Tag Archives: novel writing process

Top Down Planning vs Tinkering

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Okay, last post I got so carried away with one direction that Black Swan author Nassim Taleb took me with his recommendation that we adjust to the existence of Black Swan events rather than try to predict them, that I never got around to relaying how he suggested we do this adjusting.

He’s big on “anti-knowledge,” that is, what we don’t know is actually more important than what we do know. Which is ironic given how much people value knowing stuff. (This fits into the spiritual life as well… what we don’t know about God is surely more important than what we do, since we’ll be learning about Him for the rest of eternity). So if focusing on what you don’t know is the key, how does he suggest we do this?

“Among many other benefits, you can set yourself up to collect serendipitous Black Swans (of the positive kind) by maximizing your exposure to them…[C]ontrary to social-science wisdom, almost no discovery, no technologies of note, came from design and planning — they were just Black Swans. The strategy for the discoverers and entrepreneurs is to rely less on top-down planning and focus on maximum tinkering and recognizing opportunities when they present themselves…”

Aha! Perfect justification for my lack of “top-down planning” when writing a book. It’s the random stuff, the stuff you can’t predict, the things your subconscious brings out that interest you that you had no idea were interesting that make the book itself interesting. At least I think so. And if you don’t know you think something is interesting, how are you going to plan it out? So this whole line of thinking, which I don’t feel like I’ve really set down clearly, lets me see more clearly why doing it the way I’ve been doing it isn’t such a bad thing after all.

I need to tinker, recognize the good bits when they come, and also, he says at some other point in the book, have plenty of down time to think and play and just be mindless if I need to.

Not that I’ve had any time to do anything remotely like tinkering when it comes to the next book, but when the current season of events in my life comes to a close and I get back to writing, I’ll be ready.

The Other Side of the Sky

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Well, I think I’ve come to a final decision regarding which book I’m going to pursue in terms of writing a proposal and that’s my original plan, which is to do The Other Side of the Sky. What happened?

Well, I had so many interruptions ever since I had my little emotional surge about characters for The Next Book, as I’d jokingly titled it, that the emotion died away, and the more I thought the blanker I got. Actually I didn’t have time to think much at all. I kept asking the Lord what He wanted me to do, and then there was the leaky pipe, the broken swamp cooler, my glasses breaking, my mother’s many doctor’s appointments — She is getting cataract surgery in a couple of weeks. She also has pain in her leg and back and they wanted to see if it was bone cancer. It’s not. Then a fracture. Apparently not that, either. Now they want to do an MRI. She can’t lift her leg enough to put it on the brake when she drives, so I’ve been taking her places. Which I’m happy to do. It just takes time from the book, which I’m sure is what God wanted all along. Not that it’s all about the book; God’s plans always produce many outworkings.

But in the case of the book, all those interruptions gave me time to simmer things. On Friday I found that all my fire and conviction for the suspense book had left and I asked myself, Did I leave off of Sky prematurely? Without sufficient justification?  All I did was start reading the first page of my rough-draft Prologue, decided it was too complex, had too many “weird” words and went off in search of something easier and maybe more commercially viable. But how can I say was is going to be commercially viable really? I suppose I could do Amish romances since anything Amish is kind of like anything dragon or vampire. They sell like hotcakes. The Amish Dragon…Dragon Among the Amish… A Plain Country Vampire…

I don’t think I could write about the Amish. Or vampires…

Anyway, I suddenly realized that I’d kept a journal of how I’d come to start Sky in in the first place and went looking for it. What I read blew me away.

It was early March in 2001. Arena had just been bought by Bethany House and was due to release in a year and a half. I had my next project to consider, for I knew they’d soon be asking me for my next book. For the previous seven months I’d been working on The Enclave, then called Black Box, having devised it in the event that BHP turned down Arena. As I’ve said elsewhere it was supposed to be a bridge book from where the market was then to Arena.

But then Arena sold and the need for a bridge book vanished. I was talking to my editor at BHP about it all, and he told me to send him what I had on Black Box. I only had half-formed ideas, but he urged me to send it on anyway.

Here’s my entry the day after I sent it:

11 March 2001 Sunday. Late yesterday afternoon I emailed a sort of proposal/synopsis of Black Box to Steve. He rejected it. It took him all of about three minutes. Not what he’s looking for. Not at all like Arena… Not SF… Cliched. The cult idea doesn’t work for him.

I was deeply disappointed. Shocked. I spent today thrashing it out. Should I ignore him and keep at it? Do I just want to try to get a sale or am I truly “creating” here? Was I wrong to send what I sent? Is this just an obstacle, or is it guidance? I wrote seven pages on it. I drew up an outline of the timing.

I felt hurt, betrayed, cranky, depressed. I don’t think I was wrong to send it to him, even knowing it was unformed and unfinished. I was afraid he’d jump to conclusions and reject it without really knowing what it was… but… after concluding that I would proceed on Box business-as-usual unless the Lord showed me otherwise… I now wonder if maybe He IS showing me otherwise. I started thinking of other ideas I could float.. I still have a lot of time to do something before Arena comes out and they’re going to want that second book…

Then I saw a blurb in my Mt. Hermon notes: “BHP lives by their backlist. Very few of their fiction goes out of print. They don’t want it to. They try to build reader loyalty for their authors. It’s important, therefore, not to jump around in genres… ” What is needed now is a bridge to Light of Eidon…

I just checked my work output on Box from August through December — only 81 days of actually working —  not quite 3 months. Maybe this is more of guidance than I thought.

From Bible class:  “Endurance is the ability to persist. Even if it means starting over!”

Maybe all the troubles last fall were to keep me from going too far with Box…

12 March 2001 Monday.  Wow! It’s like I’ve been set free! The world and concept for a new book came almost at once — borrowed from Box and Arena. Also the title::  The Far Side of the Sky. I’m excited about it. There’s so much more freedom here to do the things I want to do. Gladiator music even fits! Whoo hoo! SF allegory, totally different world. I love it!

Later — 9:30pm … And now I’m feeling reluctant to commit. What if I throw myself into this new one and Steve doesn’t like it, either? But can I devise a proposal or synopsis that would be original and intriguing if I didn’t?  Is it just a matter of faith? Just commit completely as unto the Lord, trusting Him to make the work bear fruit. You do the work for Him, not man’s approval.

Love the Lord with all your heart. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all of your soul/heart/mind/strength. BUT LEAVE THE RESULTS WITH GOD. You say, “But this is not what I consider to be successful!” Well, it’s not what you consider to be successful that’s important, it’s what God does.

Having read all that, I felt strongly that Sky was the direction to go. I got all my notes and chapters and cards out and was overwhelmed by all the material I had. Now I just need to figure out how to get back into it…