Monthly Archives: February 2012

The Timeline, Part Two of Two


Posted by Zoe

It was tricky figuring out how to order the scenes without plot holes. This was the reason why we added some of the scenes, and why some scenes don’t appear the same in the final version of Fractured Fate as they do in the timeline.

Arranging the scenes was a bit like a jigsaw puzzle at first, and a logic puzzle near the end. At first, we sorted out slips of paper into the general area where they should be. Then we arranged it a bit more precisely. A lot of scenes were rearranged without interrupting the flow of the story. In fact, switching them around helped immensely! The hard part was making everything which needed to be in order in the right spots.

Then, we began reading the timeline from top to bottom.

We doodled a bit.

Reading one scene at a time, all of us agreed on the placement of an individual scene or else rearranged, then we taped the scene down and called it final. The final decision of who got to write each scene was made the same way.

By the time a couple dozen scenes were in place, we were out of time in our meeting and had to finish up next week. We rolled up the timeline into a scroll, which is pretty tricky, and called it a day.

Next week was more of the same. The whole thing was more exciting than it sounds, so more plot arranging was not a bad thing. What’s even better is once we were done with the timeline, we could finally start writing! You’d be surprised how much of a writer’s job doesn’t involve any writing at all, or at least requires a different sort of writing than you’d think.

Throughout the whole year it took to make Fractured Fate, the the timeline was incredibly useful. All five of us in Caja Coyote kept on track and knew which scenes to write because of this timeline.

There was a nice fancy "The End" at the end until we had so much plot, it overflowed!


The Timeline, Part One of Two


Posted by Zoe

One of the most important steps in writing a collaborative novel is, in my experience, making a timeline.

Some authors write whatever comes to mind, no matter what part of the story it is, as long as it’s clear in their heads. Other authors write in a more organized way, writing a list of plot points and events, writing chapter by chapter in chronological order. Then there are infinite types of writers in between.

Between the five authors in Caja Coyote, writing habits vary, but because Fractured Fate was a team project, everyone had to figuratively be on the same page. To accomplish this, we made a timeline of events in the story. Using a mutually agreed upon timeline as a guide helped to avoid confusion.

Our timeline barely fit on two tables put together the long way!

We started by asking each writer to come up outlines for a few scenes, making notes of who is in each scene, where they are, what they’re doing, when, and from whose point of view. We wrote these basic parts of each scene in a grid, then sliced up the grid into individual scenes. There is at least one scene per chapter.

An example scene outline from the timeline:
Time: pre-cataclysm
Location: copper mine
POV: both
Characters Present: Val, Grace, Val’s parents, Grace’s grandpa
Summary: Val and Grace meet at the copper mine

A note about the example—POV is an abbreviation of Point Of View, and “both” referred to both of the two main characters present in the scene, in this case Valencia Grant and Grace Black. A few details changed in the final, full version of this scene and several others. For example, this scene was only told from one POV.

The beginning of Fractured Fate's timeline.

Then, we arranged everyone’s scenes according to when they happened in the book. The more introductory scenes were placed at the top of the timeline, then some buildup, the climax near the end, and the epilogue at the very bottom of the timeline. We ended up jotting down a lot of scenes on the spot to move from one point in the plot to the next.

Since we wrote scene outlines independently from each other, but we’d already discussed some possible scenes together, there were some duplicates. For example, descriptions of scenes where two main characters meet for the first time usually were written by the author of each of the characters. Important plot points were often brought up by more than one person, too.

Any duplicates were taped over-top of each other. This way, we could tell they were the same scene yet we could still read all the versions of the scene, in case different details were mentioned.

Near the bottom of the picture and below the line near the top, two duplicate scenes are taped one on top of the other.


The ASARCO Copper Mine


Posted by Zoe

Can you guess where this important Sahuarita, Arizona location in Fractured Fate is? Here’s a clue:

The ASARCO open pit copper mine is a major setting in Fractured Fate. It serves as the location for many very different scenes both before and after the fictional version of Sahuarita was demolished by cataclysms.

The copper mine is an open pit mine, not a mine which uses tunnels.

Caja Coyote visited the copper mine to get a feel for it and so we would write all the details correctly.

Caja Coyote observing the location and planning scenes set at the mine.

Imagine this filled with debris, or with tents.

Starting at the gift shop and Mineral Discovery Center, the five of us took in every detail—which rooms could be used for other purposes, what their characters would do at the mine, ways to work in plot elements, and much more.

Baskets in the gift shop have some interesting designs.

Caja Coyote poses in the 11-foot-tall tire in front of the open pit.

The first stop of the tour was at the open pit, where the actual mining part is done. Everything there is huge! The pit itself is 2.5 miles long and 1.5 wide. Even the 11-foot tire on display is on the small side of the things we saw. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any explosions.

The bridge to the building where copper ore is broken apart and processed.

When our tour bus reached the milling stop, the air smelled a lot like pine, and a tiny bit like pickles. The bridge we had to cross vibrated just slightly from the movement of the machines inside the building.

Outside of the milling building.

Processing copper ore.

Details can make the scene! Sometimes they just make me intrigued.

After the tour we discussed some of the more important scenes at the mine. There was a lot to keep straight, including where and when the… well, that would give too much away.