Patricia C. Wrede's Blog, page 17

Revisions, a case study…

So I am currently stuck in the middle of editorial revisions on the Work-In-Process, and have been for an enormously long time, mostly due to outside factors. I got the last of the editorial requests at the end of February. Two weeks later, my state went into lockdown and everyone, including me, did nothing for a month except read pandemic news. Then several different family things blew up in sequence, taxes got even more complicated than usual, I had to get my sewer line replaced, and I found o...

Which Skeleton?

Plot skeletons seem to be very popular as planning tools these days. There are all sorts of plot skeleton models out there – I counted nine different variations on Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey” before I gave up (I have Opinions about Campbell in regard to writing); the three-, four-, and five-act structures that come out of plays; beats and plot-points; and many variations on the classic and straightforward Aristotelian “beginning, middle, end.”

All these methods are, I think, trying to codify...

Different problems, Different solutions

OK, the power is back on and they’re coming to remove the giant tree later this week. The phone and internet lines are still lying on the ground, because apparently having a tree down on top of them is not an emergency as long as they still mostly work.

I could stand for life to be less exciting for a while. Like maybe the next ten years or so?

Anyway, on to the blog post.

Today I want to talk about analyzing writing, first, because that’s what most writing advice is about, and second, because t...

Hopefully temporary delay

We had a nasty storm Sunday, and I lost power, phone, and internet. I am hoping to have power later today, but in any case, I am not going to try to type 800+ words on an iPad with a steadily decreasing battery. With luck, there will be something late today.

Stuck on the Negative

A number of years back, I was stuck in mid-story and complaining about it bitterly to a non-writer at a gathering meant for other purposes (i.e., it wasn’t a bunch of writers getting together to talk about the horrors of the literary life). He made a couple of intelligent suggestions, and I immediately began explaining all the reasons why they wouldn’t work, because writing was different and creative and …

“Stop,” he said.

I blinked at him.

“What is the next thing you have to do to move this sto...

Making it Harder Than It Needs To Be

Writing isn’t easy. Everybody says so – pantsers, planners, linear writers, nonlinear writers, plodders, burst writers … everybody.

So why do so many of us make it harder than it already is?

People who are natural short story writers have their hearts set on writing novels. People who are natural novelists write short story after short story, trying to “learn their craft” or to start selling so they’ll have a track record when they’re finally “allowed” to write a novel. (Hint: Even a novel...

Another Open Mic

It’s been six weeks, so time for another open mic! Talk amongst yourselves about whatever interests you. (For the record, I’m not inclined to be strict about conversations wandering off-topic and into the writing weeds when it comes to regular weekly posts, either.)

Character goals and story goals

Lately, I’ve been running across a lot of “goals” writing advice – the sort that wants me to decide on my characters’ goals for the story, chapter, or scene before I sit down to write it. Preferably all three, and of course, the scene/chapter goal should get the character closer to the story goal.

What got me particularly interested in this were several posts by different advisors. The first stated firmly that “From the very start, Harry Potter’s main goal is always to defeat Voldemort.” The sec...

Description III – Methods

There are two basic methods for describing anything: 1) the lump-of-description, and 2) in bits, over time. They aren’t mutually exclusive, so you could also claim the combination as #3.

Lump of Description

Generally, this is somewhere from a paragraph to several pages of detailed description of whatever the author is describing. The logical place to put a descriptive lump is when the narrator or viewpoint character first encounters whatever-it-is. Usually, this is when the person/place/thing fi...

Description II – Details

Last week, I talked about some of the reasons writers want to describe things, and a few of the considerations involved in deciding what to describe. This week, I’m going to focus more on the how, which starts with a bit more on what (because what you choose to describe can affect how you go about describing it).

For instance, if you want to describe your main character/narrator, you probably don’t want to do it by having them study their reflection in a mirror (unless you’re doing it for extrem...