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RichardB replied to the topic Where to start? in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 5 years, 10 months agoGood point, Squidge. It can also help if your think about how you perceive things in real life. When someone becomes angry, for instance, no one tells you ‘this person is angry.’ It’s shown to you as you see their brows come down, as you hear their voice rise.
And for all ‘novices’ reading this, another plug for Emma Darwin’s blog, the finest…[Read more]
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Squidge replied to the topic Where to start? in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 5 years, 10 months agoWot everyone else said! My rule of thumb to determine when I should show is to put myself in the MC’s shoes and write from their experience – if I can portray something through what they are seeing/hearing/feeling, then it’s probably more of a ‘show’ moment than a ‘tell’ one. For me, it’s linked with people and actions rather than descriptions -…[Read more]
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Sandra replied to the topic Where to start? in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 5 years, 10 months agoWhat a brilliant set of answers and examples to a most important question, I’ve been writing fiction ten years now but still forgetting how this one works. Thaks fir asking it, Andrew. And well done Jane for mentioning Emma’s blog – taught me so much.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Where to start? in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 5 years, 10 months agoShowing and telling is a tricky one and there are many situations where telling something is 100% right and others where showing is 100% right. The reverse is also true.
Jake was acting suspiciously when I met him at the cafe. He looked cagey and only told me about Jane when he was sure nobody else could hear him.
Jake sidled through the cafe…[Read more]
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Where to start? in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 5 years, 10 months agoHi Andrew. The only stupid questions are the ones you don’t ask and it doesn’t matter how ‘far’ along the learning the craft of writing journey you are, there are still more things to find out about and old things to be reminded about.
Emma Darwin’s blog The Itch of Writing has a host of useful blogs if you haven’t come across it already. This…[Read more]
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JaneShuff replied to the topic That old enemy, Perfectionism in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 5 years, 10 months ago
I like character questionnaires but I don’t do them slavishly. If there are questions where I don’t know the answer and I don’t care, I leave them. However other questions may provoke a stream of thoughts that go off on a tangent and I follow them. I find they are a useful tool (and that is all) when I want to work on a particular character and…[Read more]
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Squidge replied to the topic That old enemy, Perfectionism in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 5 years, 10 months ago
Doug – if your writing strikes you as ‘amateurish’, it’s probably a good thing; it means that, in the time since you originally wrote the novel you have grown and developed as a writer and are already – subconsciously – aware of it.
It’s very hard to do, but have you considered completely rewriting the story from scratch? It’s something I did…[Read more]
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RichardB replied to the topic That old enemy, Perfectionism in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 5 years, 10 months ago
I once tried out a character questionnaire from Emma Darwin’s blog on a principal character of mine, and my answer to seven out of twenty-one questions was ‘Dunno’ and/or ‘Does it really matter?’ Some of the other answers were pretty vague. But while writing the story I never had any difficulty in imagining what she’d say or do.
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RichardB replied to the topic That old enemy, Perfectionism in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 5 years, 10 months ago
Everybody has their own way of working; mine is very like Tony’s above. The important thing, I believe, is to find out which way suits you best, and not put yourself in a creative strait-jacket by blindly following some ‘rule.’ What works for some people may not work for you.
For example, we keep hearing ‘cut, cut, cut’ when it comes to editing,…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic That old enemy, Perfectionism in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 5 years, 10 months ago
Am I allowed to agree with all of you? When a writer like Stephen King just says something and it works, it’s because he is utterly confident with his voice. I’m not his biggest fan, but I have read a lot of his work and I do appreciate the extraordinary flow of his prose. I’m willing to bet he’s not on the heavy side when he edits.
I’m terrible.…[Read more]
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Squidge replied to the topic That old enemy, Perfectionism in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 5 years, 10 months ago
Mad has touched on what I posted (and lost!) yesterday.
Sometimes, I think we confuse perfectionism with finding our own, unique writer’s voice. We try so hard to make it sound ‘right’ that we forget we’re trying to express something of who we are, who our characters are, within the world we’ve created. Of course we want to make our stories the…[Read more]
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Mad Iguana replied to the topic Fantasy Anthology in the forum Podium 5 years, 10 months ago
Great news Kate – well done!!
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Mad Iguana replied to the topic That old enemy, Perfectionism in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 5 years, 10 months ago
Perfectionism is a curse. But the desire for perfection is necessary, if we’re ever to get to be as good as we can be.
Every time I re-read anything I’ve ever written, I find myself changing a word here, a phrase there. A sentence can be cut completely and rewritten, and in the next rewrite, it comes back again.
I found comfort in the quote from…[Read more] -
Squidge replied to the topic That old enemy, Perfectionism in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 5 years, 10 months ago
Aaaargh! Just wrote a reply and it’s thrown me off and lost it all! Will post again tomorrow…
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