Ever Have to Look Back? How Often?

Someone in another thread suggested writing a two-sentence or so summary of each chapter (which leads to an easy synopsis later). If you're concerned about character development, perhaps you could tailor that summary info to reflect character growth and run through the summary each time you sit down for a session. I'm sure that I do have at least parts of it memorized!

I haven't tried the summary idea yet, but I tend to remember scenes very well -- and every once in awhile I just sit down an reread everything (quickly) that I've written so far, to make sure that I have the same style/tone/approach. I don't revise at that time, just refresh my memory. If it's a long novel, perhaps just the last few chapters?

looking back

If it takes two or three months to write a novel, I seldom have to look back at all. If it takes six month or more, and if I'm working on a bunch of other projects at the same time, I need to look back once or twice to get my bearings.

But I generally remember what I write well enough to make looking back unnecessary unless a lot of time, or a lot of other projects, get in the way.

I don't really worry about characters growth, or about characters changing into other people. I never have liked either of these terms. Both, I think, cause all sorts of confusion and story problems. I simply think of action and reaction.

Good characters change according to the events in their lives. This is true. But real people do not constantly grow. Neither should characters. Change can be for the good, or change can be for the bad, and whoever came up with the phrase "character should grow" needs to be horsewhipped.

I especially hate this advice because it's ruined some extremely good characters, particularly in series. As a reader, I find a character I love, and just then the writer makes him "grow," which often means I just lost the reasons I had for loving him.

If your wife gets raped and murdered, if your only child dies of cancer, you are going to change. But you may or may not grow.

And what's wrong with changing into a different person? That's what change is. The mild-mannered, soft-spoken, wimp of the week may become a completely different person after his wife is raped and murdered. He probably should.

I think a writer needs to do three things where change and growth are concerned. If you want a character to change or grow, then:

1. Give the character something that the average reader can see needs changed, or an area where the average reader can clearly say, "He really needs to grow out of that." It's amazing how often writers forget to do this.

2. Have something happen that makes the change or the growth necesaary. Writers forget this about as often as not.

3. Have the character decide to make the change, decide that the change is necessary.

And two other things a writer should remember.

1. It sometimes works even better to have the character reject the change. Or even to change for the worse.

2. If a character is going to change for the better, he often needs to change for the worst before this happen. The meek, mild-mannered man with the murdered wife may, probably will, first change for the worst because his world is upside down, and the only thing on his mind may be murder, torture, revenge, hate, etc.

It's then the act of murder, torture, revenge, and hate that changes him for the better in the end.

I outline as I go in chapter synopses, sometimes only a sentence or three, sometimes multiple paragraphs. I have been as much as 6 or 8 chapters ahead at times, but just as often I'm putting things in the outline as I'm writing the chapter. So that's what I look back to if I feel I might be getting off track somewhere.

I also use character bios that list physical appearance, family history, personality traits, significant life events and so on. I build these too as I go and refer to them often to make sure I don't have someone doing something completely out of character, unless like James A. says, there's something happening to make them change their stripes.

I guess I'd have to say I look back a lot.

I don't get to write fairly often so I end up looking back a lot but largely for technical things. A name of a character I only mentioned once a hundred pages ago or if someone asked my main character 'What was your dad like' on page 50 and I'm on page 250 and someone else asks the character, I flip back to see what she said the first time.

A lot of times if I'm on a roll and don't want to interrupt it I just use my little symbol [?] which means go figure out how old I said her brother was later cause I can't remember now if he's 8 or 9 but I don't want to stop either.

My work schedule and rheumatoid arthritis make it difficult to write often, so on occasion that happens where I have to go back, but usually when I am really dialed in I am really writing all of the time in my mind - - the story grows and develops, and then eventually, the information explodes from my fingers into the computer.

Because I'm writing more than one novel length stories as a time, I always look back. Just to be consistent. Also, with sci-fi worldbuilding, it's hard to remember all the exact gadgets people use. Sometimes the plot twists also require checking.

The biggest reason I feel like I'm channelling rather than writing is that I can never remember what I've written. I'm in a critique group of 8 writers right now. Every time we meet we do 10 pages of 4 of our writers. We started at the beginnings of our novels, and work in order to the end. Every single time my ten pages are being critiqued I listen to the critiques and try to recognize my writing. I don't remember the story very much. If people ask me about a certain character...like when is so and so coming back...I have to chase through the black hole of my brain to even remember who so and so is. I always have to go back and read a couple pages before I sit down to write. I don't remember any of it. It's scary actually. I always think that I'm losing my memory. The only good thing about my inability to remember things is that when I reread a book...I enjoy it just as much as I enjoyed it the first time around. I am surprised when I'm supposed to be surprised, and shocked when I'm supposed to be shocked. It's not a very comfortable feeling when I try to remember what happened in my stories. I even tried writing brief synopsis to stay in touch with the story. That doesn't work either.