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Writing

Hook Your Readers With the “Ice Monster” Prologue

At the beginning of your story, you need to set up all of the cool stuff that’s going to happen in a hundred pages. You do this with exposition. However, if you’re going to lose your readers at any point, it’s most likely to be here. Take too long with your exposition or lore-dump too quickly, and your readers will abandon your story before you can get to the good part. So brevity is important in this section.

But you can only cut so much exposition without sacrificing payoff later down the line. So how do you buy yourself some time? How can you promise to your readers, “I’m going to tell you a really cool and really exciting story, if you’ll just bear with me for a moment?”

Consider a concept which I’ve learned from a lecture from Dan Wells: the “Ice Monster” prologue. This strategy gets its name from A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. If you’ve read the book or seen the show, you know that we open on three men travelling into a dangerous land and dying at the hands of ice monsters. The prologue is beautifully written, and it promises that we’re about to read a story involving action and magic. Thus, we are willing to take some time and learn about more mundane, factual matters in the pages following. We stick through the introduction to Winterfell, the Starks, and Westeros as a whole because of what the prologue has promised us. And about a hundred pages later, Martin gives us another action hook. I would be surprised if anyone didn’t finish reading the book after this point.

This tactic is incredibly common, and numerous examples can easily be found. As such, this has become somewhat of a trope in the science-fiction/fantasy genre. But tropes are popular for a reason.

Let’s take a look at another example. Would we stick around with Luke Skywalker at the beginning of A New Hope if we spent the first thirty minutes of the movie learning about his life as a moisture farmer on Tatooine? Maybe, but far more captivating is first getting an introduction to our villain, Darth Vader, as he cuts down rebels on Leia Organa’s starship. We’re promised action, adventure, and cool laser swords. What’s important here, too, is that our prologue intersects with our main character very shortly. R2-D2 and C-3PO arrive on Tatooine after the action in space, so we know that Luke will be involved in the action soon. The movie promises us, “Hey, more cool stuff is going to happen. But bear with us while Luke learns about the Jedi.”

I’ve employed this concept in my current manuscript, A BOY FROM NORRU. My main character Alix Pelior begins as an apprentice spaceship mechanic to a demanding master. He wants to leave his life of grueling labor, but his overthinking scares him into inaction. That all changes when he accidentally stows away on board the ship of an infamous smuggler-thief. Now, if I began the story showing Alix’s day-to-day life, that could be an interesting opening. However, the excitement really begins with his meeting the smuggler. So how do I infuse the beginning with more action?

Before shifting the scope to Alix, I start by focusing on the smuggler-thief in a heist gone awry. There, we’re introduced to the main plot conflict, which Alix will eventually have to deal with. But I need to lay out the exposition before I can get there, so I indicate to my readers, “This is going to be a fast-paced, heist-filled romp through space, but first, bear with me while I tell you about this kid.”

I intend on utilizing this same tactic again in future manuscripts. Hopefully, this concept helps you in your own writing, whether in short or long form, whether for novels or for stage or screen. And as always, keep writing!

– AJG

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Writing

My Own Blend of Outlining and Discovery Writing

Outliners, otherwise known as architects or plotters, plan the entirety of their story ahead of time. Discovery writers, otherwise known as gardeners or pantsers, find their story through the writing process. I wrote an article fleshing out these ideas in more detail, which you can read here. In that article, I concluded that most people fall somewhere in a spectrum between the two identities. These concepts should function as tools to find what works best for you, even if your strategy wouldn’t work for someone else.

After much experimentation and tweaking, I’ve settled into a process that works best for me. Although I’ve maintained this same set of strategies for a while now, I’ve only recently thought to take pen to paper (so to speak) and clearly define every step. I haven’t heard or read of anyone that uses these exact same methods, although I’m sure plenty of people do.

What follows is a description of what works best for me. Determining my position in the spectrum between outlining and discovery writing helped me find my personal practice, but please note that my methods may not work for you.

1. Outlining and Worldbuilding

Before I pen a single word of my story, I always create two documents. The outline defines the major plot beats of the actual story, and it gives a preliminary glance at the struggles of the key players involved. The worldbuilding document focuses on setting alone. I could write an entire separate article, and probably will, about the strategies I use to create each of these.

Sometimes the worldbuilding comes first, sometimes the outline does. To use my most recent project as an example, I started worldbuilding for A BOY FROM NORRU a solid three months before I started outlining. I had an idea for several settings and several factions, but I didn’t have a story to tell in that galaxy yet. Later, separate character and plot ideas coalesced, and I realized that they would fit perfectly into the galaxy I’d created previously.

But the key point for each of these documents is that I do not get overly detailed. Or, if I do, I don’t remain too attached to anything. More on this in the next section.

2. Beginning the Story

I have my plot, character, and setting ideas. With those settled, I don’t need to worry about my brainstorming time bleeding into my writing time. I pick the latest moment that I could begin my story, and I start there. I don’t stop to edit; I can just go.

However, since neither of my preparatory documents were too set in stone, I still have room to explore. If I feel a character trying to move in another direction, I can allow them that, even if it feels antithetical to my overarching plot goals.

I write and write and write until the scene is done, or the chapter, or I get tired. And then, I move on to step three.

3. Back to the Drawing Board

Now, we’re back to the strategies of the outliners. To use the example from the last step, say I’ve let my character stray from the plot. Now that my writing time is over, I can take time to critique. What puzzle pieces can I connect to bring the character back to the plot? Or what plot changes need be made to accommodate for this character?

This phase usually takes place during the latter half of my work day, or when I’m on a walk, working out, cooking, and so on. I solve issues, continue fleshing out the story in my head, and connect dots that I would never have seen before beginning the writing process.

And then, I write some more.

4. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

I flit back and forth between writing time and brainstorming time until the first draft is done. At that point, I begin the editing process, which is easier for the fact that I have a more polished first draft than would a traditional discovery writer.

There you have it. I switch between the outliners’ strategy and that of the discovery writers’. Outliners do most of their non-writing work on the front end. Discovery writers do it on the back end. What makes my process unique from others that I’ve seen is that I do most of my non-writing work in the middle, alongside the writing itself.

Benefits and Dangers

My writing process does have one major pitfall to be avoided. To employ these strategies, one must be entirely committed to separating writing time and brainstorming time. Allowing the latter to bleed into the former can significantly hinder progress, especially if one has never finished a manuscript before. The common advice of “just write” is intended to help beginning novelists form a writing practice. And if one adopted the methods I’ve described before developing that practice, one might get too hung up on making every word perfect rather than finishing their story. This pitfall can only be avoided if one is entirely committed to turning off their critique voice when it’s time to write.

Fortunately, there are many benefits to this practice, too. I’ve found that my first drafts are significantly more polished now than those I’ve written in the style of discovery writers. Yet I don’t have to wait as long as outliners to get to the fun bit, which is actually writing the story. Plus, I really enjoy daydreaming about what comes next in my story while I’m doing other things.

If you think that this process may work for you, try interspersing periods of plotting, brainstorming, worldbuilding, and editing between your writing times. Try switching between your gardener brain and architect brain. Tweak and refine, and soon, you’ll find what works best for you, and you’ll have a writing process that’s uniquely your own.

– AJG

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Writing

Are You An Architect Or A Gardener? (Outlining vs. Discovery Writing)

George R.R. Martin famously said, “I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners.” One type of writer plans everything about their story ahead of time, as an architect blueprints a building. The other type of writer, the gardener, plants seeds. They water and nurture these seeds through their writing until they have a story. This metaphor does not illustrate a new concept; there are other terms that point to the same ideas. For example, architects and gardeners have also been called planners and pantsers. Nonetheless, Martin’s metaphor does illustrate the concept well. His quote is a useful starting point for determining whether you’re a writer who prefers outlining or discovery writing.

Outlining

How does one create an outline? This is a difficult question to answer because there are an infinite number of correct ways to do so. Each writer is going to outline differently. What helps one writer in their outline may actively hinder another. A better question would be: why would one outline?

A writer might create an outline so that they can get all of the technical bits out of the way before they sit down in front of a blank page. You already know what’s going to happen, and you already know your characters’ motivations. Thus, you can clack away at your keyboard without worrying about what happens next.

Additionally, an outliner will likely have a more cohesive story by the end of their first draft than would a discovery writer. The gardener will need to do more work on the back end of the story, trimming the plants they’ve grown.

One shortcoming of outlining is that sometimes, it may cause you to get stuck in your pre-writing phase. When does the worldbuilding end? At a certain point, no more good can be done by planning and plotting. You just need to write. But all your outlining might make you feel pressured to write the perfect words and nothing else. Unfortunately, this is impossible. Your first drafts will need work. The sooner you finish them, the sooner you can get to doing this work. Get out of your own way, and let the writing happen.

Discovery Writing

You’ve got a vague idea of some characters. You’ve got a setting, more or less. You know your genre. And you’ve got an inkling of an idea that makes you really excited. If you’re a discovery writer, you don’t need anything else.

Discovery writing is a great way of making sure you get words on the page. The book unfolds as you write. You keep putting your characters in new situations without determining ahead of time how they’re going to get out. This can also keep you excited, as even you don’t know what’s going to happen next.

But what happens when you realize you took a wrong turn some 10k words ago? Will you have the strength to move those words to a separate document (don’t delete them!) and start over? Or will you close out the manuscript, never to touch it again?

Say you do have the strength to keep trucking forward. When you reach the end of the draft, will you have the patience to go back and make sense of your messy manuscript? Editing a full page is easier than editing a blank one. But seeing your story in a state of such disarray can get discouraging, and you may fall into a negative line of thinking. You may abandon what you deem to be a “bad story,” that really just needs tuning up.

Which Method Is Right For You?

More than likely, the answer to this question is… both! In varying degrees. You see, architects and gardeners rarely exist in absolute forms. Rather, these terms should be used to indicate a spectrum. One may consider themselves an architect or a gardener, but they’ll still utilize tricks from the other side as necessary. Even in Martin’s quote, he says he’s “more a gardener than an architect” (italics mine). Not completely one or the other.

In my own writing, I’ve found that I need a basic outline. I need to determine a few qualities about each of my characters. I need an idea of the major plot beats. And I need much of the setting details ahead of time. With these, I can sit down in front of a blank page with confidence. The dots are there; I just need to connect them.

And in connecting them, I discover new character traits and motivations. New intrigues in my plot. Nooks and crannies in my setting that I couldn’t see ahead of time.

Will this work for you? Maybe. There’s only one way to find out. Try it! Or try something else, something that you suspect would work for you. In reading this article, I’m sure you already have an idea what you might prefer.

So write and experiment. Have faith, and keep at it.

– AJG

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