Steve Martin

A time-honored sage once said 'there is at least one good book in all of us' or words to that effect.

However I must have dozed off during the explanation of how to go about extracting that 'one good one' from within. For reasons still unclear I decided to follow that piece of wisdom and venture down my own path of extraction. No-one mentioned the pitfalls hidden along the way.

Not all the pits that would-be 'one good one' extractors are likely to encounter are bottomless. Some have tigers and bears pacing the dark recesses of the pit floor; waiting to tear the ego out of the novel novelists as they teeter on the precipice of success, clutching at what at one point seemed to be a good idea by their fingernails.

Beware the tigers at the bottom of the pit

Other pits are a seething mass of writhing snakes that cleverly disguise themselves as ladders offering a way out, before morphing into their true form. They sink their fangs into the would-be extractor who is perched preciously on the rim of success only to slide back into the pit to wallow in self-pity with a bashed and battered ego.

What are these pitfalls and are they avoidable?

Pit No 1 - The Great Unknown

This is a bottomless pit. I am still venturing down this path of tumultuous and excruciating self-torture and a successful extraction lies on a distant horizon. Consequently I am blissfully ignorant of the total number and types of pits lying ahead.

Pit No 2 - Oh Shame all ye Doubting Thomases

Doubt - about writing style, characters and plot. How can a would-be extractor be confident anyone will find these essential ingredients interesting enough to read, let alone part with some of the hard-earned necessary for the privilege?

Success is the obvious solution, however success requires a finished product, and doubt hinders that.

Doubt can freeze the keyboard and solidify the ink in the pen, leaving the extractor staring at a blank page or out the window, leaving the unfinished product stuck in a quagmire.

So the extractor ventures off the path in search of feedback. Positive or negative, as long as it is constructive feedback is priceless. However sources of feedback for an unfinished product are limited.

Short story competitions are one way of developing writing style, characters and plot. If the entry wins a prize there is a fair chance all three worked, which is sufficient feedback in itself. If not, feedback is limited, which leaves writing groups, either on-line or face to face. Writing groups offer reciprocal feedback arrangements for would-be extractors. I have been an active participant of writing.com for five years and some of the feedback I have received has been priceless, dispelling some of the doubt and keeping the nib pushing across the page.

Pit No 3 - Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder but Not the Book Longer

Another sage once suggested variety is the spice of life. Without placing myself on a pedestal, somewhere along the line I latched onto the notion that I had at least 'three good ones' in me. So here I am working on my three good ones, stories for competitions, pieces written for feedback and reciprocating. I also have a real job (but do need a haircut).

The obvious answer is to concentrate on that 'one good one' and consign the others to the ideas book. However this would open the door for doubt monster to rise again leaving the same questions unanswered ad nausea - is the writing style interesting, are the characters intriguing and so and so on?

Pit No 4 - a Plethora of Lost Treasure

I find I think better if I write what I am thinking. Consequently each of my 'good ones' graduated from an ideas book into a series of unrelated ramblings in an exercise book.

Thankfully I used separate books for each project. These ramblings included thoughts on plot, sub -plot, characters, setting and all the 'what ifs.' Each thought following on from the one previous.

In addition I kept a separate 'characters book' that in reality became a dust collector in the bookshelf. Character's characters became part of the exercise book jungle, once written twice forgotten. Reference to the characters book became so useful I forgot the name of one of my minor key character.

I now keep everything (apart from the research which is a different extraction altogether) in an A4 loose leaf ring binder, divided into separate sections - synopsis/general outline, character maps, brainstorming, chapter by chapter flow chart and separate section for each chapter in itself. The whole book in one book.

Page one of the loose leafed character map

Pit No 5 - a Place for Everything, Everything in its Place

Each extraction has started like a horse race; I know what the starting line looks like and where the finish line is. But what happens in the middle?

On more than one occasion I reached a point where I knew the story had to leap from to get to where it ends up or somewhere in between, and put the pen down thinking what happens next?

To overcome this I have recorded each plot and sub-plot into separate timelines that I call a sequence of events. This allows me to see at a glance where each is heading. From this I can reshuffle as necessary so that each scene/event is in its proper place and then slowly build the chapter by chapter outline from there.

A Chapter Plan - Note the Columns on the Left to Indicate Drafting Progress

The story and characters grow as work progresses, however I find the timeline quickly points to where any new relevant thought might fit into the whole and keeps the story moving in a logical and methodical sequence.

 Pit No 6 - To Plot or Not to Plot

A devious underground tunnel full of sharp and pointy booby traps links this trap to the bottomless pit containing doubt. I spend a lot of time revamping and reworking plots and sub-plots. This can add to the dimensions of the story but also detracts from the actual writing of it.

The same questions keep coming to mind. Is the plot too complicated, too simple or just right? Is it possible to ruin a good story with too many twists, intrigues or conflicts?

The proof will be in the pudding and just as a half baked cake does not rise I am thinking that if, upon completing the story, it reads like a finished book then the element of plot should be just right.

Pit No 7 - Onwards, Always Onwards.

When I first started in this extraction business I developed the mindset of only think of the whole as a whole, rather than  a group of segments skillfully put together to make up the whole. I would start at the beginning, work through the middle ending up at the end. With the end always being the main focus. I quite often reached a point in the story that I couldn't make work. Being unable to move onto the next scene, because I wasn't thinking in scenes, production stopped.

 The Penny Drops

Slowly and gradually I am encountering the pitfalls that confront the would-be 'one good one' extractor and am finding or developing ways out or around these pits.

The most valuable lesson I have learnt so far come from my limited experience with the 'ywriter' software. That is to break the story down further than chapter by chapter, but to write in scenes that link together to make up the whole.

Each chapter section of the loose-leaf ring binder is divided into separate scenes which overcomes the blocks when a particular scene doesn't work or further research is required, just move on to another. A separate record fronts each chapter by chapter outline of each scene, ticking off a column for each draft of each scene.

So the bears and tigers waiting in the pits are not indestructible beasts but can be turned into that which makes us warm and fuzzy.

So I think it's time for a tiger.

copyright Steve Martin 2009