"Long as you keep em all of balance/How can they spot you've got no talent?" "Razzle Dazzle" Chicago
Jayne: There's times I think you don't take me seriously. I think that ought to change. Mal: Do you think it's likely to?
'Our Mrs. Reynolds'
The Great Write Way, Chapter Two: Twice upon a time...
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
erikaj - Feb 16, 2005 1:47:50 pm PST #18 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!
Scrappy - Feb 16, 2005 1:57:22 pm PST #19 of 10001
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
"Razzle Dazzle" Chicago
Sung brilliantly in the original Broadway cast by Jerry "Lenny Brisoce" Orbach.
erikaj - Feb 16, 2005 2:05:04 pm PST #20 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!
No way! Man, Uncle Lennie, was there nothing you couldn't do? Besides defeat prostate cancer, of course. (I always thought, if L&O were more like H:LOTS, it might have been funny to have the cops close out the place with "Danny Boy" or something, all except Lennie, who claims he can't carry a tune in a bucket.)
Scrappy - Feb 16, 2005 2:37:50 pm PST #21 of 10001
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
Check it out, Erika! [link]
You can hear snippets here. I loved Gere in the film, but Orbach has a better voice.
erikaj - Feb 16, 2005 2:53:33 pm PST #22 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!
Too true. Can't get more different than Lennie and Billy Flynn!
Susan W. - Feb 16, 2005 3:36:57 pm PST #23 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights
Question for the group:
How many times could you handle a character reflecting on an event in her past without going into details--i.e. "On such-and-such a date, Everything Went Wrong"--before you tracked down the author at her home and beat her to death with a wet noodle for being unnecessarily coy? Once? Twice? Thrice? The Big Reveal, such as it is, is probably going to come at some point after page 100, because I want it to come from the heroine's lips, in conversation with the hero, when they've reached a degree of intimacy to justify Big Secrets. So I'm torn between, "If you hint more than once, people will hate you," and, "If you just have that one hint in Chapter One, your readers will have forgotten all about it by the time you get to the aftermath of the Might-As-Well-Be-Having-the-Sex scene."
erikaj - Feb 16, 2005 3:38:49 pm PST #24 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!
I think I do it too much, Susan. You don't want my advice.
Connie Neil - Feb 16, 2005 3:42:42 pm PST #25 of 10001
brillig
I think probably once, if it's in the middle of the span to the Reveal, or twice, right near the beginning, then midway.
I've got a Wretched Big Secret in that original novel I'm working on, but chunks are being revealed as we go, kind of like a "My god, woman, how low did you let yourself sink?" kind of realization. Which is important, because she's going to come up against a line she won't cross and take action, a "this far and no farther" thing.
Why not have her mull over some of the lesser aspects of the Big Secret, something to tantalize the ghoulish into finding out the rest of the details?
Strix - Feb 16, 2005 3:43:36 pm PST #26 of 10001
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger
More than once, less than 4, sure, Susan. Unless it's a huge, whopping, "Back when I was...OOPS I almost revealed my BIG SECRET" hint, and then I think that would be enough.
When authors beat you over the head with a secret and (a) you figure it out too quickly or (b) they build up way too much for the reveal to justify the secret ("Wow -- so she dyes her hair? Huh.") that's crazymaking to me.
Susan W. - Feb 16, 2005 3:49:12 pm PST #27 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights
When authors beat you over the head with a secret and (a) you figure it out too quickly or (b) they build up way too much for the reveal to justify the secret ("Wow -- so she dyes her hair? Huh.") that's crazymaking to me.And I'm worried about both of these. (a) because I'm not the first writer ever to use this particular secret at as a plot device, and (b) because if I'm not careful readers might think I'm hinting at something else that's a bigger deal, and would be kinda cool, plotwise, but would add more complications than this story needs and be out of character for Anna, besides.