can't get there from here

[flambeau]

Back while I was writing my sesa and yuletide stories, I really wanted to do an lj post about writing habits and writing techniques. Now I don't have to be secret any more, I'll try to make this post be that post

Comments

[halimede]

No answer to the last one, because I have a completely different conceptual framework for it. That I can't necessarily put into words.

I sorta guessed you. I thought it was nopseud, because it reminded me so much of the zombies, and it had snarling!Lance. But that was you. :)

[flambeau]

If you do think of words for it, I'd be interested. :)

it reminded me so much of the zombies

Hee! Oh, the zombies. Good times.

[halimede]

Good thing nopseud reminded me of this post. I've been googling my little ass of because over on rec.arts.composition Graydon said something extremely clear about this, but I forgot to save the post and he has x-noarchive on. But! Someone else quoted it, I remember this clearly, so I should be able to find it through google groups, no? No. Not so far

[flambeau]

something to do with dpi, as in dots per inch, as in resolution

Mm, I like that way of looking at it. Though my head translates it into painting style and insists that I'm an obsessive pointillist. *g*

[nopseud]

The only author I guessed was you.

There were a few lines in it, which I could probably find again if you're interested, and which just made me say, yep, that *has* to be torch. After that, I did also check your formatting choices and looked up a few spellings just to make sure ('godammit' is a good test word because there's quite a lot of variety in the people's spelling of it) and that matched, but I would have been really surprised to be wrong at that point.

[flambeau]

Of course I'd love to know which lines, but only if you feel like looking for them - I mean, not if it's troublesome. I'm just curious to know whether the things I would think of as being recognizable are the things that are recognizable to other people. :)

I didn't actually guess a single sesa writer correctly(out of the about 50% of the stories I'd read before the reveal, mind), and only two yuletide stories (out of the approximately 25%, ditto). Truthfully, most of the people whose writing I know well enough to identify, I already knew which stories they'd written from having betaed or otherwise participated in the creation process. *g*

[nopseud]

I should have made more nites at the time, but it was ridiculously late at night when I read it

[flambeau]

Whee! thank you so much, that is so sweet of you! And interesting, to me. *g* I would have suspected it would be (even) more dialogue, but looking at this, you are so right about the descriptive passages. Some of these are totally bits I would have pointed to, too, if I were trying to say "look, clearly this is me, here." And some of them aren't, which is also eenteresting. I think I probably do stuff that I don't know that I do. *g*

What would you say that your most characteristic writing tics are?

[thuviaptarth]

Well, everyone figured out Yuletide #1 (this was not really a surprise) and at least two people figured out the pinch hit (this seemed slightly more unlikely).

I guessed on a lot of stories, all of which turned out to have been written by people I'd never read or in some cases heard of before. Which is actually pretty cool.

When I first realized that I simply didn't have to write transitional scenes that were driving me crazy, it was a joy and a revelation. (May I never again have the headache of getting recalcitrant characters up a staircase.) I've been trying to add more of them back lately because I think I've gone too far into the cutting nonessential parts.

[flambeau]

When I first realized that I simply didn't have to write transitional scenes that were driving me crazy, it was a joy and a revelation.

I feel like someone's opened a door at the back of my head. I'm not sure how long the rush will last, but whee! freedom!

On the other hand, I do really like the whole submersion-in-details thing, just for the way it can sum up the sensory experience - I mean, for me personally, I like to imagine what it would be like to stand right there, and hear and see and smell and touch and sometimes taste, and take one step and look again, and then I'm back to the whole "and then he made the bed" thing.

[flambeau]

I'm always thinking, okay, but they have to open the door, and then where's the lube?

Yes, so very yes. And if X turns this way, where is Y's arm, and did I remember to have someone bring in the mcguffin from the previous scene, and if not, how is it going to end up on the table where I need it to be?

On the other hand, it can be quite nifty to give someone a briefcase, and then he has that to fiddle with, in ways that might usefully indicate mood. maybe.

[kestrelsan]

I think details for me are kind of a safety-net--I like writing them, and I kind of run to them when other parts of the story aren't going well, like stupid emotional development and/or characters' thoughts and feelings *g*. But like your example with the briefcase, I think details are useful in fleshing out emotional tensions without having to find pretty ways of saying: He was sad.

But I also find that heavily detailed stories engage me on a much deeper level; at some point I forget I'm reading a story. Then again, I also like stories that don't do this--that are almost self-consciously stories, with a strong narrative voice that supercedes the characters and the setting. I've never been able to really do that as a writer, though.

I thought my shackinup_sesa story was pretty indicative of my writing, mostly because of the rain *g*. I guessed wrong on all of the yuletide stories I ventured guesses on. But it turned out that the authors were all writers I didn't know, which was cool.

[flambeau]

details for me are kind of a safety-net

Oh, yes. Details and research. I can spend hours investigating the layout of an airport or trying to draw a map from scattered geographical clues, and if I don't know what they should do, they can always eat, or notice interesting details in their surroundings.

Then again, I also like stories that don't do this--that are almost self-consciously stories, with a strong narrative voice that supercedes the characters and the setting.

Hmm, can you think of any examples of this? I think I know what you mean, but maybe we aren't thinking of the same thing at all.

[kestrelsan]

It's amazing how easy examples are until you have to come up with a specific one *g*. My first thought was Resonant--but I think that's because of how she uses sectional breaks, and not so much narrative style. Then I wandered over to Yuletide, because shorter stories lend themselves to that better; or rather, that style tends to develop shorter stories? Anyway *g*, here are two BG examples that might illustrate the two styles