The Workshop - Tips, Tricks, and Theory

liquiddark

OremLK wrote: »

1. Telling:
Kate walked into the alleyway and was mugged by a masked man. She gave him her wallet and ran home, crying for half an hour before she called the police to make a report.

I'm on the fence about this. Depending on the narrator, this isn't necessarily a problem passage. I don't feel like the clarification helps point out the difference.

Kate stepped into the dark alleyway, a triangle of yellow light spilling across the concrete from the street beyond. Her dinner with Tony had gone well, but what did he really think of her? She let the click-click of her heels set the rhythm of her thoughts, walking faster to drive the anxiety from her mind. She was still going over dinner in her mind when the dark shape of a man standing in a doorway ahead jolted her out of her reverie. She barely had time to shriek as he shot down the steps and slammed her into the wall.

This isn't the same POV or the same story as before. Yes, the details are richer and more evocative, but the perspective is tighter and the story is completely different.

Showing vs telling is mostly about not explaining things that can be evoked in details.

Compare:

The alley was dark. Kate imagined black hooded men waiting in the shadows waiting to assault her. She felt scared. Just then a black hooded man came out of the shadows and assaulted her. He pulled her arms behind her, hurting her.

to:

Kate walked quickly down the alley, her eyes flickering between shadows. She clutched her bag tight to her chest and played with the pepper spray inside. A large, heavy form crashed into her from behind, bearing her to the ground. She gasped as strong hands wrenched her arms tight behind her.

I know she is scared because she is walking quickly and looking around. I know she fears whatever might be in the shadows because she is looking at them, and because of her grip on the bag. I can probably figure out that she thinks she'll be assaulted by means of the pepper spray. I know she's hurt because she gasps, and because I can imagine the feeling of that piece of action. I know all of that and I didn't need to be told any of it explicitly.

Anarchos

I'm almost on page 3, I want to read it all to not repeat other people's advice without giving them credit. I just wanted to say thank you to everybody on here. Your words took time and consideration to write. A gift from your intellects and experience. Thank you.

Anarchos

There is a lot which is covered so far in this thread. So here's a bit of wisdom I have which may not be that wise at all.

This works for me but may not work for other people: How I keep grinding away at something I am working on.

First I set realistic goals for myself. Then I set a self reward for accomplishing that goal. I tend to scale the reward with the goal. Example: If some friends wanted to go catch a movie over the upcoming weekend which is on the list of movies I want to watch, I'll try to write at my peak. If they want me to come along the following day and I don't care about the movie either way, yet I still want to have fun with my friends, I'll try to finish writing a scene/chapter for that night.

I will buy things and leave them boxed/wrapped up until I hit my goal of X. This has included Skyrim and Assassin's Creed Revelations. If I love a game, I'll limit myself to one evening a week playing it unless I accomplish my goals for that week then I'll play it a day early and the following regular day.

Also if my writing is sub par to what I normally put out, I don't reward myself.

This works for me and may not work for others.

Anybody else have a method of putting their nose to the grind?

D-Doc

Some very good advice in here-I especially like the bit about reading sentences out loud to hear how they sound.

I write every morning for at least an hour (only for my two weeks off each month; the other two weeks I'm out on an oil rig), but when I'm in the zone I'll go for as long as I feel like. It usually ends up being around two hours total, but sometimes later in the day I'll check back on it and add a thing or two. I agree with the poster who said that writing isn't always fun, even for those who genuinely enjoy it. It's definitely frustrating and monotonous sometimes, but the days when I get into the flow and write feverishly without thinking about time more than make up for it, along the feeling of satisfaction I get when the story is done and edited and ready to be posted for feedback.

Anyhway, committing to write at a certain time every day has really helped me. I think writing for at least an hour every morning is a good place to start. Wake up, eat some breakfast, drink some coffee, throw in a dip if you have to, snort a line of blow, put on music-whatever your ritual may be, I can't recommend writing in the morning enough. When I used to work on a pecan farm I would wake up about two and a half hours before work so that I got at least an hour of writing in before I left. I don't write too much on work days now. I read and I may write a thing or two here and there when I have the chance.

Nappuccino

I'm trying to get back into writing (I took an Adv writing course last semester) but I've always had a rough go at plots. I try to outline them point by point and I feel uncreative. I try to let the characters guide it and then it becomes an unfocused mess. I've been skimming this thread for tips, but if anyone wouldn't mind linking me to a post where this is covered, (or just giving a general response) I'd be grateful.

Quoth

Have you tried the Snowflake method? You can always do a brief, general outline and let the details form more organically. It's not one option or the other.

I have my own method that I could send you over to if you're interested. It's more character-driven but does provide a framework to get started.

Nappuccino

I remember trying the Snowflake method long ago, but it's a little foggy. I might google it and see where that gets me.

And I'm all ears. If you'd like to PM or even just reply here, that'd be great.

Quoth

Here's the brief version: http://candleinsunshine.com/asthemoonclimbs/on-writing/quick-and-dirty-nano-plan/

There's a link to the long one there as well. Like I said, it starts with character and builds from there. That's not to say that your idea has to start as characters, but that I think it's the best way to start planning and outlining.

Do you find that your ideas usually come as scenes, or bits of dialogue, or worlds, or what?

Nappuccino

Thanks! I'll give it a shot

Usually bits of dialog or phrases that my brain thinks of while I'm driving around- so I scribble them and come back to them later. Sometimes I get a general plot but filling all the little bits between main points falters.

Occasionally, I do the character thing, but it seems to work best when the character is essentially me or I already have a strong plot to latch them onto.

edit: That actually clears things up a bit- at least for how to get things moving with the characters. I tend to forget about their "want/need" or don't to a good job figuring out how to make such a thing story-worthy because I haven't spent enough time on it.

VanityPants

Nappuccino wrote: »

I'm trying to get back into writing (I took an Adv writing course last semester) but I've always had a rough go at plots. I try to outline them point by point and I feel uncreative. I try to let the characters guide it and then it becomes an unfocused mess. I've been skimming this thread for tips, but if anyone wouldn't mind linking me to a post where this is covered, (or just giving a general response) I'd be grateful.

@Nappuccino: This sounds a little bit like me, honestly. If I over-plot, I get bored. If I don't plot at all, I meander. I found that my personal solution is to start with a very loose plot. Usually that just means I have an idea for a beginning and an end, and what I think will probably be the middle beat.

I write the beginning that I know and let the characters and story start to lead me, but as I'm going I keep a notebook with me everywhere and make notes. This way, I start to kind of structure the plot as I go. Generally I'll be just a step or two ahead, thinking about where I am now and writing down what the next logical step is. Occasionally ideas will come to me for events down the line and I'll write those down in my notebook, too, and see if and when they connect in the story.

It's by no means a very structured method, but it's the way that works for me. I don't like to overthink things in the first draft, mainly.

Sometimes this kind of stuff is just something you have to play around with until you find what sticks for you.

Quoth

Yeah, don't be afraid to try different approaches until you find something that works for you. No one method is best for everyone. And it's also fine to cobble something together from other people's ideas as you go.

Nappuccino

@VanityPants: That sounds pretty good too . . . Just keeping about two steps ahead of the story seems like a good idea to try as well.

Mustachio Jones

The one thing I would warn against with having an (detailed) outline and knowing where everything is going ahead of time is that a lot of the good stuff is borne of just being there in the story yourself and seeing where things go. This, of course, is kind of bad for novel writing on a large scale (i.e. the novel as a whole and its overarching plot, not scene-writing), but I've found that it makes the best shorts.

But, as has been said, you kind of just have to try everything and see what sticks.

Magell

When you want to write an outline I recommend the vaguest of outlines so you just have a general idea of where you story has to go at all points so you're writing can go from point to point. You still have a lot of leeway in how you get to those points, and how exactly they play out, but you need to have a general idea of what's happening.

Lie

I don't know if this has been already stated, but one of the rules of writing a book is to keep your work "reader friendly." It's good you've a vast vocabulary, but it is highly advised that you lessen the use for profound words. I think the explanation for this is you don't want your audience to pick-up a dictionary every time they encounter an unfamiliar word.

If anything else, this thread helped me in some way, and have jotted down some ideas to cook-up a good story.

Oghulk

I feel like McCarthy would argue against that rule. When writing I figure it's best to find the most precise word in place of using a dozen less 'profound' words.

Kamar

Lie wrote: »

I don't know if this has been already stated, but one of the rules of writing a book is to keep your work "reader friendly." It's good you've a vast vocabulary, but it is highly advised that you lessen the use for profound words. I think the explanation for this is you don't want your audience to pick-up a dictionary every time they encounter an unfamiliar word.

If anything else, this thread helped me in some way, and have jotted down some ideas to cook-up a good story.

I disagree. Use the most precise word you know. Don't dig up a thesaurus and use one you're unfamiliar with, don't dumb down, just use the most precise one you know.

Oghulk

I feel like diminishing a piece to make it "reader friendly" really just dicks over the reader in the end.

As a reader I absolutely hate that.

VanityPants

The point isn't really to dumb it down in the case of that advice.

The point is to not write bad, stilted prose by trying to shoehorn in words that don't fit the story. 99% of the time you're not going to be writing things that require you to use large, difficult words and a lot of young and beginning writers think that using more esoteric words will somehow make their book more profound.

The point is to write clearly, concisely, and in a way that fits the story. Precision is important, and you want to pick the right word, but you can easily cross the line from precision to overcomplication and take people out of the story.

ElJeffe

The only time I would really worry about using an actually-precise word because the reader might not know it is if I were writing children's lit (which I don't actually do). And even then, it's okay if the kid runs into a word they don't know every so often.

The guidelines for picking good fiction for your kid's reading level actually specify that there should be a word or two per page that the child doesn't know. Usually you can figure out the meaning of the word from context, and if not they can always ask, but this is how you build their vocabulary - you give them books with new words.

I figure if it's reasonable for kids, it's reasonable for adults. Maybe not a word per page, but I love running into words I've never heard before, or haven't heard for a long time, or have heard but only kind of know.