Exploratory Writing to Reveal Characters and the World (Catharina Steel)

Even with the story idea swirling around in your head, you can rarely see everything, including who the characters are. This is where exploratory writing comes in.

Exploring the story idea.

When I think about being a panster, I think of the writer writing by the seat of their pants and following their nose to wherever the story goes!

Exploratory writing is similar to panster writing in that I start writing the story, focusing on the scenes I’ve visualized in my mind, which aren’t necessarily sequential.

While I’m exploring the story through writing, I’m focused on the overall story arc as I familiarize myself with the world and how the story fits into this. And I’m getting to know who the characters are and what their roles in the story will be.

The characters reveal themselves

As I discover the story elements during this stage, it often feels like the character takes on a life of their own—dictating who they are and what they’re about—while I explore the story, allowing it to flow from what I’ve imagined and fall where it will. This style of writing allows a story to evolve naturally—and is why it feels like the characters reveal themselves.

Another way to look at this is that it’s like meeting someone (the character) for the first time and then getting to know them better the more time you spend with them (work on the story).

Outlining and notes

Writing the basics of the story gives me the material I need to draft the outline, character information sheet, and the story’s world details sheet including map/s. I review this material and note different parts to the story—identifying how many books in the series.

I create an excel workbook with separate outline worksheets for each book in the series. I add summaries of the exploratory scenes, as relevant to the outline, and identify the additional scenes to be drafted. Initially, this is a loose guide so I’ve room to move as I draft the story and more elements are revealed.

Switching to Scrivener, the software I use, I create a new file for the series and pull the exploratory writing into the various scenes according to the book outlines.

Back in my excel workbook, I add detailed information about my characters. I have questions listed and I use what I’ve written to start answering these. As I’m working on this, I make decisions about the characters and edit these responses throughout the writing process until I’m satisfied the character has been fully formed.

I also work on the world’s worksheet and create a basic map or maps.

I’m now ready to draft my story!

Drafting revelations

During the drafting process, I will discover new information about the characters, the world, and the story, so I add this to my excel workbook as I go.

This provides a more detailed visual snapshot of the characters—giving me a stronger sense of them. I use this information during the editing stages as I go back in and work on showing the character’s better with each edit.

Exploring scenes from the past

Sometimes it’s helpful to explore past experiences of a character to get a better feel for who they are now. You may end up including elements of this in a flashback, but it’s more common for this to be purely for facilitating a deeper understanding of the character. However, I once wrote a novella when I explored a character’s past!

Magical Piet

I felt the need to develop the character of Opa in Vanishings further because his influence plays an important role in Vanishings. I ended up writing his origin story in my novella called Magical Piet.

I combined a historical event of the creatures with his story, which worked perfectly. This provided me the scope I needed to write his character in Vanishings in a much more convincing and knowledgeable way.

The loop

The world determines the events that shapes the character, which in turn alters their worldview—the perspective of the world the story is told from.

The reason why I don’t separate how I develop the world, or the characters, or the story, is because they are all linked. One affects the other, so you can’t look at one, without factoring in the other story elements.

Consider your own life—the good and the bad experiences you’ve had, and how each of these moments has shaped you into who you are today. The way you perceive yourself and where you fit into the world around you, and how you view the world and how you perceive everyone else, has been influenced by each and everything you have experienced up until this moment in your life. You don’t view your life as separate from the world or your story—it is always seen as a whole.

Drawing the character out

With my understanding that the world we live in will influence who we become as a person, I know that I need to consider how the story’s world is influencing my characters.

So, while I initially allow my characters to reveal who they are during the exploratory writing and drafting stages, I continue to work on them while editing—gradually getting a better feel for each character, making it easier to determine how they will respond in each moment.

Catharina Steel Bio

First generation Australian, Catharina Steel is the daughter of Dutch and Friesian-Dutch parents. Her writing reflects her passion for the great outdoors, wholistic health, fantasy adventure reads, and her interest in traveling and learning about other cultures. She believes in showing kindness to others and taking an interest in their differences as she knows all too well how it feels to be an outsider. Vanishings, The Wythic Wood Mysteries Series | Book One is her debut novel.

The ebook of her novella Magical Piet is available for free when you sign up to my 7@7 with Catharina Steel author newsletter on my website: www.catharinasteel.com.

 

 

 

Tune in tomorrow with an interview with Catharina regarding her book Vanishings!