How Arthur Plotnik conquers the world
The last few weeks I've had a brilliant aid in my editing work: Spunk & Bite by the amazing Mr. Plotnik.
Not everything he said was new, in fact, most of it wasn't and yet it was enormously helpful to me to see things spelled out instead of done instinctively. If you do it right without knowing what you are doing, it's hard to fix if you've done it wrong. Frex, from my fanfic:
"Memory batters Buffy's levees"
That's a trope I couldn't have used with the certainty of being understood by all English speakers, but now I can. And admit it, it's more fun than:
"Buffy remembered fact x." Which dDoes the job, true, but gracelessly. Savvy?
This is how Plotnik shows the world how to plotnik his sentences. See? Neologism I just coined.
Using interesting verbs also a great way to enliven description and link it to characterization. If your protagonist is sad, have every bit of paint weep, music wail, hoods of cars heave with suppressed sobbing. It's like a sneaky way to tell the reader abour your character's mood without saying "Spike was sad."
Which none of you would ever do, right?
I love the man and I urge all writers, original fiction, fanfic, whatever, to go and buy his book. You'll have fun and learn something, too.
Not everything he said was new, in fact, most of it wasn't and yet it was enormously helpful to me to see things spelled out instead of done instinctively. If you do it right without knowing what you are doing, it's hard to fix if you've done it wrong. Frex, from my fanfic:
"Memory batters Buffy's levees"
That's a trope I couldn't have used with the certainty of being understood by all English speakers, but now I can. And admit it, it's more fun than:
"Buffy remembered fact x." Which dDoes the job, true, but gracelessly. Savvy?
This is how Plotnik shows the world how to plotnik his sentences. See? Neologism I just coined.
Using interesting verbs also a great way to enliven description and link it to characterization. If your protagonist is sad, have every bit of paint weep, music wail, hoods of cars heave with suppressed sobbing. It's like a sneaky way to tell the reader abour your character's mood without saying "Spike was sad."
Which none of you would ever do, right?
I love the man and I urge all writers, original fiction, fanfic, whatever, to go and buy his book. You'll have fun and learn something, too.