I’m trying to look at books the way a librarian might, in order to help get me better at thinking from a reader’s point of view. Here are the other posts in the series. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is another graphic novel. (I checked a stack of best-of graphic novels all out at once, …
Think Like a Librarian: My Favorite Thing is Monsters, by Emil Ferris Read More »
I’m working on a series on pacing. You can see other posts in the series here. … Dear engineer types, I am a poet type. So I’m borrowing the metaphor from my spouse, who works in IT and does woodworking. Let’s agree to look at pacing as a woodworking project. We start with our raw …
I’m working on a series on pacing. You can see other posts in the series here. … I’ll get to pacing for engineers in a bit. First the different building blocks of pacing: Word length. Length of phrases (as marked by breaths or punctuation). Sentence length. Paragraph length. Beat length (the length of each individual …
Rowan Atkinson of Mr. Bean and Blackadder fame did a comedy/documentary series called Funny Business or Laughing Matters in 1992. The first episode, on physical comedy, is available online. Not only is this a great lesson on physical comedy, but on breaking down and distorting character–and why. … It takes writing time to write these posts. If you enjoyed …
I’m going to give two explanations of what pacing is, one for poet-types and one for engineer-types. This is an arbitrary split, and you’ll probably need both perspectives at some point. For poets: Pacing is how you start sneaking poetry into fiction, without the heightened sense of language that might tip your hand to the …
I’m trying to look at books the way a librarian might, in order to help get me better at thinking from a reader’s point of view. Here are the other posts in the series. The Mockingbird graphic novels, #1 and #2, written by Chelsea Cain and illustrated by Kate Niemczyk, are a short series of superhero …
Think Like A Librarian: Mockingbird Graphic Novels, by Chelsea Cain Read More »
At some point, the beginning writer starts to notice that different stories are different from each other. They don’t all seem to follow the same rules. For a while (and I’ve seen this a lot), the writer tries to stretch “their” system of writing to fit the basics to cover all possible variations. This is where …
When writers first start out, what they’re mainly aware of, writing-wise, is conflict. This is when you sit down and start writing a scene and go, “This is two people fighting about something, how exciting!” Let’s call that Level 0. Beginning writers have started to be inundated with English classes; they often have a set …
Pacing, Part 1: Welcome to Intermediate Writing! Read More »
If epic fantasy is often about coming of age… In order to do/get the thing, the character has to pretend to be someone they’re not. Sometimes that character isn’t willing to do so, and gets beaten down until they must fulfill that role. Either they discover they’re not really faking it, OR they discover that no, …
Simple Epic Fantasy Plots, Part 4: Imposter Syndrome Read More »
Okay, grimdark seems to love this plot like I love butter. The thing must be accomplished at all costs, because reasons. Hahahaha, reason. Using methods the character never would have considered at the outset (and they considered more than a few things), the thing is accomplished! And now they don’t want it, because the cost …
