Today's writer is Dan Chaon, author of You Remind Me Of Me (2004) and Await Your Reply (2009).
Dan Chaon writes a first draft on color-coded note cards he buys at Office Max. Ideas for his books come to him as images and phrases rather than plots, characters or settings, he says. He begins by jotting down imagery, with no back story in mind. He keeps turning the images over in his mind until characters and themes emerge.This strikes me as a very right-brain approach, especially at first, working with images and phrases, then at some point, "something resembling a novel takes shape."
During the early stages of writing, he carries a pocketful of cards with him wherever he goes; as they accumulate, he stores them in a card catalogue that he bought at a library sale. It often takes two years before something resembling a novel takes shape. He eventually transcribes the cards onto the computer and writes furiously from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.
Any of you approach writing a screenplay like this?
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6 comments:
"Ideas for his books come to him as images and phrases rather than plots, characters or settings"
yeah, i definitely understand that. i don't use color coded index cards though. i should try it.
Interesting. I've always viewed the use of multicolored notecards as "guru b.s." I think this is the first time I've heard of an actual working writer using them for this purpose....
I completely understand that. The way my current project first started was with one word and the history and connotation associated with it. From there, the entire story unfolded.
I think that's how most of my stuff comes to fruition. I always thought it was a weak way to start a project, but I guess it's just one of millions of ways to work out your personal vision.
What it sounds like is simply a note taking system using cards-- as opposed to using full sheets of paper or a notebook.
Supposedly V. Nabakov wrote most of his novels on index cards. His wife would type them up on paper later on.
I could understand writing a note, fact, or phrase on a card, but seems to me wriing actual paragraphs would be way hard.
I'm a right brain writer. No doubt. Took me three years of painful left brain writing to realize it. Now I write strictly from my gut. First drafts are a form of novel/poems/ideas/scenes. 200-400 pages. I keep it as loose as possible even if I think I know what the story is intellectually. Intuition is my writing god.
I do something similar, where I think about the protag, what their surroundings are, the type of clothes they wear, the type of car, anything that is an image that can relate to personality.
I use note cards currently but I'm thinking about switching to Movie Outline which has an easy to use and see outline process, with character bios.
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