This IS the organized version

[cleolinda]

Okay, I am tired of this. I am done. I am done, ironically, with not being done. I am tired of not finishing things, like a book I've been working on for eight years while every bandwagon in the world saddled up and passed me, and I am tired of being jealous of writers whose only sin was ACTUALLY FINISHING SOMETHING.

Comments

[mmaresca]

I know that. Four years ago I was totally that guy who had that book he was always talking about but not actually getting written.

Now, that book? Done. Shelved away, but done. Two other books, done. Third one, rough draft done. I have an agent and a book is starting its journey through him to publishers. Things are happening.

This is my roundabout way of saying: GO YOU. Get it done. Because it can be.

[cleolinda]

YAY!

Part of my problem is that I see it as an eight-book series, very neatly divided in the middle with a Big Event, and I've front-loaded the whole stupid process with working out what could happen in the future books, because I'm obsessed with foreshadowing. I'm having to let go of that.

[supervillainess]

As a person who loves foreshadowing (PWLF, in the future), let me weigh in w/ NO ONE uses it very much (in my reading experience anyway). Which gives you the advantage in that any foreshadowing you build in will be more than fans of it expect. Plus, there's that thing where PWLF will see it where there wasn't any, so you benefit from that too. ;)

Re: This!

[cleolinda]

Well, one of the things I learned from JKR is that you can put foreshadowing into the story in a way that no one will realize it is until later. Like Mrs. Figg, or the locket they find at Sirius's house. So a lot of it is placing things up front, and you don't know which of them will turn up later or not.

[cleolinda]

I'm a huge fan of that mindfuck moment where you realize something has been there all along. Do people really not use it anymore? Maybe I read too much Potter and Snicket.

[ryssa_s]

Not much, though it is most likely because it can be so hard to set up and pull off well. I have seen it done badly where you either realize it well before the big reveal and are underwhelmed, or where it looks like the author has placed an awkward twist that makes no sense other than they obviously wanted to mess with your head.
And I think the trick for the foreshadowing at least the JKR style is to include lots of little details about things, but not worry about what they are yet, then when you want to add one of those twists you go back over what you have written and pick something out. Granted this from someone who only dabbles in writing, but I think it would cause much less mental anguish this way.

[cleolinda]

Yeah, I admit that one of my gambits is including a lot of stuff upfront, in case I have to use it later, and if I don't, no big deal. The problem was that I had too much going on at once, too soon, and I'm having to simplify a little bit.

[supervillainess]

I might very well be reading the wrong authors. I haven't touched Potter or Snicket, but hover around Atwood and Fforde w/ the occasional foray into urban fantasy. I remember the first time I read "The Westing Game" and was STUNNED by the foreshadowing. Sadly, nothing's really lived up to that since then.