Elizabeth Lang's Blog: Random Musings - Posts Tagged "writing"
The Rebels: The Heart of the Story
The writing has been going well, if slowly with The Rebels. On track with the growing relationships and dialogue. The descriptive passages are really improving. Plot-wise, I was still working out the modifications to the plotlines and sub-plotlines because I removed Tucker, but I knew where the story was supposed to go.
The cutting of scenes to produce increased tension, mystery and action is working better than I hoped.
All in all, not bad. Progressing steadily.
Argus and Adrian were geling in terms of snarky humor and tension. Kali and Bryce didn't have any problems going it alone and playing hero to rescue Adrian. Sester's storyline became more major with the inclusion of the machinations of the Guild.
But I knew there was still something missing. Some energy, umph, that drive that makes me write like a mad woman because the story and characters have me in their grip.
It's very possible to write a technically exact story with all the right elements, with gorgeous and vividly drawn details on every page, and wonderfully creative words and perfect grammar, but not actually have a great story that will make people want to read it.
Yes, all these elements are important. It's like the bricks and mortar, wires and breakers, and joints and pipes. Jumbling them all together in good draftsmanlike form, or even in the semblance of a perfectly functional house doesn't guarantee that someone will like it enough, fall in love with it enough to want to buy it or to move in and make it their home.
It takes more than that to make a good story people will want to read. And a miracle to write a great story that people can't put down.
It takes something called heart. I'm not talking about emotions, though more often than not, emotions are involved. What I am talking about is the emotional core, that connection with the reader that makes them feel that they want to be part of your world.
And that's what I've finally found.
Bryce and Sester may be the most popular characters of The Empire but Adrian, despite being unemotional and cold, provided the heart. It was his journey that drove the centre of the story.
And of course, part of the problem has been Adrian. He resists emotions. He prefers being left alone. He doesn't find any point in being forced into situations where he has to relate to people. For a writer, it couldn't be the worst situation. But Adrian has great potential to drive the story, even from a passive role as in the last story.
I feel like I've been playing psychologist, trying to understand what Adrian's problem was. The key was in learning to ask the right questions, ones that made him need to understand himself. And in doing so, I finally found the heart. Adrian's emotional connection to the story.
I wrote it as part of a scene, but the funny thing is that I had to throw it out because it didn't fit with the direction of the scene. But it didn't matter. Now that I understand where Adrian's head and heart are in the story, I didn't have to include it in the story. It became instinctive and informed his POV and his voice.
And, for me at least, that's the key to writing a story. Finding the core. And in finding that core, discovering his voice, his POV, his heart.
The cutting of scenes to produce increased tension, mystery and action is working better than I hoped.
All in all, not bad. Progressing steadily.
Argus and Adrian were geling in terms of snarky humor and tension. Kali and Bryce didn't have any problems going it alone and playing hero to rescue Adrian. Sester's storyline became more major with the inclusion of the machinations of the Guild.
But I knew there was still something missing. Some energy, umph, that drive that makes me write like a mad woman because the story and characters have me in their grip.
It's very possible to write a technically exact story with all the right elements, with gorgeous and vividly drawn details on every page, and wonderfully creative words and perfect grammar, but not actually have a great story that will make people want to read it.
Yes, all these elements are important. It's like the bricks and mortar, wires and breakers, and joints and pipes. Jumbling them all together in good draftsmanlike form, or even in the semblance of a perfectly functional house doesn't guarantee that someone will like it enough, fall in love with it enough to want to buy it or to move in and make it their home.
It takes more than that to make a good story people will want to read. And a miracle to write a great story that people can't put down.
It takes something called heart. I'm not talking about emotions, though more often than not, emotions are involved. What I am talking about is the emotional core, that connection with the reader that makes them feel that they want to be part of your world.
And that's what I've finally found.
Bryce and Sester may be the most popular characters of The Empire but Adrian, despite being unemotional and cold, provided the heart. It was his journey that drove the centre of the story.
And of course, part of the problem has been Adrian. He resists emotions. He prefers being left alone. He doesn't find any point in being forced into situations where he has to relate to people. For a writer, it couldn't be the worst situation. But Adrian has great potential to drive the story, even from a passive role as in the last story.
I feel like I've been playing psychologist, trying to understand what Adrian's problem was. The key was in learning to ask the right questions, ones that made him need to understand himself. And in doing so, I finally found the heart. Adrian's emotional connection to the story.
I wrote it as part of a scene, but the funny thing is that I had to throw it out because it didn't fit with the direction of the scene. But it didn't matter. Now that I understand where Adrian's head and heart are in the story, I didn't have to include it in the story. It became instinctive and informed his POV and his voice.
And, for me at least, that's the key to writing a story. Finding the core. And in finding that core, discovering his voice, his POV, his heart.
