Nailing Down Snakes

[rallamajoop]

Unlike a lot of the rest of fandom, I’ve never personally picked up much attachment to the whole ‘plot bunnies’ way of talking about ideas. However, jaseroque and I have come up with our own fun little writing analogy which we’re quite proud of, and which I wanted to share in the vague hope of getting others to try it out.

This all began at a writing panel at a Swancon a few years back, where one of the panellists (Paul Kid, a sort of minor local BNF, and generally good value at those sort of panels) commented that he felt writing a story was a bit like nailing down a snake. He suggested that a good approach was to get the head and the tail nailed down first (the start and the end, so to speak), and then you’ve just got this angry mass whiplashing back and forth in the middle to be pinned down in some shape or other as best you can (with running commentary to the effect of “wait, how did he get over there?” and “no that character isn’t gay!” to demonstrate just how much trouble that part can cause XD). As analogies for the writing process went it worked entertainingly well. We liked it, anyway.

We’ve been bringing it up now and then ever since, but it pretty much stayed in that format until late last year when, while stuck in the middle of a seething mass of WIPs, I commented to jaseroque that my own approach to writing had become something rather more like aiming a nail gun into a box of snakes while blindfolded. I never knew what I was going to hit. If I was lucky, I’d hit the same one enough times that it’d be worth getting out the hammer and going down there to get the rest of it nailed into some kind of shape. However, there was still the danger that one of the others would come along and bite me while I was doing it, so I’d have to go and nail that one down just to keep it out of the way – and you can see where this is going. Before long, I’d be lucky if I could even remember where I’d been nailing the first one down to begin with.

The final objective of getting a snake nailed down is, presumably, so you can cut some of the box away around it and mount it up on your walls for others to admire – maybe even artistically arranged with a display of other snakes from the same species, depending how productive you’ve been in the snake-nailing department. If there are too many other snakes down there biting you, however, even that last little part can be hard to get done. Of course, if you start by nailing down the head and the tail far enough apart, everything in the middle will be stretched out to the point that nailing it down will be a walk in the park, but all you’ll have to show for it at the end is a snake that’s perfectly straight and really quite dull, and no-one wants to see any more of those.

Nailing down story snakes doesn’t actually kill them, just makes them stay put. They’re well known to keep on growing even when you thought you had them half nailed down already, and they can go right on spawning new snakes long after you thought you had them fully immobilised. They’re entirely capable of pulling nails loose with all their wriggling, or forcing you to pry those nails out yourself and find somewhere better for them. But that’s all part of the process. There’s no point nailing down a dead snake, it’s only going to make you look lame.

Naturally, plot snakes come in all sizes, colours and varieties, and some are far more vicious than others. Not only do they breed like rabbits, they’re also known to eat each other on occasion. With some of the particularly long ones you can wind up nailing down a bit here and bit there without realising those were two parts of the same snake until much later. Don’t even ask about the ones with two heads or two tails, or the ones that try eating their own tails, or the trouble you can get into when you wind up nailing two of them to each other by mistake. Fanfic might be snakes that come with a nail or two in them to begin with, though you really shouldn’t expect them to be any less vicious for it. Do not doubt for a moment that plot snakes have teeth.

What you can write is mostly down to what you find in your snake box when you take off the lid. It’s horribly depressing to discover that it’s empty, or that the only snakes in it are so fast that getting even one nail into them is nearly impossible. The other end of the scale, where all you can see is a seething mass of coils, so thick you can’t even tell what you’d be nailing them to, isn’t much better. One or two relatively docile, medium-sized snakes is probably the ideal.

There’s plenty of room for other people to help you out in the snake nailing process. They can point out places where the nails are looking a bit loose, suggest where new nails should go for best practical or aesthetic effect, and even trade you unused plot snakes of their own. If you’re really lucky, someone might even be helpful enough to hammer a few helpful nails in themselves.

Starting with the head and the tail isn’t the only nailing strategy out there by any means. Organised people often start at the tail and gradually work there way up to the head in increments. Myself, I often tend to just fire a couple of nails in somewhere around the middle at random and try to work outwards from there.

So, how do you all go about nailing down your snakes? ^_~

Comments

[lodelco.livejournal.com]

I can't even get my theories to stay put. I sometimes end up repeating the same thing in a paragraph, just reworded a bit.

I guess you could say I write like spilled water. Heh.

But I've been told that you need to get to know your characters better. After that, they just seem to grow on their own like trees.

[eclectify.livejournal.com]

I'm usually trying to keep the lid on the box and then wondering how all the damn snakes got out and are trying to make homes in my shoes. Plot snakes follow me everywhere and just when I think I've nailed it down long enough to behave it turns out to be much bigger than I expected and it's bloody friends are helping to pull the nails out.

When all else fails I just pick a point and write and hope for the best. Usually I get to the beginning/middle/end eventually XD

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

XD In theory, one or two nails should keep them out of the way, but in practice they just keep growing until they can stick their heads out far enough to and sink their teeth into you again.

I had not thought of snakes pulling each other's nails before - but now I think of it, I know I've gotten half way through nailing down one snake, run out of nails and had to go pull nails out of another one so I had enough to finish. It's always horribly embarrassing when that happens. >.> See? Isn't this fun? ^_^

I see we come to very similar schools of snake-nailing strategies.

[eclectify.livejournal.com]

I've spent so much time blinding shooting nails in the hopes I hit something and ended up hitting one poor snake too much and its been left as nothing more than a twitchy mess. XD

It seems we do!

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

There's nothing worse than a snake that's so full of old nail holes that you can't do anything to it anymore that doesn't make you feel like you're just torturing the poor thing. No-one likes killing their own plot-snakes - not even the really vicious ones.

[cheloya.livejournal.com]

.....I think that's the best metaphor I've ever read. :'D

(This is such a poor time to be without my 'Snakes on a Doumeki' icon. D:)

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

I'm the type that will inevitably find a snake in any box I open, and far too often my nail gun is insufficient protection. If you ever see a person walking around covered in metaphoric snakes, it's probably me. When I am able to manage my snakes, it is generally by lulling them to sleep with music and striking when they least expect, nailing down as much as I can before they start fighting back and then back off a little and reassess. I prefer the little snakes, though, that can generally be fully nailed down in one session and connect quite nicely in snake-sculpture, which is a hobby of mine.

That really is the perfect metaphor, though, and if you don't mind I believe I will begin using it. Plot "bunnies" never really fit except for the breeding part.

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

We're very pleased with it. And hope to encourage it to be used more widely. *grin*

You had a 'Snakes on a Doumeki' icon? XD

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

I would be only too happy to see others using this metaphor. XD While I think it is well accepted that plot bunnies are the sharp-pointy-teeth variety, I still don't think they work nearly as well as our plot snakes do.

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Oh, just make up your own metaphors, why don't you. =P

(Anyway, trees grow a little slowly for my tastes. I'd say more like some horribly tangley vine which gets into parts of the garden you never meant it to.)

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

Plot snakes just work. Plus, what bunny has venom?

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

More importantly, who could ever bear to nail one down?

Snakes do imply far more of that crucial nastiness we're all used to getting from our ideas.

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

Snakes are much better for nailing purposes.

And yes. Ideas are never cute and loveable. They're scaly and slippery and tend to lash out when cornered.

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

You do get the odd one that is cute, friendly and cooperative. But if they were all like that, it wouldn't be nearly as satisfying to get them nailed down.

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

I've yet to meet one of those. [sighs] Mine tend to be the venemous or strangling sort. That is true, though. Nothing like nailing down an anaconda to make one feel empowered. Better than coffee.

[lunargeography.livejournal.com]

I really like the metaphor. I often think that a particular spot on the wall would be a lovely place for a bit of snake, but I just cannot get the sucker to wriggle over there. If you try and grab it and hold it down while you get the nail gun ready, it'll slither right off, leaving you holding an empty shed skin.

I've always wanted to be able to start writing in media res, wherever that first nail goes in.... but I have to have a beginning. Gotta get that head early on. Then I can leave large bits in the middle to fling themselves around into a comfortable position while I nail the slower bits.

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

I still maintain the worst thing is when you thought you had a few good nails in a snake already, but then you come back to find nothing but a couple of nails stuck in the ground, and maybe one of those empty shed skins you mentioned, and no snake to go with them.

We're still in some debate over whether the head is the beginning or the end of the story (both ends can have nasty teeth, in my experience). I would certainly not rule out the idea of finding the odd two-headed snake in my snake-box either.

By contrast, I think Ghost Stories has turned out to be a giant but pleasantly slow moving killer python, which is even-tempered or just nerve-damaged enough to sit there patiently while I hammer it full of nails. It doesn't much like other snakes though. Whenever similar snakes get anywhere near me lately it snaps at them until they run away again. Now and then I head off to hammer something else in at a safe distance if they python's gotten a bit tetchy and I want to wait until it's calmed down again, but I'm not sure I'm going to get much of anything in the holic vein done until I've got the whole python safely immobilised.

[lunargeography.livejournal.com]

I think they are all multi-headed snakes. *nods* At least 2, and maybe more.

I can see Ghost Stories being a demanding and jealous snake. *nods*

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think truly multi-headed snakes are the ones involving tricky things with time travel or alternate endings. Fortunately, that makes the at least a little rarer.

At least Ghost Stories is proving very well behaved so far, though I'm going to have to get up to the bit with the teeth in it eventually, and I'm still not sure quite what my plan of attack is going to be at that stage.

Fly-by metaphor luv!

[entanglement.livejournal.com]

I particularly like the idea that you're nailing down snakes in a box while blindfolded. Because I think it's a pretty universal fic-writing feeling, that you're pretty sure you have nails in a snake, and you're maybe even reasonably sure that those nails are in the same snake, but you can't shake the nagging feeling that there are parts of that snake that still need nails. And yet, you have no idea what, or where, those parts are -- only that your snake feels incomplete.

May I link to this entry from my journal?

Re: Fly-by metaphor luv!

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Well, often it's obvious where the nails need to go, because you can see that bit of the snake still whipping around all over the place. But figuring out just how many nails per length of snake you need and how to space them out, or what order you should be nailing them in to avoid making the job any harder for yourself, that can be very tricky - to say nothing of actually getting those nails in when the damn thing won't sit still.

Sure, link away! I'd love to see this metaphor spread around.