Whereas I have to go back and cut out a lot of excess description and 'stage directions'.
There are about ten thousand different ways to write badly, she reflected gloomily....
Hey, if it means I don't have to read any more, woo and, might I add, a big hoo.
Xander ,'Sleeper'
The Great Write Way
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
Theodosia - Jan 23, 2003 12:55:05 pm PST #496 of 10001
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"
Hil R. - Jan 23, 2003 12:55:52 pm PST #497 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
Dialogue is definitely the hardest thing for me to write. I usually end up with three pages of description before I remember that the characters are supposed to be talking to each other. I've found that I sometimes end up with much more interesting (to me, anyway) stories when I just let the descriptions show what's going on, rather than trying to force my characters to talk. But while that can work for a short story, it simply doesn't go over too well for anything longer than that.
Connie Neil - Jan 23, 2003 12:56:10 pm PST #498 of 10001
brillig
There are about ten thousand different ways to write badly
And why there are so many notebooks locked away in trunks adn drawers, whispering to us about our pasts.
erikaj - Jan 23, 2003 12:57:04 pm PST #499 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!
Descriptions make me sweat. And not in the fun way. To write, I mean. I like other people's.
Am-Chau Yarkona - Jan 23, 2003 12:57:41 pm PST #500 of 10001
I bop to Wittgenstein. -- Nutty
There are about ten thousand different ways to write badly, she reflected gloomily....
At least two for every writing implement in the universe. Not per writer, but per pen/keyboard/pencil. I'm depressingly convinced of this.
This sounds like an interesting story.
I try to steer clear of thinks that are much too gruesome. (She says, fully aware that she also writes vampires with hypocritical regularity.)
Alibelle - Jan 23, 2003 12:57:58 pm PST #501 of 10001
Apart from sports, "my secret favorite thing on earth is ketchup. I will put ketchup on anything. But it has to be Heinz." - my husband, Michael Vartan
I think the hardest part is actually finishing the story, and not allowing yourself to be seduced away, and starting another, abandoning the original effort to obscurity.
Theodosia - Jan 23, 2003 1:01:30 pm PST #502 of 10001
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"
Most of the time it's like squeezing out sparks for me. t piff paff
Alibelle - Jan 23, 2003 1:03:28 pm PST #503 of 10001
Apart from sports, "my secret favorite thing on earth is ketchup. I will put ketchup on anything. But it has to be Heinz." - my husband, Michael Vartan
Squeezing out sparks?
Connie Neil - Jan 23, 2003 1:48:04 pm PST #504 of 10001
brillig
not allowing yourself to be seduced away
You get to the hard "tie together all the lines" part, and this new idea pops into your head, all shiny in its potential, and you just want to go play with it ...
Theodosia - Jan 23, 2003 2:02:20 pm PST #505 of 10001
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"
I tend to think of it as the "make the characters really suffer for what they've done" round. No wonder my characters keep chattering away... they're trying to stave off inevitable doom.