@d73175df
I've read some variations on how to imagine it. I like the one where you imagine you're on top of a mountain looking across a mountain range and choose another peak to get to.
Planning:
You take your bearings, pick out a few landmark waypoints, and set off.
Pantsing:
You don't know what's going to happen along the way, or who you're going to meet and the stories you might encounter.
Editing:
When you get finish, you look back over your journey and write about the best bits.
#wordweavers
On Developing Character, World, Plot.
I don't develop much before writing the first draft. I begin with an idea for the final act which, to me, is the most important. 1st draft is about exploring who's there and why.
2nd draft is about creating depth: fleshing out characters; building detail into the world; making sure the plot-points align. All while making sure the original story still zips along.
3rd draft is for polishing grammar turds and getting feedback
#WritingCommunity
@c09f86d3
Modern life is exhaustingly distracting. Add in having kids (needy little feckers) on top of that and it's a wonder anything personal gets done at all.
#WritersCoffeeClub
How often do you write?
At the moment, not very much at all. It's the busy season in my world. Come November and I should be able to devote more time to writing. On a good week maybe get through 7-10k words.
How do you find the time?
No one finds time, it's not lying around undiscovered like small change that slipped down the back of a sofa. It's just there, every day when you wake up, staring you in the face and asking you what you want to do with it.
#WritingCommunity
#writerscoffeeclub
Kill Your Darlings?
There's a corollary to this that should be as well-know: letting your bastard demons live.
You know they should die. They deserve to die. But they just won't die. And, generally speaking, they keep coming back in inferior iterations.
#Writing
#WritingCommunity
#AmWriting
#WordWeavers Old and Young characters.
None under 2, but there are 3 or 4 kids — one of whom is an MC.
Plenty of older characters in MC and SC roles.
I've a good mix of ages, hopefully showing different experiences of the world they inhabit.
#Writing
#WritingCommunity
#AmWriting
@c09f86d3
yeah, done the travel distance thing in pre-industrial times: on foot, mule, horse, wagon, boat, steamboat, ship.
Folk tales are a favourite too, The Watkins Book of English Folktales is invaluable.
#WritersCoffeeClub How do you promote your writing?
I don't.
I left all that to the book publisher way back when. Not sure whether to try the publishing route again, or go self-publishing.
Quite a few authors on her seem to have their own website and newsletter, so i might go that route.
It's either that or kidnap a famous person and hold them ransom until I get my book about kidnapping famous people to No. 1 on Amazon.
Six of one, half dozen t'other. Init.
#WritingCommunity
#WritersCoffeeClub Have you ever written about an ex-partner and changed their name in your story?
No.
There may be minor traits and partial physical descriptions that reference some real people, but that only happens at the outset when I'm outlining a character. Once they're off and running they become themselves, live their experiences through me and show me their lived lives, if that makes sense.
#AmWriting #WritingCommunity
#PennedPossibilities – Is your MC making the world a better place?
All 5 of them are trying to make their lives, and the lives of their loved ones, better
None of them have direct dealings with the antagonist, but what the antagonist does has directly affected each of them — they just don't know it. How they interact will affect the antagonists plans, perhaps not always for the best
I like the saying: "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end"
#AmWriting
#WritersCoffeeClub
Joy in Writing?
Yes.
No.
Sometimes.
Maybe.
All of the above, all of the time.
The hardest part is getting started, avoiding the million daily distractions — honestly, sometimes it's harder to start writing than it is to do my business accounts!
Once I get started it's generally fine, the dread dissipates.
I write in scenes, hopping between two or three, and can get such a buzz when I figure something out on the fly.
Love my characters, they've grown so much.
#AmWriting
@c09f86d3
I like my characters a lot, just not such i'd want to hang out with them given the state of their world. Quiet happy living with central heating in the countryside without swarms of delusion bad guys making things more difficult than they need to be ;)
@28c4bd15
Mickey Spillane boiled harder than a hot bullet. Him and Jim Thompson were like disciples of Dashiell Hammett, who perhaps started that whole school of writing dialogue sharper than a paper cut.
I, The Jury - I remember this coming out and loving it at the time. Not sure I'd want to run the risk of ruining my blood tinted memories by revisiting it now though ;) Some things are best left to faulty recollections.
https://files.mastodon.online/media_attachments/files/111/007/715/229/016/210/original/60d0fd2312836de9.jpg
Oddbean new post about login | logout
Notes by 43a332f9 | export