Tag Archives: structure

Looking Backward II, or Some Tenses and How to Use Them

November 24, 2009 – 11:26 am

The second most common way of leading into and out of a flashback sequence is by shifting tenses. Most novels are told in what’s called the “historic present,” meaning that the “now” of the story is told in simple past tense (He slept in the library all afternoon rather than He sleeps in the library all afternoon).
This confuses a lot of [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in Writing | Also tagged , , | Comments (5)

Looking backward I

November 22, 2009 – 11:46 am

There are two important things to know about flashbacks: how to do them, and when to do them. Both things can be trickier to figure out than they look.
FIrst, a definition: as far as I’m concerned, flashbacks are a way of conveying some background/backstory information as if it were happening “now”. The central story that is being told, [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in Writing | Also tagged , | Comments (4)

The escalation problem

September 5, 2009 – 9:34 am

The comments on the last post started getting into endings and the escalation of threat, particularly as related to series books, and I discovered I had quite a lot to say on the subject even though I haven’t written a long-running series myself.
The first thing is that not all trilogies or series are the same. [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in Writing | Also tagged , | Comments (10)

A few words on pacing and structure

July 6, 2009 – 7:56 am

 The “different panel” at 4th Street this year was on pacing and structure. I’ve been pondering it since then, and this is what I think (or part of it, anyway):
Pacing is how fast it feels like things happen.  Not how fast they actually do happen; what it feels like to the reader-this is why sometimes the cure for [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in Writing | Also tagged | Comments (7)