Offstage Writing
Shake Off Your Inner Reader
Frozen. You try to write, but the eyes of the reader follow you everywhere, as if your manuscript is a dress rehearsal and people have been invited in to watch.
“Be free!” the sages exhort us. “Write sloppy drafts, write badly—just get it down on the page and you’ll be able to keep going.”
It’s good advice. But what if it’s not working? What if all the joyful mess is becoming a maze? Or what if, even for all the advice, you’re left staring at the screen?
That’s when you need to take your work off-stage.
I call my off-stage writing my “Story Journal,” an approach coined and trained into me by my friend Janet Lee Carey. The story journal is where I do all the charting and planning and character descriptions we’re supposed to do. Every novelist has a spot for that. But the story journal is more than a “book bible.” It’s also a place for rambling excursions into possibility.
Here are a few excerpts from the actual story journal for my WIP. Calling it a journal cuts me loose. I don’t write journals to be read by other people (usually), so if I need to, I can begin with a rant:
I’ve read this so many times it sounds contrived. I keep wanting to go on Facebook. I want to go to karaoke and also I don’t. My brain is oriented to an audience right now and I am having a really hard time going underneath.
The journal is conversational, speculative. It saves me from the intransigence of a chart or wiki. With the journal, I can puzzle through bits of magic that are not yet making sense. I use a lot of “maybe:”
During the time Alice is meeting with Ty, she begins drawing a girl. She draws her over and over again. Does Ty see it and react to it? Maybe yes. Maybe he can see her. Maybe I need to establish how she can make herself invisible? Or is this a factor of the fading out? But that doesn’t make sense because Alice can fully sense her when they are in the sketch together. But that’s the reason. Because they are both in a sketch Alice made. Hmmmm.
Of course, sometimes a good old list or chart is exactly what the doctor ordered—as when thinking through the use of metaphor in a scene:
Setting detail • Painting of a nest of sparrows Sensory detail • Prickling • Feather-soft • Itch • Back of neck Character detail • Bird images • Wing • Feather • Light bones • Sparrow • Good eyesight? • Mother sparrow • Chick • Open mouth Character Action • Peck • Fly • Scratch
I used to write my story journal longhand, which I highly recommend, but now I like to keep it on my Scrivener so that it is searchable.
And those frozen scenes? Try a “fake scene” in the journal. Tell yourself it’s just an experiment. It’s not in the manuscript just yet (and maybe never will be.)
Here are a few questions to try out in your own story journal.
1. What am I worrying about that is keeping me from immersing myself in my writing? (This one is tricky because it could pull you deeper into anxiety. But often clearing the worry before you start is the best thing you can do.)
2. In my upcoming scene, what is [Secondary Character] thinking that [Protagonist] could not possibly know? What would they do if they were thinking that?
3. What happened between the last scene and this one? Where is [Important Character?]
4. (For revision.) I know I need to cut Act I by ___ words. How on earth can I do that? What could go without ruining the story? What could be summarized instead of shown? (Much math ensues.)
5. What would the story look like if I got rid of [super-important element I thought I couldn’t do without, but now I’m reconsidering?]
March Labyrinth Craft Workshop
If you’d like to go deeper with this concept, come to our March Labyrinth craft workshop, Offstage Writing: Deepening Character Through the Story Journal
Monday, March 10, 4-5:30 PT/7-8:30 ET. (Recording available if you can’t attend in person.)
This workshop is for writers at any stage who want characters that feel more alive, more surprising–and for anyone who suspects the missing ingredient in their work isn’t structure, but intimacy. You’ll leave with new writing, a repeatable practice, and a renewed sense of connection to the people at the heart of your story.
The workshop is free with a Labyrinth Membership.
Calls for Submissions
March Sentence Submissions
Choose up to three favorite sentences from your unpublished work and send them my way, along with your working title and your writing name.
Deadline: 11:59 PM, Thursday, March 12
Podfic Passage
Send me up to 500 words of your unpublished original novel, short story, memoir, or creative nonfiction. Add a note with any needed explanations. I will choose one to read and record like an audiobook toward the end of March.
Deadline: 11:59 March 19
You can submit through the chat or, if you’re a subscriber, just hit “reply.” Please put “Sentences” or “Podfic” as the subject.
Let’s talk!
What are your tricks for throwing off your inner reader? Share them in the comments.