My Writing Process: Steps 8, 9 & 10 #WritingTips | Renee Scattergood

Originally posted by Renee Scattergood:

If you haven’t already, first read:

Step 1 | Step 2 | Steps 3 & 4 | Step 5 | Step 6 | Step 7

This week I’ve combined Steps 8 through 10 since they are simple steps.

Step 8 has two parts.

First, for each of the events that I’ve put in narrative order, I add to the label who will be the point of view character for each event.

The second part is a little more involved. This is where I set motifs throughout the story. A motif is a repeating event that gains meaning every time it happens in the story or the meaning might not be apparent until the end of the story. For instance, in The Sixth Sense when you see the color red pop up throughout the movie and later you learn that the color red appears in every scene where there is a ghost.

The motif can be anything: a sound, color, word or phrase, an image or picture, etc.

Not all stories have to have a motif. I don’t always add them to mine, so if it doesn’t have one, I will just skip this part.

Step 8 generally takes me less than an hour to complete.

For Step 9, I answer the last set of questions on BeemGee. This helps to finish fleshing out the main characters. As before, check out the BeemGee site for a more in-depth description of each question.

Question #1: What core emotion would you say describes your character?

Question #2: List three contradictory character traits for each main character and two for supporting characters. For example: honest, but sneaky

Question #3: Where is your character from?

Question #4: What is your character’s social background? For instance, was he wealthy or poor? Spoiled or well-rounded? Etc.

Question #5: What are your character’s beliefs and values?

Question #6: How do the character’s emotions and beliefs affect his actions or behavior?

Question #7: Does your character have an odd way of speaking? If so, describe it.

Question #8: What are your character’s views towards sex and romantic relationships?

Question #9: Does the character’s intelligence influence his behavior?

Question #10: What are the character’s interests and/or preoccupations?

Question #11: What is the character’s perception of the world around him?

Question #12: Does the character have any quirks or odd mannerisms? What are they?

Question #13: How old is the character?

It takes me about an hour to two hours to answer these questions for each character.

Step 10 is really simple. I create character files in Scrivener and add all the information I’ve gathered so far. This can take a few hours depending on how many characters I have and how much information I need to add.

Next week I’ll get into Step 11, which involves getting started with the outline. If you don’t want to miss the next step, sign up to the right to get my blog posts in your email. Until next week, happy writing!

Oh, and if you’ve been trying out my writing process, let me know how it’s been working for you below!