Writer's Advice

Potions

Writing a book is like making a potion.

You know what all the ingredients are and what they do, but you don't have any recipe to tell you how to put them together. You start by grabbing a few ingredients that seem interesting for your premise. Then you select your main ingredients, which are your plot. Of course, there are all the plot points that everyone always uses, but then there are more obscure, interesting ones hiding on the back of the shelf and in corners, gathering dust. I wish I could see them all lined up like potion ingredients, but I guess that's what www.tvtropes.org has done for me. I don't start my potion with the main ingredients; I gather them and keep adding them as I go along. This is sometimes difficult because if there's not enough of the main ingredients, you end up with something, but it's not what you wanted.

The hardest part of making the potion is starting it. How much of the main ingredients should you introduce? You should always have character development, but if you start with a vague scene as a prologue, you need very little (and then a lot in chapter 1).

Then comes the fun part: selecting your worldbuilding ingredients. There are thousands of them. Of course, there are the ones everybody uses like medieval fantasy (which I am totally guilty of using), because those are the easiest to use. Then there are the tiny little bottles on the top shelf that no one notices are there. Mixing them together in different was creates something completely different. Worldbuilding is fun, but a potion can't be all worldbuilding, or it wouldn't have any effect. When you have too much, add a few dollops of plot and sprinkle in some character development.

Once you've got some of your ingredients lined up, you can start actually making your potion.

I love to grind up dialogue with a mortar and pestle, add it in specific amounts, stir, and then dump in the rest. Sometimes I put a potion on hold and let it simmer, and sometimes I work on it vigorously. I often select my ingredients as I go along, which leaves me stuck staring at the ingredient shelves and cabinets for hours. If I make a mistake, in writing, unlike in potion making, I can go back and revise it. Sometimes, though, have to trash my potion and start all over.

Hopefully, I'll end up with a potion that looks good, tastes good, and has the effect I want so I can bottle it and share it with people.