Comments on: Decisions, decisions

By: Alex Fayle

Alex Fayle — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:43:38 +0000

This is exactly where I’m at right now. And I agree with you Mary, I’ve made the decision and the scene is falling flat.

But I’m going to write through it then when I go back I’ll fix the emotional flatness. This first time through I’m getting the plot right.

However, it’s very frustrating and slow going…

By: ReAkemiH

ReAkemiH — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:34:38 +0000

Oh, it’s my first time here at the blog… And I just wanted to say, I try to write things cause I usually start imagining stories while I’m reading and want to put them into words, but when i get the pen my mind just goes blank ><
Thinking about it now, though, I see what happens to me is exactly what happened to this writer – I was so excited to get to the next part I didn’t quite know what was happening at the moment.

Oh, I’m looking forward the third book from Frontier Magic *-*!

By: green_knight

green_knight — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:08:23 +0000

*Offer*. Damn you, autocorrect.

By: green_knight

green_knight — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:07:27 +0000

Pat,
the next time you sneak into my home and look at the files on my computer, please say ‘hi’ and I’ll off you a cup of tea.

what is it that they think they need to accomplish next?

How did you know that I needed exactly this? I got stuck in the ‘trying to force the characters to do things they didn’t do’ manner which at least I’ve learnt to recognise. *I* want my current protag to find out how her friend died. *She* wants to protect her friend’s children (all four of them) from their unpleasant relatives. She has no interest in going around to the temples and trying to view the body; She would like to say good-bye, but she expects there o be a proper funeral, with the body laid out at the temple.

It doesn’t matter what *I* want her to do. She ain’t doin’ it. So I backed up; let her do what she wanted to do, let her tell me what *she* is interested in, and it turns out not to be all that useful to the plot I had envisioned.

Ah well. Maybe I can get another protagonist to peek at the body?

By: ABeth

ABeth — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:28:58 +0000

*nods to Gray’s #3* The ability to write step-by-step — even knowing it’s likely to be edited out later — can sometimes get one through a messy place. (My take: if the subconscious is freezing up on the transition, then walk it through one step at a time and see what exactly the subconscious thinks needs to be learned about the character during that transition. Even if it’s axed, the character bits are going to remain in the author’s mind.) But then, I’m one of those people who finds out the most about characters (and often their worlds) by winding up the emulation in my head and letting it patter around and bounce off other emulations.

By: Mary

Mary — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:20:36 +0000

This was really helpful! Thanks! I’m in the process of finshing/editing my latest NaNoWriMo novella, and in some parts, the writing is so dry and flat that it’s hardly writing! Now I realize that I was spending way too much time on the not-so-important “library scenes”, rather than having the characters get to the decisions. My characters in this story have an annoying tendency to sit around and talk FOREVER about NOTHING.

By: Gray Woodland

Gray Woodland — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:30:26 +0000

Sometimes I have to let the characters slog out of the ravine in their own way, and only then decide between:

1) Wow, that got us all out of the hole, all right!

and

2) With one day’s slog and an unfortunate incident with a chicken, Jack was free. After he got out of the hole…

3) [Shouts up from the bottom of the hole where my characters have left me]: Hold on there, guys, you ain’t gonna have done that at all!

The third happens surprisingly infrequently, all things considered, when I actually grit my teeth and commit the slogging. But I’ve found it never pays me to forget the option.

By: Chicory

Chicory — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:24:25 +0000

I hadn’t really thought about how much the characters deciding their next step affects the action. Thanks.

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:31:14 +0000

I often go flat after the decision has been made, when the prose turns to lead.

At which point, I take the decision and turn it on its head, so the opposite happens.

By: Tiana Smith

Tiana Smith — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:55:34 +0000

Too true! One thing I see a lot of writers doing is having events happen to their characters, rather than having the characters act, which makes things happen. To act or be acted upon. A story is more interesting when there are decisions that lead to consequences.