Writing after Viable Paradise

Today my nice, long vacation ends and in the afternoon I'll have to go and work again. It's about time to post about my VPXIII-experience.

 I did not go to Viable Paradise with a lot of expectations. I knew I would learn something. I have been to writing workshops before.

 Viable Paradise, though, actually works. Not to be unfair to those other workshops: they may have given me just what I needed at the time I attended, but never have I come home changed like this.

 Basically I learned two things at VP:
1. that I can write a novel in English
2. how to construct stories.

 My friend S. always said that she thought I could write novels in English. I did not believe her.
This next is a bit embarrassing: At VP Teresa Nielsen Hayden said I could probably write in English. Her, I believed.

 I am still a bit stunned, though. To be able to write a novel in a language that is not your native language? Without all the intuitive fine-tuning of sentences you can do in your native language? Without knowing for certain if a sentence sounds right?

Oh, well. It seems I can. I'll just plow on, then.

By the way, my English punctuation sucks. I know it does. German and English commas: different species.

Before VP, I had only a dim idea of how to write a story. Don't get me wrong: I can write scenes and string them together, but that's not what writing a story is about.

 I'm reasonably good at writing scenes, I think. I'm good at writing character, settings, moods, atmosphere. All those bottom-up processes flow easily on most days.

 Although, I had believable characters and characters are plot, I struggled with plot. As I said, story is not stringing together scenes as they well up from your ... soul?, unconscious mind?, guts? Whatever!

 I needed Jim MacDonald's lecture about plot. I needed Bear's lecture about narrative structures.

 See this bit of inner dialog:
It's about your character's wants vs. their needs.
Really, that simple?
Yes, that simple. Do it already. It works.

 In short, I needed some top-down-processes to apply to my bottom-up-material. And sometimes you need real people to teach you. How-to-write-books do not work as well as real people.

Jim MacDonald showed me the plot of my novel with the help of the quadriga on top of Brandenburg Gate of all things possible, and the concept of placing the characters on their strong points.

 Laura Mixon pointed out my two problems: I have good opening chapters, but I don't know, where I am going with the story and my characters are in danger of being unsympathetic. And she told me that with an inner conflict (want vs. need, remember?) there must be a moment of change in your character. What will it take for your character to let go of "want" and embrace "need"?

 When I came home, I took all those newly understood concepts and together with my bunch of characters made them into a story construction spreadsheet.

Two columns of that spreadsheet show all the scenes I need to write, in order to have a novel with a story in it. Neat, isn't it?

 After VP my novel feels like my personal playground. I can choose. Do I want to go and translate/rewrite? That's a linear thing: beginning to end. Alternatively I can pick any of the scenes my spreadsheet generated. I write them out of their order and that's a first.

 And you know what? Reading about my fellow students experiences online, I get the impression that every one of them learned what they needed to learn.

 To the instructors and staff of Viable Paradise: you are awesome. Thank you!

 And if you please excuse me now. I have to go. I have declared writer's state of emergency. I've got a novel to finish.