 |
 |
 |
"I want to write a story about…"
The overview is your first writing about your novel. It isn’t the novel
itself, but gives you a framework for the novel you want to write. The
overview keeps your big canvas in mind. To tell a story, you stand back as
you forge a mythic link between your writing and the vast, unconscious,
universal stream that feeds all stories. Example: I want to write a story
about tunnel rats working underground and how they build civilization from
the inside out. The tunnel connects your story to other labyrinths (Dante's
Inferno, the Maze of the Minotaur, Alien Entrails, the Enchanted Wood from
the Grail Legend).
|
|
|
|
 |
Writing Exercise |
|
1. I want to write a story about...
2. The time span of this story is from Year X to Year Y, a period of...
We suggest that you run this exercise each time you sit down to write. Why?
Because new insights percolate up from familiar ground. Keep a folder with
all your “story about” writings in it. As you refine the writing, it will
shape up as the beginnings of a treatment—that sell-piece you will pitch to
an agent, editor, or publisher.
|
|
