Some Thoughts On Writing

[hwconundrum]

A writing-related question for anyone on my FL who has an interest in it, even if only from a reader's perspective: at what point does it become acceptable for a story to sacrifice or ignore internal logic in the name of style? Is it ever okay for a story to contain a few plot holes/illogical moments in the name of making the story more interesting

Comments

[hwconundrum]

Thanks for all that info on the MICE stuff, that was really helpful, and quite a nice change of perspective since I've never really looked at it that way before. :) I suppose part of the trouble is that I'm not terribly sure myself what type of story I'm trying to write, and since I have no destination in mind it's going to be awfully difficult to me to actually get there, so I need to sit down and figure out what I want to do before I proceed any further.

Thinking about it now I suspect the basic story type is Event, with a little extra chunk of Character thrown in for good measure and then all the psychological stuff I mentioned that defies categorisation. Like you say, I think it'll be a little harder to fudge details here but on the other hand I seem to be making some progress resolving my little plot conflicts so there's hope yet. :)

Oh, and about disaster movies... who needs logic and consistency when you can have 'SPLOSIONS? ;) I'm pretty sure there's some kind of Hollywood formula for importance of resolving plot holes against dollars spent on CGI...

Also, thanks for the Google Books link! I'll have to bear that in mind for when I'm settled down somewhere and have money. :) Books in Australia all seem to be stupid expensive for some reason, more than double what you'd pay in the UK.

[allisnow]

Well there's nothing wrong with writing down the ideas that are in your head right now and just seeing what comes out. It may be that afterward or even during the process you will really decide what kind of story you want it to be. Then you can go back and tweak what you wrote. I think the reason I didn't mention that in the first place is because I loathe editing ;)

I was thinking about this other writing book I have, "A Story is a Promise". I forget the author but I'm sure you could google it. Basically he says that when you write a story, you start off by posing a question. What that question is tied a lot into the MICE quotient. If the first chapter of a book has people wondering, "What caused the crew to lose their memories and will they be able to find out the truth?" then the readers will be more prone to wanting the technical details -- assuming the details are technical and not supernatural.