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[sartorias]

In kateelliott's post today about creating vibrant characters, she says this:

We are social animals. Let readers be social in their reading experience. Because one of the relationships you are creating when you write is the relationship between the reader and your story.It's that "let readers be social in their reading experience" that got my head

Comments

[coneycat]

What a terrific post! The advice about dropping backstory in favour of action/reaction/interaction, and why, is terrific. Character infodumps are always, in my experience, me trying to tell the reader how to experience the character. The reminder to let the reader *just experience the character* is really useful.

And I agree, the reminder about the reader having a relationship to the story is vital as well. I must go think about that one.

[green_knight]

I think she's expressing something that is very, very important, and that might explain why I love her books so much

[sartorias]

Some of us have to insert a lot of scaffolding into our first drafts in order for it all to make sense. I think this is especially true of big, braided novels. What is much tougher is learning to identify the scaffolding in the revision process, and remove it, leaving the actual story intact. I'm still struggling to learn this.

[green_knight]

Your concept of scaffolding has been immensely helpful in working out where to improve my writing. Pat Wrede's explanation of layering was exceedingly useful in recognising what was missing, but the 'scafrolding' concept keeps reminding me that a) I need to write it, however bad it is, in order to be able to get in the description etc etc, and b) I need to take it out. (I used to look for ways of cutting the endless internalisation and hitting the wall of 'but this is the story' - what I need to do instead is replace it with _better_ words. THEN they can go. And should

[sartorias]

That's exactly it--the scaffolding itself can be ordinary sentences, no grammatical errors, even the sort of thing one reads in another book, but . . . there's an elusive neutral affect to it that makes the reader want to begin skimming in search of something more interesting. Too many of these, and boom, they fall out of the story.

[asakiyume]

Yes, that line "let readers be social in their reading experience"--and what she says about people liking to figure other people out. That's the social part (or one social part)--getting to know the character, forming an opinion about them, getting to know more, revising your opinion--just like in real life.

[sartorias]

I really like that distinction.

[burger_eater]

Sherwood, do you write with a specific reader or group of readers in mind?

[sartorias]

Not really--my brain just doesn't work that way, alas. Wish it did.

[burger_eater]

I'm thinking I need to get back in the habit of visualizing specific readers. I'm not even talking about people I've met IRL, but people as I imagine them.

[sartorias]

I have heard writers say that that really sharpens their focus. Unfortunately, the only way I can work is to sink thoroughly inside the story, with no awareness of anything outside that fourth wall. Or it all just falls apart on me.