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style and scene
Oct. 31st, 2022 09:01 pmGotta work on my style.
Because I've got a scene where a child is running, and slaughter's occurring around him. This lends itself to short punchy sentences, and no time to think, and certainly no time to think straight. Still more when the child could barely, given enough time and peace and quiet, realize half the significance of what he sees.
My style works just fine for the scene after, when he's playing dead and hoping the villains don't realize he's still alive. Entirely too much time to think then.
But the scene before still needs work.
Because I've got a scene where a child is running, and slaughter's occurring around him. This lends itself to short punchy sentences, and no time to think, and certainly no time to think straight. Still more when the child could barely, given enough time and peace and quiet, realize half the significance of what he sees.
My style works just fine for the scene after, when he's playing dead and hoping the villains don't realize he's still alive. Entirely too much time to think then.
But the scene before still needs work.
Been a while. But Parts I, II, III, and IV still await perusal.
And the impact of point of view, particularly close point of view, has struck me recently.
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And the impact of point of view, particularly close point of view, has struck me recently.
( Read more... )
sentence structure and stage
Jan. 20th, 2022 10:48 pmOne thing you should do when structuring a sentence: putting any stage setting first.
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'tis the voice of a child
Apr. 11th, 2021 11:59 pmOne complication of using a child as the point of view character is keeping not just the observations within the child's power to make, but the voice.
It's not so tight a point-of-view that I have to be absolutely strict, but it's not so loose that I can festoon their thoughts with erudite polysyllables.
Though, on reflection, the oldest of the children I am working on now is chiefly a problem because she's kinda silly.
It's not so tight a point-of-view that I have to be absolutely strict, but it's not so loose that I can festoon their thoughts with erudite polysyllables.
Though, on reflection, the oldest of the children I am working on now is chiefly a problem because she's kinda silly.
further first-person philosophy
Apr. 6th, 2020 11:45 pmThough just a bit this time:
If you have several first-person points of view in the story, and I have to flip back to the chapter opening to remember who this one is. . . .
You REALLY need to work more on their voices.
There's no point in switching point of view characters if the characters aren't different, and if they are first-person, this needs to come out in the voices.
If you have several first-person points of view in the story, and I have to flip back to the chapter opening to remember who this one is. . . .
You REALLY need to work more on their voices.
There's no point in switching point of view characters if the characters aren't different, and if they are first-person, this needs to come out in the voices.
first-person philosophy
Apr. 4th, 2020 11:59 pmAh, the perils of first-person point of view. There are those who tell you it's third-person limited with the pronouns changed. Don't believe them.
Well, yes, you can write it like that, taking advantage of the conventions that allow you to have a first-person narrator who is telling the story to no particular audience for no particular motive, but even there you have to pay the price that your POV character will therefore be characterized as the sort of person who would describe things like a third-person limited narrative.
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Well, yes, you can write it like that, taking advantage of the conventions that allow you to have a first-person narrator who is telling the story to no particular audience for no particular motive, but even there you have to pay the price that your POV character will therefore be characterized as the sort of person who would describe things like a third-person limited narrative.
( Read more... )
time passes
Jul. 15th, 2019 11:50 pmThe first 30 pages of the novel cover the first 14 years of the heroine's life. Makes the problem of indicating passing time urgent.
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plotting problems
May. 28th, 2019 10:32 pmWhen you lock up one character in a tower, and two down in the dungeon, and have a fourth who sometimes talk to either set, but never both at once --
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a unified field theory of magic
Jul. 14th, 2016 10:37 pmReading a story in which there are two random, unrelated bits of magic. A character can do two things with no connection between them. (In story. And it's rather hard to invent one even when trying.)
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