S. L. Gore

Chapter by chapter the story reveals itself

March 20, 2013 at 1:42 am 2 comments

People ask me how I write. The mechanics of it. Some authors apparently work 8 hours. Some work with the goal of 1,000 words a day. A chapter a day is my goal. That’s an average of 1500-2000 words, although a long chapter can be 3,000 words. New material.

I can do it in 2-3 hours if it’s action and dialogue. If there’s a lot of detail, special terminology, or facts I want to present in a way that’s not lecturing, it takes me longer. Of course, I usually spend time editing the new material the day I write. That’s on top.

But before I take The Black Scroll into the next part of the story, I go back over the chapter from the day before, beefing up certain parts, sucking as much emotion and eliciting as much drama as I can from every scene. Sometimes I have to do more research, like what kind of weapon would a young Libyan thuwar use – or what handgun would the General gift to Isis?

Then, when I think I’ve got a tight chapter that I’m pretty happy with, I go to my new blank page.

It’s not blank though. It says Chapter 29, for example, followed by XXXXX. On the next line is xxxxx which is a holder for the appropriate Roman quote I’ll plug in. Following that is a new paragraph ‘XXXX.’  This is where the new material begins. The story continues.

I seldom know the title of the chapter until I’ve written a while. Maybe halfway, maybe even to the end. Many authors don’t title their chapters, but  I do. I think of each as mini-stories with their own lives. It seems fitting that they should be named, given their own identities.

Sometimes I know right away what quote I’ll use. When that happens, the quote guides the story. If not, from the list of 550 quotes I’ve collected, I find the one that communicates the theme of the chapter I’ve just written. But more often than not, the quote guides me, perhaps acting as a conduit to my sub conscience.

For it is my belief that the sub conscience is the source – the ever-flowing well-spring – of  my stories. Where does the sub conscious get the stories? My past? A collective past? Or is fantasy the result of a kind of cosmic alchemy that blends everything I’ve ever read or heard or experienced into my own personal Akashic records? I can’t say with certainty. But almost any writer should say something similar. If they’re honest. If they write original material.

So I have more questions than answers. Pretty typical for me. But so far, it’s working. O Muses! Continue to sing!

BTW, I’m at about 72K words and ready to start page 220, Chapter 33. 

Entry filed under: Sandra's Comments, The Isis Trilogy. Tags: Egypt, Roman, The Black Scroll.