nineveh_uk (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nineveh_uk) wrote2012-01-23 01:18 pm
nineveh_uk) wrote2012-01-23 01:18 pm
Entry tags:
With one mighty bound she was free
I forced myself to apply the bum to the seat this weekend*, and knocked off 1300 words of fanfic. I tend to think about fic a lot before I write it, which means that I end up with lots of alternative versions of scenes and things in my head that are not necessarily required for the story, but when they’re in my head/notes seem to weigh down the process of getting something on paper. How am I going to incorporate it all? Where does that bit fit? How do I include everything? Which version? Decisions will have to be made, I’ll have to commit to that one story, and even more I need not to include everything because no-one actually cares about quite a lot of it because it is entirely irrelevant to what the story is about**. Hence my notes not only include multiple versions of what the Wittenberg university porters are wearing, but are dotted with little things like “Reported speech!” and “conversation OR robes shop NOT both!!”
And then I sit down to write, and well, it’s easier. The story works itself out, often with something I haven’t thought of, and those three scenes that I worried were going to bog down the narrative however much fun they were to come up with are got rid of in half a sentence, “and then she left for New Zealand”.
Moral: stop worrying, sit down, and write. Though at some point you should probably check if that's a word.
*Except for when I was forcing my feet to the gym treadmill.
**What the story is actually about is of course open to question. As long as it doesn’t end up as “and so Lord Peter Wimsey realised how lucky he was and how he benefitted from an unequal society and decided that henceforth he would give his money to the poor and campaign for political and social reform in the UK, because he had learnt his lesson”.
And then I sit down to write, and well, it’s easier. The story works itself out, often with something I haven’t thought of, and those three scenes that I worried were going to bog down the narrative however much fun they were to come up with are got rid of in half a sentence, “and then she left for New Zealand”.
Moral: stop worrying, sit down, and write. Though at some point you should probably check if that's a word.
*Except for when I was forcing my feet to the gym treadmill.
**What the story is actually about is of course open to question. As long as it doesn’t end up as “and so Lord Peter Wimsey realised how lucky he was and how he benefitted from an unequal society and decided that henceforth he would give his money to the poor and campaign for political and social reform in the UK, because he had learnt his lesson”.
no subject
"Potter/Wimsey crossover fic with mpreg keeps you regular!"
how LPW gets the information he needs
But you do know that he needs it, which is half the battle. Can you think about the general ways in which fictional detectives get information (I mean in general: people tell them/deduction/prior knowledge/entrapment/direct observation/physical evidencet) that sort of thing, and see if any offer scope for exploration? And what does a tree diagram look like? Specifically, is the solution the branchy or root bit of the tree? Plotting things out can be very handy, even though I am idle and often try to avoid it.
it's all a bit simplistic
It isn't what you've got, it's what you do with it that counts.
no subject
Ideal for reading on the loo!
Can you think about the general ways in which fictional detectives get information (I mean in general: people tell them/deduction/prior knowledge/entrapment/direct observation/physical evidencet)
Oooh, I like the idea of entrapment - that provides an action climax as well as an information climax. Thank you! That's very helpful.
A tree diagram should really be called a roots diagram because it branches downwards like tree roots. It's really just a way of thinking about your series of questions - if you have the corpse at the top, it has two possibilities branching off it, MURDER and SUICIDE. MURDER subdivides into the pieces of evidence that support that theory, and the pieces of evidence in turn subdivide into further possibilities (or stop dividing, once an answer is found). It doesn't tell you the structure at a glance, but it helps me to keep things straight in my mind.
It isn't what you've got, it's what you do with it that counts.
Aye, there's the rub!
no subject
I like the concept of action climaxes vs information climaxes. It's amazing what an English degree doesn't cover about writing...