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The Workshop - Tips, Tricks, and Theory
Zsetrek
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Registered User
The Workshop - Tips, Tricks, and Theory
One of the things I've noticed about the WB is that many crits are very common, and can be addressed easily. However, other crits are a bit more complex and difficult to explain, or may come off as a bit harsh and callous if used in reference to a specific story.
In light of that, I thought it might be nice to have a workshop thread where we can share writing tips, tricks and theory, and discuss the craft of writing in general terms.
So, please contribute your ideas. Format isn't really important, so long as you express your ideas well, and have something to share. Feel free to start discussion on contentious points, go over complex ideas in more detail, or expand on what other people have to say.
Make points about grammar, spelling, the craft of storytelling, clichés, or whatever you want.
If you're ever stuck for ideas, or you're stumbling over a particular element of your story, hopefully this will be a good place to peruse for that little kick you've been needing.
One of the things I've noticed about the WB is that many crits are very common, and can be addressed easily. However, other crits are a bit more complex and difficult to explain, or may come off as a bit harsh and callous if used in reference to a specific story.
In light of that, I thought it might be nice to have a workshop thread where we can share writing tips, tricks and theory, and discuss the craft of writing in general terms.
So, please contribute your ideas. Format isn't really important, so long as you express your ideas well, and have something to share. Feel free to start discussion on contentious points, go over complex ideas in more detail, or expand on what other people have to say.
Make points about grammar, spelling, the craft of storytelling, clichés, or whatever you want.
If you're ever stuck for ideas, or you're stumbling over a particular element of your story, hopefully this will be a good place to peruse for that little kick you've been needing.
Zsetrek on
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When I hear writers speak in workshops and at book readings, I always hear them talk about how they had no idea where the story was going when they first sat down to write it. Some of them have an idea about where they want it to end, how it should end, or a few key elements of the plot, but so often they just end up blowing them off because they've seen that their characters have developed in a way or their story took a turn that they hadn't anticipated.
That's not to say that they can't work for better-organised people, of course! Mostly I find them a neat way to get into the spirit of a character.
I'm told Anne McCaffrey is a great believer in backstories, but that's because she uses them to decide how a character would react to or resolve a situation, rather than just sauntering ahead and dictating it herself.
I agree with both parts entirely. Specifically how you say naturally.
This is how I write:
Initial idea, I plan it all out in my head, Character x will do this and it ends this way.
I sit down, and I write. But as I write, I find out it's not even about X, more about Y, and it's most definitely not going to end THIS way.
scratch that, that probably doesn't make any sense to anyone. What I mean to say, is that when I write, it's more like I'm the first reader of the story. The story dictates where it goes, not myself. I might be able to force it down one path or another better, but it unravels on its own for me for the most part.
When working towards a second draft, that's when I pop open notepad, reread the story, and say "Now that I know what's going to happen, All of these paragraphs are entirely irrelevant to the story/characters and can be taken out", then I try to improve story elements. After which, I move on to a new story.
-PSN&360&steam: dei2anged
seriously though, I guess a lesson that got drilled into my head is to keep the story focused. So to keep focused and to keep from rambling too much, I keep those plot outlines,
at the very least, I always know the ending before I start writing something to know where it's going to all end up in the end.
A simple plot outline complimented by a backstory is more than enough. To those who are against plot outlines: If you find that your plot is going off in a tangent to your actual outline then you probably haven't thought about your outline enough or you quickly whipped it up and went straight to writing.
The way I think about a plot outline is just to lay out a series of signifigant events, without any narrative. Sort of like a skeleton. Then when you actually write the thing with your prose and your narrative you're adding the muscle and the skin - Just like Leeloo in Fifth Element!
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Oh, hey I'm making a game! Check it out: Dr. Weirdo!
Agreed with the first statement, but although I'm definitely not "against" plot outlines, I frequently find mine are left on the roadside- even if I've laboured over it for weeks- as the story takes a turn that just feels fresher and more original than what I planned in the first place.
If a "twist" I had planned out now seems drab and uninteresting- usually because I've grown to understand a character better and I've decided that killing them off/exposing them as a traitor is just lazy rather than clever- or a momentous event comes along too soon or too late, I shuffle, delete, copy/paste and even completely rewrite segments.
Iron-hard restrictions choke the tiny part of me that manages to be creative when I'm swearing at my monitor in the small hours...
"If you come up with a good idea, jot it down."
He writes many, many stories, so he sort of takes it to an extreme. I remember he wrote about coming up with a 'kids trapped in elevator' story while driving. So, he stoppped the car and wrote 'kids elevator' in the dust on his car.
If you come up with a nifty idea, make sure to jot it down. I forget crap all the time.
I'd have to agree with reading it out loud, especially if you leave it alone for a week and then do it. I often suprise myself with 'what was I thinking?'
i'm gonna go yoda on all of you, and tell you to do this over and over again.
read outloud what you write.
[spoiler:aebbaa95e1]write what you outloud read.[/spoiler:aebbaa95e1]
as to jot things down: http://www.moleskinenotebook.com/plainpocket.html
I really want one of theeeeeese. anyone care to Secret Santa meee? :winky:
I make sure no one is around when I write.
In this case, that emoticon is used to say "my god I am a sad and lonely man". That's interpretation!
That last one is just Munacra's personal taste, but the others are essential for most people :lol:
Anyway, usually try to establish some kind of outline, often with quite detailed events too. I always diverge from it, though. It's just that something better comes up, or the idea doesn't suit the flow of the text, or I just want to move on to more important parts.
Are there any tips or advice for gaining inspiration, ideas, concepts, etc?
Oh, hey I'm making a game! Check it out: Dr. Weirdo!
Works for me, at least.
Then, figure out what needs to happen for the characters to come to that realization.
It's been said before, but outlines and treatments are set in stone - they can, will, and should evolve as you write. But it's crucial to have at least some idea where you're going.
As for coming up with ideas, just sit and think about what you've seen that week, and what's been on your mind. Then explore it in fiction.
Thank you, Rubacava!
I shall die at the top."
-Jonathan Swift
Faulkner wrote his stories in the south, Hemingway wrote his in Paris, Cuba, south Florida, Spain, Africa, and Italy, all places he experienced. Gatsby takes place where Fitzgerald lived. Douglas Adams wrote about the UK, even when he was writing about space. Marquez writes in a Columbia lost to him. Stephen King made up a town in Maine.
So my Writer's Tip? Write where you know. You won't need to convince the reader about your setting because you will be more comfortable with it. That way your setting won't get in the way of your story. Since I started writing my stories in Tampa, Miami, Washington D.C., and parts of the Caribbean, I've started feeling a lot better about my writing.
Plus, if you do manage to get published (unless you live in New York, Paris, London, or other centers of the universe) you might get some free press just for being a local.
I know I went and saw The Punisher in theatres because the beach scene at the beginning was filmed at the island three miles from where I grew up and where I first had some girl's tongue in my mouth. The rest of the movie was filmed at several locations all within 10 minutes of my home. It was neat seeing John Travolta and that other guy blowing shit up at places I go to.
A favorite trick of mine is to come up with something like an imaginary news headline or short report - "homecoming queen freezes to death" or "scandal at charity gala: mayor's wife goes berserk" - and use that as a starting point. Real news work too.
I just wrote a couple of hundred words, glossary-style, about one of my fictional species. But god knows what use that'll be.
Nobody explicitly sets out to make a statement about the human condition, from what I can tell. It usually comes out on it's own as part of the story and it's presence is implicit.
EDIT: hehe, as I read that I thought of an interesting quote from the Duncan Idaho ghola, Hayt
Oh, hey I'm making a game! Check it out: Dr. Weirdo!
Simply, take your time, and write how you write - don't "purple" up your prose because you think it makes you sound smarter.
And, since it can never be said enough: Make sure the copy is tight.
Thank you, Rubacava!
They're also way, way less likely to become cookie-cutter, and if you have to say goodbye to one, you'll feel more of an urge to give them whatever space and time they need for a proper send-off.
Chances are, if you don't grieve for the loss of a character, neither will the reader.
I remember the character of Dirk Gently in Douglas Adam's Detective series: I just couldn't empathise with him in the slightest. It was like he'd combined the worst traits of Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent, and the end result was just... dull, for me. Of course, it didn't help that the books simply weren't as good as HHGTTG, either....
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DON'T GIVE IN TO PEER PRESSURE. Even if it's just in your head. The reader might not even notice, consciously, but it'll add to part of the 'background noise' of a piece, which can be utterly crucial.
Also, make sure you write stuff that is actually correct. You can't just switch reality around to fit what you want at a specific time, then change it later.
When you have characters, in addition to making them more that two dimensional you have to keep them consistent; you can't have a character reacting one way to a situation, and then completely differently to a similar situation later, without them having undergone some radical personality shift or they just won't be believable.
Final thing: when you come up with an idea or see somthing interesting, no matter how stupid or insignificant it may seem to be, write it down, and explore where it could take you. With me, a single random squiggle on a peice of paper inspired me to begin writing a story that is currently in excess of 40,000 words.
Obviously, it's complete bunk, and you should throw it completely out the window and go with your story - but the realisation that absolutely everything I had been writing up to that point was solely visual completely overthrew and changed my writing.
It's useful to remember just how much more impact a story has when you're describing all the sensations, not just one limited impression.
Reading is the best step towards becoming a good writer. Remember that you were a reader before you were a writer, and whatever you write, write it knowing that someone will read it in mind.
That means READ. Read a lot, read more than you write. And really read, like after you finish that book that you love the most, go back to it and make a literary research paper on it, an essay, your own sparknotes whatever.
Your best teacher will be your favorite book.
Suspense. Suspense keep the reader turning pages. We all want to be in that state of "what happens next". If you find yourself in a snag, try adding an element that will add suspense.
Imagery does come with an expiration date, and it it loses it's "freshness" it loses its impact.
"At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bak of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs."
If that sentence was a woman, I'd [spoiler:086802cea1]fuck it cuz she fine and fresh, just like I like em[/spoiler:086802cea1] :winky:
But seriously, I sometimes see those kind of elements forced into WIPs, clearly because someone's made a good-natured suggestion and the author doesn't realise that randomly inserting something into their fledgling novel isn't always a smart move.
And euol's right, but if you're not careful with your application of setting/character/plot ideas, you get 169,000 word babble-heaps that don't go anywhere. *cough*
[quote=Joan Didion]What's so hard about the first sentence is that you're stuck with it. Everything else is going to flow out of that sentence. And by the time you've laid down the first two sentences, your options are all gone.[/quote]
There's a lot of pressure attached to the first sentence. How much should I say? What should I say? Should I verb in the first sentence, or should I be a gentleman and wait?
Here's the thing: the first sentence is important. It's going to be the first thing your reader sets eye on, so it bears the full weight of the narrative on its shoulders. On the other hand, that doesn't mean it needs to be the first thing the writer sets to paper.
The important thing is to start writing. Don't linger on the first sentence -- just get it written and keep moving.
Afterwards, go back and cut the first few paragraphs, and see how your story begins -- chances are it will be an improvement. In fact, try it now with some of your more unpolished pieces. There's a beauty to beginning in media res (literally "in the middle of"): no clunky exposition, bogged-down description, or an awkward sense of having shown up early to a party. Additionally, it helps draw the reader in by refusing to give them the courtesy of an introduction. Pull them in by the collar, thrust a beer in their hand, shove them into the middle of an argument between two lovers, and then watch.
Of course, Didion's right: the moment you start writing, you start sacrificing freedom. Therefore, by the time you've written those first two or three disposable paragraphs, your story's lenses are tighter, the view more focused. You've established by then in your own mind what the story is about, and so there's little to no ambiguity, and little danger of a false start.
Go! Write! And when you've finished your story, start it!
Also, a good idea if you're writing a story with lots of complex things happening or if you are including lots of creatures, gadgets, etc, then it's a good idea to write down (seperately from your story) what exactly they are, and put down a reasonably detailed description of them so you don't end up contradicting yourself. Of course, this doesn't mean you should write down everything, as if you do that you'll end up writing more about the things in the story than the story itself.
Final point; be flexible, and don't be afraid to remove some part of the story or some plot device you really liked if you think it will make the story flow more. There's a good chance that at least one, and probably more, of your ideas are no good, and just slow and destract from what could otherwise be a very good story. So if you need to completely alter some major part of your story to make it work, then do it. Just be sure you save a copy of it prior to changes, though, as your editing may make it worse (there's no way to know until you're done).
best advice i can give: everyone is different. therefore, everyone has something different to bring to the table. find out what your strength is, use it, and be sure to start woodshedding out your weaknesses. you might be awesome at creating character dialogue. thats great; a lot of people have problems with that. on the same token, if your not so fantastic on making characters or crafting plot, then you might end up with Jack and Jill having a wonderful conversation, as they go to get water. the talk is great....but everything else is lacking.
i should probably add that this same advice applies to the characters you create as well. they are, for all intents and purposes, real people (or they should be, to the author. if not, they wont be any more real to the readers, hench a bad story usually). they are all different, or should be. pull that out. show what they can and cant do; what they will and wont do. where's their breaking point? what would motivate them to kill someone? to kill for someone, to die for someone? under what conditions would they act completely opposite from normal?
its a good way to brainstorm up a quick little idea, and go with it. once you've toyed with it a while, a more solid plot usually begins to develop. THATs where the outlining comes in, so long as its a guide, and not irrivocably decreed by some all-powerful being. some of the most fun writing is letting your characters do what you never thought they would. makes for good literature.
ex: would anyone have liked Boromir from lotr nearly as much, if he hadnt died in the end, trying to protect the hobbits?
If they react in a way which is not only understandable but also relatable, then even if we're talking about Jim's fight against a 60ft killer robot we can understand and emphasise with the kind of hardship he's facing. Well... to a degree.
And as a writer, if you start thinking about why your characters are doing something, rather than just because your plot outline calls for it, it becomes far more interesting to write about the events you'd only touched upon in the planning stage (even though that might've just consisted of you having one brilliant thought during a coffee break).
And to touch on archetypes (to throw in a totally unrelated point), I feel that sometimes people need to remember that real people fall into the kind of categories jaded readers keep citing as cliches. I really have had loudmouth comedy friends. I really have had evil-minded sadistic teachers without a drop of ability. To tell me the soldier is ludicrous when I'm related to his real-life inspiration- and have witnessed his drunken attempts to chat up a chair with a coat on it- makes me goggle :lol:
Oh, and Iriah: damn right.
See? Even real people (albeit unstable ones) have catchphrases! I've said that... three times now!