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Advice for authors that I received and am passing on.
One of the best pieces I ever received was simple, a setting is not a plot.
It sounds odd, but it is true, you get an idea for a place, you detail it exquisitely, but people do not (generally) come out of the theatre quoting the scenery….
Yes knowing your background is important, knowing how a school is set up matters for a story set in a school, but unless you are very good, very weird or just odd (like me) the school is not the story, just the scenery.
You can transpose the plot of Romeo & Juliet to 50’s New York and have it work stupendously, but 16thC Venice remains where it was without the story.
I am not saying do not use all these fabulous settings you have conjured. I am saying, store them until you have the story to play out in front of them.
Comments
Agreed
It's said the four doors to a novel are story, characters, setting, and language.
By far the most important is the story followed by characters.
It's estimated that setting is important to only about five percent of readers, but don't tell that to Michener lovers or those who have to have their murder mystery in L. A.
The Harry Potter books use all four doors extensively.
TG fiction seems to be mainly plot driven. However, those stories I return to again and again have unforgettable characters.
We want to be dragged into a story so deeply by all four "doors" that our disbelief is firmly suspended.
Imagine that you're the favorite aunt of a half dozen young nieces and nephews sitting around a campfire. Their faces are glued to you as you tell a tale of when their moms and dads were young and naughty. Your story would be interesting, fast paced, and plausible. If your story occurred in a setting where none of them had ever been you'd tell them about the buildings, the mountains in the background, the ocean. . . whatever was needed to allow them to fully relate to what is happening in your story. You would not waste words and would end the story when they no longer could ask, "Then what happened?"
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
For me
The story is the platform which I build the tale on. The essence that everything else feeds on. It's the root of all the rest of what goes into the telling of the tale.
The characters tell the tale with their word and actions. If the story is to be a good story, the characters need to take on a life of their own. The character's thoughts, words and actions cultivate the interest of the reader and makes them want to read on.
The physical description of the setting comes into play only to allow the reader to understand the actions of the character. IE if your character is angry and going to slam a door on the way out, they must be in a room with a door and the reader needs to know that.
The language is only essential to the tale in that it must be appropriate for the character using it. IE if you have a six year old talking it would be inappropriate for them to use words that have obscure meanings.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Plotter and free reign
Once explained to me as some authors have everything locked down precisley before they even start, the others are basically typing up the incident report as the characters tell their side....
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Estarriol
I used to be normal, but I found the cure....
Targets
I usually have targets to aim the story at, destinations of scenes and specific events. But the journey to get there is open for the characters to do their things as is natural for the circumstances - and also open to the muse's sudden (and occasionally startling!) inspirations in the moments of writing. I know other authors even pre-write later scenes, but I never allow myself to do that as I feel that each scene should be instructed by what came before. Maybe I'm just lazy and don't want to do heavy re-writing later if I can avoid it! :)
Though that's not to say that no post-draft editing occurs to smooth things out, as it certainly does. But I shudder at the thought of having to toss entire chunks (or even the entirety) of a novel and start over. I don't have time for that kind of thing!! Yet I've read of authors who do just that. Erk!
That's me
I have a trope and a set up and an end in mind. I set up the trope, establish the main character and perhaps two or three supporting characters. Then I let the characters guide me as I nudge them toward that end.
As often as not, the characters have a lot of things that don't lead directly toward that end that they want to do along the way. Sometimes it's like herding cats to get them heading toward the end.
I envy authors who can sit down, plot out just what has to happen in each chapter and know how many chapters it will take to tell the tale and then type it up like as if they knew all along what the characters would do and say.
For me, the characters surprise me as I write as much as another author's characters might when I read their work.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
sorry to be
a bit pedantic but whilst 16th C Venice would indeed be still where it was, Romeo & Juliette is set in Verona which no doubt would also still be where it was!
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Bahhh unt humbug
and you are quite correct, a brainfreeze there!
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Estarriol
I used to be normal, but I found the cure....
Aphantasia
I have a thing called Aphantasia, an inability to form mental images of objects that are not present. I read these elaborate scene or character descriptions, but they are just words to me. If they go on too much, I will skip over parts of the story until the author decides to actually tell their story.
I learned a long time ago, that less is more. Give the reader just enough to advance the story, then let the reader's imagination fill in the gaps. I rarely describe my main character's physical traits beyond age. This allows the reader to picture them like someone they know (or themselves), allowing for a deeper connection to the story. Setting is similar. Unless you are on another planet, you don't have to say much for the reader to make a connection to their own experiences.
Keep Smiling, Keep Writing
Teek
I never heard of Aphantasia before
Reading your work I'd say that it doesn't really affect your ability to produce a good story.
I'm the opposite. My mind's eye is over active and can overlay my mental picture of what's being read with ease and sometimes that image is lasting to the point that I'm visualizing that picture long after I've walked away. It just pops into my head anytime I'm not mentally active. It's been a real problem in the past when driving. That's especially true when I'm writing a story. I had to train myself to have mental discipline to avoid letting it manifest while driving. The means I have to engage myself actively in navigating and monitoring traffic.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Too much backstory/description
too soon in the story is a killer when it comes to reader retention.
Provide enough at the right time to make the story make sense.
That is an art and only practice can make you get better at it.
What you don't say is as you hint, as important as what you do say.
Have a kudos for not following the 'he was slight build and below average height' (or words like it) that so many writers insist on using.
Samantha
Q: why are there novels which
Q: why are there novels which are very thick (>1000 pages)?
A: because the author is paid by the word count. >:->
Or
They don't have an editor. Book bloat is a thing.
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Estarriol
I used to be normal, but I found the cure....
Hmmm.
I’d say that place and description matter more to some stories than others. The visceral presence of desert was critical to Dune, for example. And description can bring the reader into a scene in ways that make it both real and sometimes moving. Here’s an example — a single paragraph from the first chapter of Admiral Krunch’s Christina Chase:
I’ve only read the one chapter so far, but near as I can tell the paragraph does nothing much to advance the plot — except to shine a cold light on the unpleasant reality that forms the protagonist’s world at the story’s outset. Does it make the story more real, more concrete? To me, it does.
Emma
Add to that
Things like smell.
- the seller had used far too much aftershave and would have been better spent using a deodorant. His BO was there despite the waves of 'old spice' wafting in my direction.
Taste
- The food while ok had an underlying hint of garlic, even the desert which made the expertly prepared 'Creme Caramel' taste a little weird.
These little things all go to enhance the picture you are painting in the readers minds. Far too many stories neglect the mention of food altogether yet we can't survive without food and water.
Samantha
True
but please do not go GRRM and 3 pages on gravy in beards.....
In general (because there are writers who have subverted every rule of writing) the trick is to find a balance and not let the place/characters/etc. overwhelm the plot.
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Estarriol
I used to be normal, but I found the cure....
Me too
Thank you so much for telling us about aphantasia. I have the same condition.
I thought I was pretty much the only one on the planet to have the condition. Having a name for it allowed me to look it up and see I'm not the only one. And I don't feel like I'm diseased. What I read made it sound more like it was like being left-handed (which I am).
It's odd though. I have no problems with creativity. I've written many stories here and I'm currently working on the fifth book in a series of novels. My memory is excellent. I just can't visualize things that I read. I love to watch movies made from books and then read the book so I can use images from the movie when I read the book. I did that with LOTR.
I haven't let my lack of visualizing books keep me from reading. I'm a voracious reader of sci-fi and fantasy. The only thing that upsets me about it is not being able to use guided imagery. I tried guided imagery for some of my metaphysical pursuits and it doesn't work at all for me. So sad.
Anyway, thanks again.
- Terry
There are the planners and then...
There are those who ride the Muse waves.
Either way you work, you need Characters who you can relate to. That means you can even hate them as long as you can make them seem real or get the reader to care about them then you are well on the way to a hit.
As Estate Agents/Realtors stress, location, location and location. You can create a universe but once again, the reader has to relate to it. I've never been able to fully relate to the Whately Universe, but that is me.
Then the plot transposes into a journey for the main characters. (the story arc). Without some form of change in behaviour, relationship, finances or appearance there is little to say. Again, the reader must be able to relate to the changes unless you are writing SF/Fantasy.
As for me, I think of a bit of life that I've never written about before (or at least try to) and give it a go. Sometimes it works very, very well. Other times, the story fails to resonate. Chameleon does seem to be a bit like that given the lack of comments on the most recent postings. One of those that seemed to ring a lot of bells with readers was 'On the Cut'. I've just finished a 4-parter about 'Temptation'. I could go on but one look at my canon of work shows that I like to try different things.
Once I start with an idea I give it a go. My W.I.P folder is littered with failed attempts going back over a decade.
Don't be afraid of putting a story aside and starting something new if you run into a block.
Happy writing
Samantha
I have a suspicion.
That most authors are somewhere between the polar extremes, with a sprinkle of pre plot and a dash of muse...
I knew a serious crime writer who admitted in the bar after a talk, that her latest killer was not even in the book when she started her careful plotting and scripting, but in her words, didn't like the book they were in, and slid into hers and made themselves at home!
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Estarriol
I used to be normal, but I found the cure....
But look at your Kudo count
You published part 6 three days ago and already have 135 kudos. I'd be over the moon if my story got that many kudos in three days.
Don't you dare get discouraged and quit writing it. It's a good story with a lot going for it. So far the only TG aspect I've noticed is that one of the the Chameleon's disguises is a woman. That means it's missing one of the elements I usually look for in a story on this site and yet I'm involved with the story and I'm champing at the bit for the next installment.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Don't
Tug on Superman's cape (Or Supergirl's for that matter)
Don't spit in the wind
Don't make another version of the ole' Lone Ranger
Don't forget to use contractions!
Love, Andrea Lena
Writing process
I have said much of this before...
I start with a character. I develop a back story for them, much of which doesn't feature anywhere onstage. I have a story arc in mind, NOT a detailed minute-by-minute plot.
I let the characters interact, and the story grows from there.
Every now and again, I will do my best to inject a sense of 'place'.
The comment about smells made me smile, because in the Debbie Wells books, she muses on two men "Charlie's smell of Brut or Old Spice, and Don's of, well, Old Don' "
I almost always write in first person non-omniscient, which allows me to put a 'voice' to the narrativethat is entirely the character's. I got irritated the other day when someone described an early scene in StD, where Kelly share's the lead character's tent, as a 'safeguarding risk', and I had to point out (a) it wasn't my voice and (b) it is a work of fiction.
The reply was something about "Well, you wrote it!" and another friend made the suggestion "Just wait until he reads some Stephen King..."