Bar maid! Bring me stronger ale! And some plump, succulent babies to eat!

Olaf the Troll ,'Showtime'


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.


Lyra Jane - Apr 01, 2005 6:18:30 am PST #996 of 10001
Up with the sun

Yay for Kristin! Getting paid is always good.


erikaj - Apr 01, 2005 6:30:23 am PST #997 of 10001
I'm a fucking amazing catch!--Fiona Gallagher, Shameless(US)

I could definitely wait. But I'm thinking I need some sort of project to take my mind off upsetting thoughts today. I'll just look for simple fixes first. Still not my favorite though, but better than getting sucked in to awful TV about baby-selling rings or something.


Susan W. - Apr 01, 2005 6:41:03 am PST #998 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

Editing sucks. A lot. And I don't know if I even have the skills to write what I picture, anyway.

First of all, I agree with Amy that you might want to let your book rest a little more before you try editing it.

As for writing what you picture...well, skills can grow. A mememe story--when I first started doing this seriously back in 2001, everyone who read my work routinely told me they couldn't picture what I was writing. The characters were interesting and the writing was solid, but give us more details, please, especially more visual details. Four years later, I routinely get comments on how vivid, and especially how visual, my writing is! And while I've certainly tried to improve, I'm always surprised by the compliments, because I still think my writing is on the sparse end when it comes to sensory details. Someone will say, "Wow, this is vivid! I could just taste the dust from the road," and I'm thinking, "But all I did was say it was a hot day, and that my heroine was breathing the dust of thousands of marching feet and tramping hooves." Or they'll say, "Wow, that scene by the fire is so visual," and I think, "But all I said was that when he looks up from reading the poem, she's at the very edge of the firelight staring raptly at him--you filled in all the bits about what the firelight would look like flickering on her fair skin and suchlike yourselves."

Which is all a longwinded way of saying you improve with practice, and sometimes, apparently, much more than you realize.


Connie Neil - Apr 01, 2005 7:03:14 am PST #999 of 10001
brillig

Visual details don't come naturally to me. I can do stage direction well, but trying to describe the mental movie is a struggle. When I go back and try to add things, it always feels like padding.


Trudy Booth - Apr 01, 2005 7:07:07 am PST #1000 of 10001
Greece's financial crisis threatens to take down all of Western civilization - a civilization they themselves founded. A rather tragic irony - which is something they also invented. - Jon Stewart

ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssLUT


Connie Neil - Apr 01, 2005 7:07:41 am PST #1001 of 10001
brillig

Ah, truth in advertising.


Susan W. - Apr 01, 2005 7:36:04 am PST #1002 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

Stage direction always feels clunky to me on first draft, and sometimes on second and third. The thing that intimidated me the most when I got the idea for the wip was I knew it'd have several important action sequences, and hence much stage direction, while the first book was much more about people strolling and riding about pastoral English countryside being talky meat.

As for the visual/sensory stuff, I feel like what I've somehow accidentally figured out is how to tap into people's existing store of mental images and say just enough to make them flesh out the picture themselves. Because I'm certainly not painting word pictures or anything of the sort. But I don't know how I'm doing it. Not that I'm going to lose any sleep over it, as long as it's working.


deborah grabien - Apr 01, 2005 8:12:21 am PST #1003 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

And I don't know if I even have the skills to write what I picture, anyway.

Yes, you do. Your problem at the moment is with placement of scene, and a tendency to let your protagonist think instead of having her act.

Small stuff. The language? You've got that.


erikaj - Apr 01, 2005 10:03:35 am PST #1004 of 10001
I'm a fucking amazing catch!--Fiona Gallagher, Shameless(US)

Thanks. I expect a lot from myself, is all.


Liese S. - Apr 03, 2005 2:45:07 pm PDT #1005 of 10001
"Faded like the lilac, he thought."

Wow. I'm just getting home and caught up after two weeks, but just, wow. You people? You sure can write.