Checkpoint #2
Here's our second checkpoint and discussion of the 2017 Sentinel Big Bang.
Check in time
Checking in is, as always, optional
The writing target for checkpoint #2 is 4,000 words or 2/5 of your project. This is just a soft target - something to aim for if "slow-and-steady" suits your way of writing. If you're already ahead of that, you can pat yourself on the back. If you're behind - don't worry! There's loads of time yet.
If you're signed up as a writer, please comment to check in. Tell us about your progress and feel free to share a few details about what you're writing and how it's going. If you need help or if you have any questions for the mods, this is a good time to ask, too.
There's no standard "form" for check-in this year, because we also have a writer's discussion going on. If you don't want to talk about your project, you can check in by joining in the discussion below.
Which leads me on to...
Each of our checkpoints this year will include a roundtable discussion on some aspect of writing. Maybe "round table" is a better name, as I'm not pretending to be a master of any sort! All I'm doing is offering my take on the subject, and I hope lots of you will join in with your own take on how to approach writing.
Open Discussion: World Building
Have you ever seen a really great play or musical in a theatre? The kind with amazing sets that really pull you in to the performance? How about a play in school or a local theatre group that has to make do with a minimal set because they don't have millions to spend?
That's what world building is about. The characters are your actors, but they need a stage to work on. You are the writer: it's up to you whether you give them a bare set with a couple of props or a Broadway extravaganza.
Fan fiction can make us lazy when it comes to world building. After all, we are all familiar with the world Jim and Blair live in. We have lots of episodes that did the work for us. So we don't need all that careful detail that, say, George RR Marin need ed when he started writing A Song of Ice and Fire. Or do we?
My approach is to use setting to show character. I might describe Blair sprawled on the couch surrounded by books, for example, emphasising that he is an academic. Later, I might describe those books stacked into a neat pile where Jim has tidied them away. No need to say that Jim is a neat-freak: the reader will recognise it from his implied action.
In an AU or in a story which takes Jim and Blair into an unfamiliar setting, it's all about picking the right details, not trying to describe everything. Here is where Jim comes in very handy. What details does the Sentinel notice? Use all of his senses: what does he hear, see, smell? Does the air taste different and if so, what makes it different? Salt in the air near the sea, a taste of ash at the scene of a fire, brick dust at a construction site. What does he feel? Not just what he deliberately touches but that dust getting into his eyes or the heat of the sun, damp clothing in the rain... It would be easy to get carried away but I'm not creating a 3D movie with my words, more an impressionist painting. Just enough detail to allow the reader's imagination to fill in the rest.
And the reason I started by talking about theatre? Never forget Chekhov's Gun. Chekhov said that if there is a gun on the table in the first act of a play, someone must get shot with it before the end. That's not exactly right but close enough. In a story, I try to do that in reverse. For example, in the big climax at the end of a story, Jim is going to catch the bad guy by grabbing a motorbike and chasing him through the streets. So early in the story, I want to include something that will tell the reader Jim knows how to ride. Maybe he's passing a place selling a Harley, or maybe he helps a friend fix theirs. It only needs to be a passing mention, but it's a detail that builds a world in which the planned chase can happen.
So - over to you. What details matter to you in world building? Do you prefer to build in a lot of detail or a bare bones approach? Is it easier to stick to Cqscade as a setting or do you worry about getting it "wrong"?
Comment below to check in and join the discussion.
(Cross posts coming later today. Also apologies for any typos. I'm on my phone.)
Check in time
Checking in is, as always, optional
The writing target for checkpoint #2 is 4,000 words or 2/5 of your project. This is just a soft target - something to aim for if "slow-and-steady" suits your way of writing. If you're already ahead of that, you can pat yourself on the back. If you're behind - don't worry! There's loads of time yet.
If you're signed up as a writer, please comment to check in. Tell us about your progress and feel free to share a few details about what you're writing and how it's going. If you need help or if you have any questions for the mods, this is a good time to ask, too.
There's no standard "form" for check-in this year, because we also have a writer's discussion going on. If you don't want to talk about your project, you can check in by joining in the discussion below.
Which leads me on to...
Each of our checkpoints this year will include a roundtable discussion on some aspect of writing. Maybe "round table" is a better name, as I'm not pretending to be a master of any sort! All I'm doing is offering my take on the subject, and I hope lots of you will join in with your own take on how to approach writing.
Open Discussion: World Building
Have you ever seen a really great play or musical in a theatre? The kind with amazing sets that really pull you in to the performance? How about a play in school or a local theatre group that has to make do with a minimal set because they don't have millions to spend?
That's what world building is about. The characters are your actors, but they need a stage to work on. You are the writer: it's up to you whether you give them a bare set with a couple of props or a Broadway extravaganza.
Fan fiction can make us lazy when it comes to world building. After all, we are all familiar with the world Jim and Blair live in. We have lots of episodes that did the work for us. So we don't need all that careful detail that, say, George RR Marin need ed when he started writing A Song of Ice and Fire. Or do we?
My approach is to use setting to show character. I might describe Blair sprawled on the couch surrounded by books, for example, emphasising that he is an academic. Later, I might describe those books stacked into a neat pile where Jim has tidied them away. No need to say that Jim is a neat-freak: the reader will recognise it from his implied action.
In an AU or in a story which takes Jim and Blair into an unfamiliar setting, it's all about picking the right details, not trying to describe everything. Here is where Jim comes in very handy. What details does the Sentinel notice? Use all of his senses: what does he hear, see, smell? Does the air taste different and if so, what makes it different? Salt in the air near the sea, a taste of ash at the scene of a fire, brick dust at a construction site. What does he feel? Not just what he deliberately touches but that dust getting into his eyes or the heat of the sun, damp clothing in the rain... It would be easy to get carried away but I'm not creating a 3D movie with my words, more an impressionist painting. Just enough detail to allow the reader's imagination to fill in the rest.
And the reason I started by talking about theatre? Never forget Chekhov's Gun. Chekhov said that if there is a gun on the table in the first act of a play, someone must get shot with it before the end. That's not exactly right but close enough. In a story, I try to do that in reverse. For example, in the big climax at the end of a story, Jim is going to catch the bad guy by grabbing a motorbike and chasing him through the streets. So early in the story, I want to include something that will tell the reader Jim knows how to ride. Maybe he's passing a place selling a Harley, or maybe he helps a friend fix theirs. It only needs to be a passing mention, but it's a detail that builds a world in which the planned chase can happen.
So - over to you. What details matter to you in world building? Do you prefer to build in a lot of detail or a bare bones approach? Is it easier to stick to Cqscade as a setting or do you worry about getting it "wrong"?
Comment below to check in and join the discussion.
(Cross posts coming later today. Also apologies for any typos. I'm on my phone.)