Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

On Writing

On Writing

After the Napoleonic Wars, a Prussian General named Clausewitz wrote a book entitled On War. His claim to fame was an idea that there are three levels to war. He named these, The Strategic, The Operational and the Tactical levels.

In the Tactical classification he put battles. These were fought on a piece of terrain and were local in nature.

In the Operational classification he put campaigns. These were a string of battles that secured some sort of regional objective.

In the Strategic classification he put the whole world in which the war was being waged…. This involved one or more regions that encompassed the entire geographical influence that was acting on the outcome of the armed conflict…

Since this was my discipline for many productive years and since I have a somewhat connective mind, it soon became apparent that these ideas do not apply to war alone but many aspects of the life that surrounds us. One of these I am beginning to learn applies to the writing of a novel, stage or screen drama.

In writing this is how I see the above classifications applying.

Tactical Writing: This includes spelling grammar, the writing of sentences, paragraphs and chapter sized works.

Operational Writing: This involves the stringing together of chapters into one or more volumes.

Strategic writing: Involves choosing something to write about, Central Characters, Want Needs of Desires, a Dramatic premise, a life changing event and a series of crisis that build to a climax, each one more intensive than the last.

At WDC I see a lot of Tactical Writing taking place. It is extremely important that a writer to master this level of writing. Still, like in war, all great tactical leaders don't have what it takes to be effective campaigners and all campaigners are not strategic thinkers. A writer however must be able to manage all three of these components and it is a huge mistake to believe that these are sequential phases. Strategic and Operational planning must happen concurrent with one another. What good is it to have great tactical and operational planning when suddenly something strategic happens and the whole notion is tossed out the window. the history of war is rife with examples where this has happened.

In my class, The One Act Play, it became evident that there was a lot of strategic and operational thinking that had to take place in a developmental phase. Just because someone could write a beautiful piece of flash fiction or short story did not mean they could simply devote a bit more of the same and also be successful with a novel or drama. I am not an expert in the Nano process and I know that for many who participate they do a great deal of developmental work. However, I'd be interested in seeing how these developmental structures and techniques dovetail into a writer’s operational and strategic thinking.

It is my view, the operational and strategic components of a longer work must happen concurrently. That is that the developmental process must look carefully at and they require a significant expenditure of time to make sure all the structures and ingredients are in place before the serious writing begins in Phase 2. Developmental writing is an important consideration and it involves much more than a simple outline. In my Exploratory Writing Class sketches will be made in prose in much the same manner as a fine artist does preliminary drawings for a painting. These are the six contest vignettes that are written. In this exercise the writer is searching for validation as to who the Central Character is going to be, what the story line will encompass, the dramatic premise, themes and how all the necessary ingredients are going to express themselves. From the six(6) vignettes, a story thread is then extracted and in the final week the whole effort is drawn together into a comprehensive outline or writing plan. This type of groundwork, I’m hoping could evolve into a process that will be useful in preparing anyone interested for next year’s NANO extravaganza.