Point A to Point B etc. from the newsletter
Thoughts in Passing
I recently saw a writer posting in distress. They had taken their work to a critique group, where they learned that they wrote with a lot of "filler movement." What does that mean? It means the bits that happen between the action. Opening and closing doors. Walking across a room. Getting out of a car. Traveling somewhere. Getting out a bowl to pour cereal in. Picking up the phone. Opening an envelope. Turning on the lights. Turning on a computer. Unlocking a phone. Getting dressed in the morning.
You get the idea. All of these things can be written as plot-critical, but they usually aren't. And that's okay.
This distressed writer asked how they could stop writing these extraneous bits. I can't answer that question, because I do it too. I often find that I can't move a character from Point A to Point B without writing how they moved there. My visual storytelling brain can't handle it. Otherwise, I might as well have them popping in and out of existence.
In short stories, there's less room for that. But hey, that's what editing is for! Sometimes? You just have to write through something, even if you know you'll take it out in editing. And that's okay!
(Do you have a writing question? Send it to me, either by replying to this email or by using the comment form on my website, and it may get answered in the next newsletter.)
What I've been up to lately, writing-wise:
Oof. Not much this month, aside from my regular #vss365 writing exercises. I have a lot in edits, and a lot of general writing-related administrivia to catch up on. Next month (in 17 days!) my kids start going back to in-person school (for however long that lasts). I have so much stuff that supervising distance learning shoved to the back burner, in writing and in general household management and in other life stuff, that I don't even know where to begin. We've been in distance learning for 10 months here, since mid-March 2020. I start by making lists of things to catch up on, I guess.
Full newsletter: http://www.aswiebe.com/writing/archive2021.html#012421
(Note to self: put "make new website" on that list.)
Originally posted at https://cloudscudding.dreamwidth.org/1136113.html on Dreamwidth.org.