgt 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

If you ever get around to it (please, hint hint)layouts for the stronghold on Chaos in "Shiloh" with the fortifications.Thanks.

Ross at Play 🚫

As an editor, I consider that a story-specific style guide is (almost) a practical necessity for any author hoping to achieve a high level of consistency for a lengthy story.

The OP noted they maintain a record of the sex words various characters tend to use. That could be extended to a range of speech patterns and other mannerisms of different characters.

I would also use that to record various format choices, for example, do ellipses and dashes have spaces on both sides?, what does it mean when those are used in dialogue?, how do you distinguish in dialogue between acronyms which are spoken as if a word or with the letters spelt out?

The point should be to have some place to record all such choices - as they are being made! I think it's the only viable approach for an author with multiple editors/proofreaders to ensure they all know what your preferences are. It may seem like extra effort to begin with, but that won't last long because the style guide from one story can be used as the template for later stories.

Reluctant_Sir 🚫

@Uther_Pendragon

I am usually good with most details within the story, holding floorplans for the house, office, girlfriends house etc with no issues.

I do, however, keep a cast list for all of the second and third tier character names and where they were encountered and I refer to it regularly to keep myself from reusing names. For some reason, I have a real issue with that! How many Jim's can you have before things get confusing? ONE (unless it is a plot point)

What about afterwards?

I honestly don't remember the plots or characters in some of my old stories. I went back last week because a reader found an error and I wanted to correct it

I read the story, as I read, it all came back to me, even some of the motivations and emotions, but I could not have sat down and told you the story just the day before.

There are other stories that I have posted that I couldn't describe to you even now without reading them first.

Replies: Vincent Berg Uther_Pendragon

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Reluctant_Sir

What about afterwards?

I honestly don't remember the plots or characters in some of my old stories. I went back last week because a reader found an error and I wanted to correct it

I read the story, as I read, it all came back to me, even some of the motivations and emotions, but I could not have sat down and told you the story just the day before.

I'm the opposite, I never plot out a story, though I do maintain active character, motivation lists and timelines. However, I can usually remember what happens in each story, as I 'lived' in that world for long periods of my life. Sometimes, like you, I have trouble remembering the particulars, but it doesn't take much to bring them sweeping back in.

In fact, I usually remember in so much detail, that I don't even need to reread a story when I write a sequel, because the details are so fresh in my mind, even when it's been years since I wrote the initial story.

My biggest problem, though, is inadvertently switching character names. So "Al" becomes "Alex", or "Sue" becomes "Betty", all of whom are main or secondary characters from different stories. Luckily, my editors catch most of those errors.

Replies: Reluctant_Sir Uther_Pendragon

Reluctant_Sir 🚫
Updated:

@Vincent Berg

My biggest problem, though, is inadvertently switching character names. So "Al" becomes "Alex", or "Sue" becomes "Betty"

Oh man... the story I am posting now, I decided to have some fun with the names.

The main character is Jack who gets semi-adopted by Jake. Jake has a bodyguard named Dave who recruits a bodyguard for Jack named Dean. Then, when Jack gets a girl, they find a bodyguard for her named Deb. Jack and Jake, Dave, Dean and Deb.

No one else thinks it is odd except for the MC and it becomes a bit of an obsession with him, in a humorous way, of course. I didn't push it too far, but you can imagine when you are in the groove and are swapping names left and right and never realizing it.

And I did it all to myself too.

Replies: REP

REP 🚫

@Reluctant_Sir

I decided to have some fun with the names.

That is interesting. During the early part of the story I'm now working on, I decided to work the titles of SOL stories into my text. I got tired of it after a couple of chapters and stopped.

Anyone else have fun with their stories like that?

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@REP

That is interesting. During the early part of the story I'm now working on, I decided to work the titles of SOL stories into my text. I got tired of it after a couple of chapters and stopped.

Anyone else have fun with their stories like that?

That's not so unusual, as many famous authors end us using the title somewhere in the book, often near the end, to summarize how they interpret their entire adventure.

And while I haven't done that with each chapter, I do enjoy having fun naming chapters. So much so, I can't even imagine not naming chapters, so between chapter titles, the epilogues, which provide a surreptitious explanation of the chapter, writing the chapter outline on the fly is half the fun!

Replies: REP

REP 🚫

@Vincent Berg

If I was not clear, I was talking about the titles of stories written by other authors.

Replies: Not_a_ID

Not_a_ID 🚫

@REP

If I was not clear, I was talking about the titles of stories written by other authors.

And here I thought you were simply joisting.

Uther_Pendragon 🚫

@Vincent Berg

In fact, I usually remember in so much detail, that I don't even need to reread a story when I write a sequel, because the details are so fresh in my mind, even when it's been years since I wrote the initial story.

My biggest problem, though, is inadvertently switching character names. So "Al" becomes "Alex", or "Sue" becomes "Betty", all of whom are main or secondary characters from different stories. Luckily, my editors catch most of those errors.

That could have been me writing that.

Uther_Pendragon 🚫

@Reluctant_Sir

where they were encountered and I refer to it regularly to keep myself from reusing names. For some reason, I have a real issue with that! How many Jim's can you have before things get confusing? ONE (unless it is a plot point)

Third tier?
After I wrote the first post, I did some work on a future story -- inserting the editor's changes and changing the importance of page: break lines for POV shifts to scene shifts.
While doing that, I noticed that the *heroine's* name had changed for a few paragraphs.
And this was a story in which I used the heroine's name for a working title.

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Uther_Pendragon

This isn't about what I 'remember', but I agree with you about floor plans. Most of my stories feature the house the main character lives in having the living quarters on the ground floor, and the bedrooms upstairs—meaning they're all essentially the exact same house, despite my having lived in multiple houses during my life, all of which had completely different floor plans.

The quickest solution to this is to start visiting online floor plans and keeping a collection you can use for each new story. I've never done this myself, but it makes sense. The only one I know who does flesh out floor plans in Ernest, who frequently posts his floor plans within his stories (usually as a separate post in his blogs).

richardshagrin 🚫

Our sun, SOL, shares its name with our story site.

Ernest Bywater 🚫

Despite having a few cad/cam programs I use a spreadsheet program for the house plans because it's damn easy to draw boxes in it and most houses are a set of boxes put together. When I started drawing plans I wanted a program that was easy to use and worked on both Linux and Windows, and at that time free cad/cam programs didn't work on both.

I'll get around to doing some plans for Shiloh at some point, then I'll make them available on Dropbox.

Replies: Vincent Berg Keet

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

I'll get around to doing some plans for Shiloh at some point, then I'll make them available on Dropbox.

Now that SOL supports in-story high-res images, you might as well include them in the stories. That way, everyone can enjoy them, even if they don't know enough to continually check your blog posts.

Replies: Ernest Bywater

Ernest Bywater 🚫

@Vincent Berg

Now that SOL supports in-story high-res images, you might as well include them in the stories.

That would require me to reports parts of the story to include them, although I may get away with putting them up as an extra page or something. But I got to find the time to get them done first.

Keet 🚫

@Ernest Bywater

Despite having a few cad/cam programs I use a spreadsheet program for the house plans because it's damn easy to draw boxes in it and most houses are a set of boxes put together. When I started drawing plans I wanted a program that was easy to use and worked on both Linux and Windows, and at that time free cad/cam programs didn't work on both.

If you want easy then the program I mentioned is way easier then working in a spreadsheet. Click walls in the toolbar and drag your walls, done. It keeps the walls strait if you want so a box is easy. Works on Windows, Mac and Linux and is totally free. I use it a lot before moving furniture. It's a lot easier then dragging a couch around and ending up in the same place as it was.
SweetHome3D

awnlee jawking 🚫

If you treat the readers to the minute details of a house's floorplan, doesn't that mean you're obliged to use it to kill characters? ;)

AJ

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@awnlee jawking

If you treat the readers to the minute details of a house's floorplan, doesn't that mean you're obliged to use it to kill characters? ;)

Only if the floor plans are displayed over the mantle when the protagonist first walks in.

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Forum: Author Hangout

What do You Remember?

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