J. L. Woodson
the elements you’ll need to get there. Then you can
go back and flesh out the characters and the rest of
the book.
Once I had a beginning and wrote my ending, I
then found a method that made my writing flow
faster and easier. I put together all the advice and
suggestions Susan Malone, Naleighna Kai, Mary B.
Morrison, and Christine Meister had given me, and
I created what I call The Red Line method.
I first drew a railroad track and had a picture of a
station at the beginning and one at the end. Then I
used the beginning and end of my story line as the
starting point and final destination of that railroad
track. The “high points,” or major drama in the
story, became different mid-point “stations” along
the track. My first editor, Susan Mary Malone, later
explained that the high points are called plot points.
Between each station there were little tracks,
which were the details (minor points). Basically I
had about three details leading to the first station
and three going away from the first station. Those
going away from the first station led up to the next
station, and so on until I got to the end of the line.
Some people would consider this as a form of an
outline, but outlines were a little too strict for me.
I needed some way of keeping track of the entire
story, while also having the freedom to write what I
wanted when I wanted. A lot of authors experience
writer’s block, and I believe that is because they’re
stuck on the next move or direction for the book.
A lot of times that comes from the one-chapter
method. Write one chapter, then the next, the next,
the next, and BAM! The train comes to a halt and
the story sits for days, a week, a month before the
author can tackle it again.
Like my mother and some of the other authors in this
book, I don’t write in chronological order. I flow up
and down the tracks and write what moves me. But
here’s the thing—having that Red Line helps you, the
writer, keep track of where the piece you’re writing at
the moment actually fits in the story.
We have the stations, the train, and the track, but
what about the passengers? Think of your main
character (protagonist) as someone who gets on at the
beginning of the line and looks out of the window for
the entire trip, but takes time to reflect on their past,
notice the scenery (setting) and the people getting
on and off the train. Some people (friends, family,
enemies) might even ride with the main character for
a while or even make it all the way to the end of the
line. We call them supporting characters. They are
also looking around and watching what’s going on,
but they might see things a little differently than the
main character (and might even have some “dirt” on
the main character they’d like to share with anyone
who’ll listen). Speaking of dirt, it’s always a good thing
to add a person the reader will hate (antagonist), who
has their parts of the story to tell and makes things
interesting.
You might want to have all the main and supporting
characters on the train by the second station (the first
fifty pages). And if the characters have some narrative
(where they tell the reader what’s going on inside
their heads), then their way of thinking and their
observations are called “viewpoints.” All viewpoint
characters are important enough to have some
background information written about them, but be
sure the information you reveal about supporting
characters doesn’t overpower the information written
about the main characters.
[Look for Part II in the next issue of the magazine]
NKLC Magazine | 23