Writing in Layers

Painting takes time. But because of the magic of video, it doesn't have to take a lot of time anymore. Four minutes and fifty five seconds to be exact.

In the above video the artist creates a great mood piece of a forest. It's pretty simple, but you'll notice a few things. The artist starts out by painting some background colors. She shades them and blends them until the background is done. Then she paints over the top with some trees. Great. Ok. The trees look nice. But she's not done. She adds more. And each thing she adds covers up something else. It takes away (just a bit) our ability to see the previous layer, but by covering up the early layers she adds to the picture and lets us see her entire vision.

Do you like it? Doesn't matter. I do, but that doesn't matter either.

Here's what does matter. The layers.

When you write through your story the first time you've got a LOT to think about. Sometimes it might be useful to think of your work in layers - adding new elements with each pass. Here's how it has worked for me before:

Many times when I get ideas for a book or scene, I really only get a piece of an idea. I see a character doing something interesting, I think of a great line (or a few lines), maybe a dramatic moment stands out. Sometimes that's all I have. So as I think about the scene I try to fill in the blanks. (David Farland compares it to putting together a puzzle.) Often I'll write an entire scene with only dialogue. To a reader it won't feel complete, but I've managed to frame the whole scene just by writing what my characters say. And I did it all while the iron was hot.

But of course, it's not finished. I go back over the scene adding descriptions, actions, what each character thnks, etc. Then I read through it again making another pass at emotions, or sensory details.  The end product is not what I started with. If you read through the initial pass, you may have expected something completely different (just like the painting). But the end product is what really matters to your reader. They'll love to hear about how you got there, but only if they like where you got. So don't be afraid to take it in steps. And in the end you may come up with something that is much more than anyone expected in the beginning.