Lindsey Learns... to Be Prepared

This feature is based on whatever I am reading at the moment (so, yes, you are at the mercy of my readerly whims) and whatever I happen to learn as I am reading. My goal is to write about it and then open the subject up for discussion in the comments. Please come on along for the ride!


Tuesday was a bad day in first grade.  It was because everyone was a little off from school being closed on Monday and then Tuesday we had a delayed opening due to snow and icy roads and I had a meeting as soon as I got to school and didn’t have time to finish making copies and get prepared for the day as I would on a normal day when I get there early.

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When you have taught the same grade for 13 years, you can certainly wing it for an afternoon – you know how to teach a concept backward, forward, inside, and out.  You have lots of different teaching methods in your bag of tricks. If you don’t have copies, no worries, you can pull out another way to teach the same thing.  But still, being unprepared makes me crabby, and in turn, threw my kiddies off.  I felt like there was no foundation to our day, and I felt like I didn’t teach things well, and I felt as the day went on like it was unraveling like a sweater. 

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A seasoned colleague of mine who is retiring this year has all of these wonderful, funny truisms about life in first grade, and one of her famous ones is "the fish rots from the head".  She doesn't even know where the saying came from, but what it means is that if the class is having an 'off' day, it can be that they're taking their cues from you (the teacher).  In other words, if you're not feeling well, if you're stressed out, if your mind is elsewhere, if you're pushing them too hard... chances are you will see it reflected back in the kids' behavior.  On Wednesday, I didn't feel like I was prepared, and it threw me off, and in turn, my kids.

Immediately, when I stepped back to reflect on the day, I made the connection to my current writing situation.  Recently, Elana Johnson sang the praises of the book Save the Cat! on her blog.  It was within a post where she discussed how to start your book, and since I have my story idea all happily settled and the beginning has been a real bugger, I was all, HELLS YEAH and my fingers immediately did the walking and ordered the book.   Like, pronto.  Flames, on the sides of my fingers.  I typed that fast.

"Flames... on the sides of my face..."

Save the Cat! is actually a book about screenwriting, but as Elana said, the advice it gives is just as effective for novel writing.  It's a quick and easy read, to the point, makes things so clear, and on every page, it's like, YES, THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE!  Trust me.  Go buy it.  I'll wait.

Back?  Ok.  So Save the Cat! arrived at my doorstep pretty quickly (for those of you who have been following for awhile, no one stole the package from my front door!  Bonus!) and I dove right in.  I kinda had to, because Handsome Hubby is a TV Productions teacher and I think he is chomping at the bit to steal my new little gem. :) 

Anyway... onward toward the point of this post, I promise... I have been gobbling up the book and in it, Blake Snyder wills us as writers to do some sensible planning before we dive into the writing.  To have a clear logline in mind.  To make our MC likeable, even if just a little, so the readers are willing to go on this journey with us, and to have the genre clearly focused in our minds because each genre has a set of beats that should be followed to make the story a success.  He tells great tales of why movies flopped, generally because the moviemakers spent lots of money on effects rather than a few dollars on bettering the script.

So what did I learn from this?  That the whole reason that I am having trouble with my beginning, even though I have a whole story in mind, and pieces of it written, is that there were small but immeasurably important steps I hadn't yet taken before flying into the writing itself.  In essence, I jumped the gun.

Ok, this is more like running but... yeah.

So I stopped.  And I thought.  And I storyboarded.  And I worked on a logline and a title that gave me a clearer vision of my own story (they are still works in progress, but I feel like I have a lot more direction).  I know now how my MC will "save the cat", or perform an act at the beginning of the story that will sort of set her character in the readers' eyes.  It makes sense, but I hadn't done it.  I carefully read the 10 genres of screenplays he wrote about (it fits books also) and the necessary beats and focus of each one, and better identified the type of story I am writing.  And it has made so much sense.  I'm a complete Blake Snyder convert.  (And I have a brand shiny new CP to show my story to once I spiff it up a bit! WOOT!)

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So let's chat.  Are you a plotter and planner, or are you a gun-jumpin' pantser?  What works for you?  Have you read Save the Cat!?  Did it help you like crazy like it is helping me?  Let me know in the comments!

Oh and by the way... Wednesday was much better  in school.  So much so that I have a First Grade Funny to leave you with (yes, I know that's poor grammar, sue me):  So when your girls are being noisy in the hallway bathroom and you go in and ask them all sternly what they are doing, and you find that they are playing Rosa Parks and they show you how each stall is a bus seat.... You just kinda have to laugh. :)