Feb 19, 2005 10:34
It's nice when an interesting meme actually coincides with me having computer access for the next 24 hours. So, from many many people:
Ask me any one question about my writing, then post this in your LJ, so I can satisfy my curiosity about yours.
(I think everyone else already has posted this in their lj, though.)
writing,
memes
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Popslash made me try to figure out the parameters of romcom, and learn way more about dialogue as a vehicle for plot and a way of telling two different stories at once.
And those two different stories can also be seen as plot layers, right? So you have the actual dialogue and underneath that there are the things that aren't being said, who says what to who and when, and how they're said.
A lot of the time, this loose approach to plotting is a real drawback;
Have you tried other methods, just out of interest?
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Yes, exactly! :) It developed into a different way for me to "disguise" the emotional plotline and take the scenic route to wherever I was going.
Have you tried other methods, just out of interest?
I've tried the detailed outline thing, but mostly it kills the stories dead. The more I write down and arrange plot elements, the less I end up writing the actual story.
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(I tend to think about plots this way too, only I haven't managed yet to write a story that has both; I've attempted an adventure plot and an emotional plot, but not the two together. I worry that when I try, they will end up feeling off, like a bad Star Trek episode with an A arc and a completely unrelated B arc.)
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I'm trying to think of a good example here. Before the face of the sun is actually the longest story I've written in nearly 3 years *wince* and I know you've read it, but it's not a very good example of this kind of plotting, since the externally-directed events are pretty much all about serving the purposes of the emotional plot. (That does mean, though, that the two types of narrative elements are very interconnected, as in the scene where Damien heals the militia member, which is really all about the relationship between Gerald and Damien, and their different assumptions about it.) Lovers is a much better example of casefile and relationship moving side by side, but I don't know if you've ( ... )
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And loved it madly, let's not leave out that part. *g* But I think I see what you mean - it doesn't have a separate, or mostly-separate, external plot so much as one plot happening on several levels. I haven't read Lovers, and certainly wouldn't mind your explaining the plot by way of example if you're willing. :-)
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*swoon* why yes, I am paying attention! ;)
I've got one story that's been stuck about halfway through for two years because I don't quite know how to wrap up one central plot point in a way that acknowledges how emotionally serious it is and will still let me off the hook of writing or at least implying years of therapy.
I'm sure I speak for many people when I say if there's anything I can do to help...
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if there's anything I can do to help...
I've been considering hypnosis. *g*
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You are feeling sleeeepy.
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love this fandom.
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Ooh, that's really interesting, and not a way of looking at a story that I've ever consciously thought about before. Thinking about it now, I guess I do something slightly similar, although without quite the same split. I think I just have one class of things which would be called something like 'threads' which could include both emotional development and external events in one 'thread'.
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