Can I pick your brain?
I am honoured to count among my readers some very talented writers and this post is for you.
I've brushed the dust and biscuit crumbs off a 16,000 word draft that I was working on last year. When I'd laughed myself hoarse and questioned my sanity after a few particularly dubious sections, I decided I liked the basic plot but it needed some serious work.
To pigeon hole the story, it is a quest based fantasy, i.e. something important and powerful is stolen from the rightful guardians by the bad guys for their own nefarious plans. Good guys have to get it back before the end of the world as we know it. :o)
I have two issues at the moment that I am struggling with.
First, I have in mind a handful of dramatic events to which the protagonist has to react beginning with the thingie being stolen and ending in the 11th hour show down. Can anyone please suggest any tips or methods that will ensure that the story does not end up feeling like " ... and then ... and then ... and then ...".
Second, I know that I should be showing and not telling but sometimes I'm finding this easier said than done, hence episodes of exposition. Any thoughts, please?
posted by Rhea at 3/01/2006 01:32:00 pm
2 Comments:
Was this the work you did for NaNoWriMo? Not sure if I could as one of your talented writers, but I'm never loath to venture an opinion! This sounds like a viewpoint problem to me, as if you're writing as an omnipotent narrator rather than from the viewpoint of one of your characters. Fast-moving writing is almost always written from a character's viewpoint, even in bits that look like description or narration - it's whatever the last person who spoke is seeing or doing or feeling. (Doesn't have to be the same character all the way through, of course.) If you come out of character, as a writer, you slow the story down every time. If any part of what you've written about isn't very, very important to one or more of your characters, cut it immediately, however beautifully written it may be! I'd suggest you pick up one of your own favourite quest-based fantasies, open it in the middle and read a few bits with this in mind. That may help you to work it into your own writing.
Different people find different things helpful when it comes to writing. There are some writer's blogs on my sidebar (Boob Pencil, Storytelling and The Writer's Life) that post about writing skills and techniques from time to time. There are many books on creative and genre writing available from libraries, bookshops and here http://www.writersservices.com/wbs/index.htm. Also the Arvon Foundation at http://www.arvonfoundation.org/ runs excellent residential courses for all types of writer at all levels. And there are writing groups in most parts of the country, your local council arts officer should be able to tell you what's around in your area if you're interested.
I think it's a very good sign that you can come back to your own writing after a gap and take a clear-eyed view of its strengths and weaknesses. Carry on - I'll buy it when it's published - I love a good quest fantasy!
I havent written anything in years and was probably never that good lol.
You are lucky you can identify the problems. Hope you solve them. I know from experience it can take what feels like forever.
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