52 Weeks Writing Projects

[buyjupiter]

Since I decided to forgo NaNoWriMo this year (I did the same thing in September and I'm still recovering from that), I decided it would be a good time to get a 52 weeks project started.

I had a difficult time figuring out what I would want to do for 52 weeks with writing that wouldn't bore me to tears within a month. I finally thought of doing 52 weeks of character sketches. So far, it's been going pretty good. It has ranged from lengths of a paragraph to a flash fiction piece getting into the head of a character for a pivotal moment in their life.

Right now I'm going into the back story of characters that I'm either currently writing or have written in the past. I have a few too many things on the story stove to worry about creating a brand new character every week. And I'm starting to get a bit worried that I'll soon run out of characters from previous/current stories to write about.

I have a few questions:

First, has anyone else done a similar project? What were the good things you learned about focusing on something for a year? What would make you take on another similar project, or alternately swear off doing them forever?

Second, does anyone know of any resources to help guide a year's worth of character creating/developing?

Third, does anyone have any suggestions of where I could take a year long writing project after I'm done with writing characters? For instance, a year of writing endings or a year of beginnings? Maybe some kind of collaborative project? Would there be any interest in that kind of thing?

(Mods: if this is the wrong section, please shift accordingly. Thank you!)

 

[Penpilot]

Writing character sketches can be great practice, but 52 weeks of them may be overkill. But that's only my opinion. Why not 52 weeks of short stories or 52 weeks working on a 52 chapter novel?

The only thing that I've done writing related for 52 weeks is write a novel, and I found that I learned tons from doing that.

 

[Philip Overby]

I did the 52 Week Short Story project. I'm not sure when I stopped, but I was going pretty strong for a while. And I think I actually made up for it because I wrote 14 short stories in 14 days somewhere in the middle. So I'll have to go back and add it up, but I may have actually ended up writing 52 before things were said and done.

I think the key to pushing through on such a project is to focus mostly on that. For me, it got disrupted when I started working on my novel again. I spent most of my time novel writing and just didn't have time for short stories. However, I've done both before, it just depends on what level of intensity I'm using.

What I learned is that when I try to write a short story every week, I see a lot of strengths and weaknesses in myself as a writer. One is that the writing can be super messy (to be expected) and therefore the plots don't make any sense whatsoever. However, I learned I'm very good at coming up with ideas and carrying (most of them) out to a satisfying completion.

The only major problem I see with these kind of projects is that they may become life-consuming if you let them. You spend all your time trying to think of the next thing you need to do. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

The benefit of doing a 52 week short story or novel chapter project is that it allows you have something concrete to build off of and create into something. Character sketches obviously allow this in a different way.

I actually wouldn't mind trying a 52 chapter beginning project. Then by the time I'm finished with my current novel, I'll have 52 novel beginnings to chose from! Quite ambitious, but could be very cool if you got people interactive somehow (vote on the best ones, etc.)

Hey, I might do that!

I'll come back and add more thoughts later when I have time. Short version: I like these kind of ambitious projects.

 

[buyjupiter]

Writing character sketches can be great practice, but 52 weeks of them may be overkill. But that's only my opinion. Why not 52 weeks of short stories or 52 weeks working on a 52 chapter novel?

The only thing that I've done writing related for 52 weeks is write a novel, and I found that I learned tons from doing that.

Part of the reason I decided to focus on characters was because I was having a devil of a time figuring out how to separate voices from one another in a piece that I'm currently revising heavily. I have a sneaky suspicion that by allowing my characters some alone time without the nuclear bomb flashing a countdown over their heads I'll get a better idea of what my character is like, and then I can use that in a revision of my stories. So far, they've shown themselves to be remarkably self-consistent (yay?).

I could call it a short story project or a flash fiction project (which it probably more closely resembles), but I kinda have to lie to my inner critic. The whole time I was writing the novel I was calling it a short novella, because I couldn't screw it up that badly if it was similar in length to what I've finished in the past. By calling them "sketches" I'm giving myself permission to fail during the process, if for whatever reason the character/plot just makes me want to commit cyber hari kari across the keyboard it can be less than a fully fleshed out piece. It's probably just putting the nervousness in the future, but so far it seems to work.

 

[Philip Overby]

bujupiter: I'm interested in how you are carrying out these character sketches. Are you doing just writing profiles of the characters or putting them in different situations? One thing that could be fun is do something like this:

1. Make your character sketches. Do 52 of these.
2. Take each character and put them in the same situation: (facing a dragon, talking to a queen, learning magic, etc.) and see how they all react to the same situation. Maybe just like a 500 word piece or something.

To me, it would be cool to see how 52 distinctively different characters all handled the exact same situation.

 

[buyjupiter]

bujupiter: I'm interested in how you are carrying out these character sketches. Are you doing just writing profiles of the characters or putting them in different situations? One thing that could be fun is do something like this:

1. Make your character sketches. Do 52 of these.
2. Take each character and put them in the same situation: (facing a dragon, talking to a queen, learning magic, etc.) and see how they all react to the same situation. Maybe just like a 500 word piece or something.

To me, it would be cool to see how 52 distinctively different characters all handled the exact same situation.

I'm attempting to write at least a flash fiction length story that distills their essence. They've mostly been about a pivotal moment in their lives. I think this may come from believing in the logic of "on your worst day you are the most you that you can be", or alternatively, when things get rough you lose the niceties, and a lot of neuroses start showing underneath the cracks. And I like writing about neuroses and fears.

Sometimes I put them in different situations. For example, I've written the main characters of my competition story about a lightning bolt in a completely modern setting (NYC) and the story was about death and grief; then I switched it to ice-cold tundra (that is surprisingly forested...wait a second...excuse me while I go and cut down a forest. ) and I had the story be about getting past the Thunder God's demense, and now the story's about getting over the past and falling in love again. My characters are still pretty much the same even though I've drastically altered the setting, plot, and theme. I think it may be because I'm keeping the source of tension the same and the interaction between the two the same. Though there's a lot more humor in the second version than the first.

So far, though, I've mainly dipped into casually mentioned back story and done something more in depth about why that day was important to forming the character I have now. What they were thinking at the time, what they were doing, how they reacted (if they reacted), how they felt about it at the time, etc.

As an example of this: I have a minor character named 'iggins. He dropped the "H" from his name after living through a bombing because he was convinced that straight lines would kill him. His neurosis advanced to the point that he tore down his house and rebuilt it into a dome. Other than this, he's a fairly normal guy and everyone likes him. I would take that bit of character quirkiness (ok, maybe he's mad as a hatter) and turn it into an exploration of what happened during the hours or days that he was trapped. How did he come to the conclusion that straight lines were the reason for the building's collapse and not the people who set the bomb or even the bomb itself?

I think I might file away your idea for a second year project, or maybe a shift half-way through the year if I get too lazy to come up with new ideas.

 

[Philip Overby]

I really like the ideas you've come up with. Definitely not typical fantasy fare. I especially like the character with a fear of straight lines. But then again, I've always been interested in characters and people with intense phobias that others may deem irrational. Like a woman I saw who was deathly afraid of pickles. You can see video of it on Youtube I'm sure.

I personally love these kind of projects because it allows you to really experiment and see who you are as a writer. I think if you're just straight up writing a novel, then it's kind of a trial by fire. If you're doing a project, it's a way to learn new things about yourself as a writer without the hang-ups of worrying it has to be so awesome because it's a serious novel.