Writing basics (#1 of an indefinite series)
Pre-writing and Storytelling - Craft and Art
(Sparked by this post on fanficrants.)
There's nothing worse for a reader of fiction than opening a book and finding a character profile included on the first page; which is why it's so rare that this happens. However, some fanfiction tends to come with the character profiles, thus showing that the author has a small confusion between what belongs in a story, and what is essential to it but doesn't need to be shown to the reader.
The second of these is what I call pre-writing. It comprises things like research notes, plot summaries, descriptions of the characters, descriptions of their world, ideas about what would and wouldn't be done by a particular character, odd scraps of backstory and soforth. They're things which are used to give your work depth, to give the sense of there being more behind the story than just what you're seeing on the surface. Most writers have this, including (possibly "particularly") the professionals. However, very few writers actually publish it - off the top of my head, I can think of only two. One of these was J R R Tolkien (and his came to about fourteen volumes once it was published, some of which are only of interest to serious scholars) and the other is David and Leigh Eddings.
The trick with your pre-writing is that it's stuff you're using as a writer to solidify the world and the characters and the plot in your head. You can refer to it directly while you write (I generally have a string of comments at the bottom of anything which is in progress which acts as a mudmap for the plot - so I know where I was heading before the characters hared off in a different direction) or indirectly (I also have a set of "rules" for an urban fantasy universe I've created covering the differences and similarities to this one), but just putting it straight out there is a bit like handing someone your very rough notes to read.
Think of these things as being the equivalent of a manual for a role-playing game. They're background. They're not the story.
However, this not to say they're useless. They're invaluable, and the more work you do here, in the basic crafting of the characters and plot, the better the story will tend to turn out at the other end. The amount of work you need to do will vary, depending on a number of factors, such as the length of the work you're writing; the complexity of your plot; the depth of the characters; the genre you're writing in; and of course, how much work you *need* to do to get things fixed in your head. (Some of my own stories sprang out of my head fully fledged, and didn't change much between the alpha and published drafts).
Storytelling is the art of combining these bits of pre-writing, and weaving them into an interesting tale. It's the art of knowing what to choose to reveal, and what to choose to hide. Storytelling is the art of selecting the 1/10th of the craftwork you've done in pre-writing to show to the people. It's knowing which bits of the prewriting you've done are relevant to the story (for example, do your readers need to know the character's hair colour? Is it mentioned anywhere in the story?) and which bits can remain unrevealed (one of my characters has grey eyes, but the information isn't relevant to the story yet, so it can just stay in the background). It's knowing how much to tell. An infodump is boring. So too is straight mythology. The trick is knowing how to mix them.
So how do you learn this? Well, start by reading as widely as you can. You'll find different authors and genres have different mixes, and over time you'll find the one which suits your personal style. The other main point is *keep writing*. The more you write, the more you learn to write - it's a craft as well as an art, rather like cooking.
(Sparked by this post on fanficrants.)
There's nothing worse for a reader of fiction than opening a book and finding a character profile included on the first page; which is why it's so rare that this happens. However, some fanfiction tends to come with the character profiles, thus showing that the author has a small confusion between what belongs in a story, and what is essential to it but doesn't need to be shown to the reader.
The second of these is what I call pre-writing. It comprises things like research notes, plot summaries, descriptions of the characters, descriptions of their world, ideas about what would and wouldn't be done by a particular character, odd scraps of backstory and soforth. They're things which are used to give your work depth, to give the sense of there being more behind the story than just what you're seeing on the surface. Most writers have this, including (possibly "particularly") the professionals. However, very few writers actually publish it - off the top of my head, I can think of only two. One of these was J R R Tolkien (and his came to about fourteen volumes once it was published, some of which are only of interest to serious scholars) and the other is David and Leigh Eddings.
The trick with your pre-writing is that it's stuff you're using as a writer to solidify the world and the characters and the plot in your head. You can refer to it directly while you write (I generally have a string of comments at the bottom of anything which is in progress which acts as a mudmap for the plot - so I know where I was heading before the characters hared off in a different direction) or indirectly (I also have a set of "rules" for an urban fantasy universe I've created covering the differences and similarities to this one), but just putting it straight out there is a bit like handing someone your very rough notes to read.
Think of these things as being the equivalent of a manual for a role-playing game. They're background. They're not the story.
However, this not to say they're useless. They're invaluable, and the more work you do here, in the basic crafting of the characters and plot, the better the story will tend to turn out at the other end. The amount of work you need to do will vary, depending on a number of factors, such as the length of the work you're writing; the complexity of your plot; the depth of the characters; the genre you're writing in; and of course, how much work you *need* to do to get things fixed in your head. (Some of my own stories sprang out of my head fully fledged, and didn't change much between the alpha and published drafts).
Storytelling is the art of combining these bits of pre-writing, and weaving them into an interesting tale. It's the art of knowing what to choose to reveal, and what to choose to hide. Storytelling is the art of selecting the 1/10th of the craftwork you've done in pre-writing to show to the people. It's knowing which bits of the prewriting you've done are relevant to the story (for example, do your readers need to know the character's hair colour? Is it mentioned anywhere in the story?) and which bits can remain unrevealed (one of my characters has grey eyes, but the information isn't relevant to the story yet, so it can just stay in the background). It's knowing how much to tell. An infodump is boring. So too is straight mythology. The trick is knowing how to mix them.
So how do you learn this? Well, start by reading as widely as you can. You'll find different authors and genres have different mixes, and over time you'll find the one which suits your personal style. The other main point is *keep writing*. The more you write, the more you learn to write - it's a craft as well as an art, rather like cooking.