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serial numbers and points of view
Jun. 9th, 2022 11:15 pmShould I increase the number of scenes from other points of view? Particularly earlier in the story?
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And make no mistake: irony tyrannizes us. The reason why our pervasive cultural irony is at once so powerful and so unsatisfying is that an ironist is impossible to pin down. All U.S. irony is based on an implicit "I don't really mean what I'm saying." So what does irony as a cultural norm mean to say? That it's impossible to mean what you say? That maybe it's too bad it's impossible, but wake up and smell the coffee already? Most likely, I think, today's irony ends up saying: "How totally banal of you to ask what I really mean."
― David Foster Wallace
― David Foster Wallace
secrets and readers
Apr. 7th, 2020 11:27 pmDecisions, decisions -- there I am following my heroine through her adventures and deciding when other characters first come into contact with her -- and what their back stories are --
And whether they should have their own POV threads.
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And whether they should have their own POV threads.
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Anyone with the heretical gall to ask an ironist what he actually stands for ends up looking like a hysteric or a prig. And herein lies the oppressiveness of institutionalized irony, the too-successful rebel: the ability to interdict the question without attending to its content is tyranny.
David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace
births and beginnings
Jan. 16th, 2018 11:54 pmI begin to outline a story. The significant events begin seven years before our hero is born, with the birth of his half-brother -- and the circumstances of how that came about will cause a lot of things in the story.
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the muse amuses herself
Sep. 23rd, 2013 08:20 pmSo I'm off wrestling with the point of view and whether to show stuff from the hero's point of view after the heroine's been rescued.
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an imp observes
Sep. 9th, 2012 10:47 pmSome aspects of writing deserve a warning label.
For instance, if you start to write, you will also start to revise. Which means eying your work with a critical eye for flaws. And if you are prudent, you read other works to see how they do (or fail to do so), in order to improve your own bag of tricks. Do that for long, and you discover you have summoned an imp. He will sit on your shoulder and treat any work of art before him as a sample for analysis. And you can't dismiss him.
I've watched Tangled recently. (Which is a great movie and you should probably watch it before my unsystematic but spoilerific comments.)
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For instance, if you start to write, you will also start to revise. Which means eying your work with a critical eye for flaws. And if you are prudent, you read other works to see how they do (or fail to do so), in order to improve your own bag of tricks. Do that for long, and you discover you have summoned an imp. He will sit on your shoulder and treat any work of art before him as a sample for analysis. And you can't dismiss him.
I've watched Tangled recently. (Which is a great movie and you should probably watch it before my unsystematic but spoilerific comments.)
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A Rhetoric Of Irony
Jun. 27th, 2012 08:43 pmA Rhetoric Of Irony by Wayne C. Booth.
By the same author as The Rhetoric of Fiction. Probably not as useful as a how-to-write book. Still fascinating.
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By the same author as The Rhetoric of Fiction. Probably not as useful as a how-to-write book. Still fascinating.
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too many rabbits
Nov. 10th, 2011 12:40 amOpening a novel with shifts between wide-separated, aparrently unconnected characters has its virtues.
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Plausible Miracles and Eucatastrophe
Jul. 16th, 2011 01:12 pmFrom the Readercon blurb:
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bittercon
Mark Twain instructed other writers that "the personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable." This rule can be generalized: the more favorable to the characters an unexpected plot turn is, the better it needs to be set up (see the end of James Morrow's Only Begotten Daughter). But what about eucatastrophe, where the power of a happy ending comes from its unexpectedness? Is the eucatastrophe in fact a form of plausible miracle where the plausibility derives not from things the author has put in the text, but from beliefs the reader already had, perhaps without knowing it? Or is there another explanation?
I think this one gets the ten-foot pole, too. (poke, poke, poke)( Read more... )
part of
bittercon views and clues
Oct. 11th, 2010 11:50 pmSending the main characters gallivanting about the landscape has numerous advantages.
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Villains' View
Jul. 31st, 2010 05:14 pmI'm going to have to look at the earlier sections for an outline. Some villains are going to be POV characters.
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I don't know about that
Jul. 9th, 2010 03:17 pmWhy did the villain tear apart the city in pursuit of the MacGuffin?
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May. 15th, 2010 10:47 pmSome prequels don't have a question about reading order. The original "prequel" The Hobbit actually was written before The Lord of the Rings so there's no reason to read The Lord of the Rings first.
But most labeled prequels were written after other works, and depict events earlier (for the main character, and unless time travel was involved, for everyone and the world as well). So do you read it in the order of published, or in the order from the character's POV?
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But most labeled prequels were written after other works, and depict events earlier (for the main character, and unless time travel was involved, for everyone and the world as well). So do you read it in the order of published, or in the order from the character's POV?
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the trouble with titles
Apr. 18th, 2010 07:40 pmSometimes, of course, they are no trouble at all. You knocks off the story, a perfect phrase presents itself, you stick it on the story before throwing it to the slush pile.
Sometimes. . . .
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Sometimes. . . .
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reversal, revisited
Feb. 22nd, 2010 10:08 pmAnother reversal trick starts much earlier in the story. When you know something will be needed in the future of the story, introduce it as the opposite of what it will turn out to be.
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Plowing along in an outline sometimes leads to -- nowhere, actually. Plot peters out. The characters just sit there. Not because I haven't got ideas and just have to grab one and decide where it goes, but because it's out of ideas, or those that I have really do need set-up to get anywhere, and I have no idea what the set-up could be.
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philosophy on faction
Feb. 4th, 2010 11:54 pmLong ago I discovered the charm of the character sheet, which made looking up the name of the red-haired and catty gossip three chapters ago a lot easier.
Recently I have started to discover the charms of a faction sheet, which is rather more distilled. It has a list of the factions in the story and therefore excludes all the bit characters and lumps together all who want the same objective and are working together. Rather handy when I'm stumped in the outline. I look at the list and pick someone who could be doing something now. Preferably something that demonstrated bone-headed inability to understand the character I just dropped. (Dramatic irony is the great tool of a multi-POV story.)
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Recently I have started to discover the charms of a faction sheet, which is rather more distilled. It has a list of the factions in the story and therefore excludes all the bit characters and lumps together all who want the same objective and are working together. Rather handy when I'm stumped in the outline. I look at the list and pick someone who could be doing something now. Preferably something that demonstrated bone-headed inability to understand the character I just dropped. (Dramatic irony is the great tool of a multi-POV story.)
( Read more... )
