Comments on: Cinderella at the Rock Concert

By: Gray Woodland

Gray Woodland — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:54:00 +0000

Thanks for re-posting this: it is actually better than I remembered, and has just taken on an unexpected relevance. I’ve been sort of noodling around after finishing my last yarn, waiting for the first draft and feedback to cool off a bit. Yesterday one of the fairy-tales on my back burner frothed up into vehement life as a gaudy, apparently extraneous plot lump landed smack-dab in the middle of a transition passage.

And as the chapter closed around it, I realised that this wasn’t a long short story or novella at all – that it had just unblocked itself by noticing that it was a shortish novel, and urgently demanding to be written as such.

It managed to hit almost every one of your distinctions in the process. Why are the stock fairy-tale characters that way, and are they really from central casting at all, check; item dropped in that accidentally diverts plot-stream through awkward arid patch seen on horizon, check… I could bore on like the Mohole Project. From my point of view, a pretty timely post indeed, since I suspect it predisposed me to recognise exactly what was happening right there as it unfolded.

Deluding myself that “this is not a novel” is not usually one of my faults…

By: green_knight

green_knight — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:15:27 +0000

Tess,
I don’t have a map as such. Every now and again I get a signpost, but mostly the characters decide what they’re doing – they act according to their own nature – and the storyverse determines what kind of story it is and what can happen. Harry Potter does not send in the Marines any more than a cyclist pulls over by the side of the road, flags down a passing plane, and makes the rest of the journey in record time: the way you start on a particular journey gives you a framework for how it will end.

And sometimes you end up spending your holiday in Oregon, but you’re having a splendid time, and never get to miss Denver.

By: pcwrede

pcwrede — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:22:09 +0000

For me, the outline is the map; for other writers, it can be just a vague idea of what the end is going to be like. And some people just head off on the open highway without any idea where they’re going at all. Analogies aren’t perfect, ever.

By: Tess

Tess — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:47:36 +0000

“Novels are like driving from Chicago to Denver—you can’t see the whole trip’s worth of road, but as long as you have a map, all you need to see is the next couple-of-blocks stretch of road that you’re going to drive.”

But what is the map? An outline?

By: Chicory

Chicory — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:53:02 +0000

Boy, now I want to read about Cindy at the rock concert.

By: Tine

Tine — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:52:50 +0000

Hello;

I have read all of your books in the past, but, I have not been able to find a new book by you for many years.

About a week ago, I was reading on Diana Pharoh Francis’s blog that she had just finished reading your newest book. Was I ever excited to read that.

I have reread your books in the meantime and I am now on my way out to get your newest. I can’t hardly wait.

Tine

By: Mary

Mary — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:20:49 +0000

Well, I have finished three short stories, and for three months I have been working on a story that is coming along nicely. But I really like revising and editing. In school, I almost didn’t finish my own story because I was so busy editing everyone else’s !

Also, I have just finished reading Howl’s Moving Castle, and I loved it! Thank you so much for suggesting it…

By: pcwrede

pcwrede — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:02:19 +0000

If you had managed to finish a whole novel by the age of nine, you would be too scary to stand.

Some writers are natural novelists, and you sound as if you may be one. It won’t hurt to keep trying to write short stories, but don’t be surprised if they turn into novels. And as I said earlier, a novel is quite a committment. You might try starting from an outline-which is short enough to complete-and then expanding bits until it gets to novel size. (If you hate revising, this will probably not work, as it tends to feel like revising for most of the writing, even though it isn’t.)

By: Mary

Mary — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:24:50 +0000

Thanks– I think I understand the difference much better now. My problem is that all I can ever think to write about is novels, but I have yet to finish even one, and any short stories I might have planned are either discarded or suddenly turn comlex…

By: green_knight

green_knight — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:53:09 +0000

This post has changed from what I remember in rasfc, but I can _almost_ see there from here.

Sigh. I’ve been saying that for several years, haven’t I? My WIP has just – predictably – morphed into a trilogy, as they all do sooner or later…