Hooks, Keyholes, and Loops: Writing Process Essay

[mithen]

The initial impetus for "The Missing Moon" came from two things:

First, I wanted to write a story for starsandsea  for her birthday.  Star has a talent for writing evocative short pieces (when she's not writing gorgeous long AUs), so I wanted to try and write something short and focused for her.  Short pieces aren't exactly my strength, because they require a

Comments

[northern_star]

Very interesting read. :) Thanks for sharing this with us -- it's fun to see how everyone else "does it." Short stories sometimes sound "easy" to do, but there's often a lot more work involved than it seems, and it's definitely interesting to see all these little strings you pulled out to show us. :)

[mithen]

It's funny, I bet one could write 8,000 words about a 1,000 word story with no effort at all. :) Thoughts tend to spin out and digress and expand... (especially with me!)

[northern_star]

*lol* ...and I had trouble finding 2000 words to say about a 48000 word story. ;) Of course I don't really have a process - I have mostly chaos. Most of my stories are spun from a starting mental image, a good line to end on and "whatever comes to mind while I have my fingers on the keyboard..."

[mithen]

Of course I don't really have a process - I have mostly chaos. Most of my stories are spun from a starting mental image, a good line to end on and "whatever comes to mind while I have my fingers on the keyboard..."

But that's the same thing I'm describing there, just showing the progression of the chaos. :) It all is mostly a "blooming, buzzing confusion" while I'm doing the actual writing... (but a fun confusion!)

[icarus_chained]

What's funny is that in writing this essay what was a fairly disordered, jumbled process ended up looking a lot more linear.
*grin* Yeah, I find that happens a lot, too. It'd be wonderful if stories actually showed up that way, all neatly laid out, but strangely it doesn't seem to work that way ...

I love this look at your process, though. Especially the 'hook', 'keyhole' and 'loop' terms. I've never thought of them anywhere near so clearly, but the way you describe them does resonate. You're far more organised than I, though, to have terms for them ;)

Thank you for that look-in! Fascinating, to quote Spock.

[mithen]

You're far more organised than I, though, to have terms for them ;)

*grin* I didn't, until I started the essay and realized that although I had a sort of gut feeling of them, I didn't have words for them at all. :) It was really weird!

Writing this essay was so weird, because even though that's not an inaccurate representation of what happened, it's way too...verbal, I guess. In reality it was more a jumble of emotions and intuitions--it translates into "I'm looking for an ending that loops back," but in reality it was so much more non-linguistic than that. But there's no way to capture a non-linguistic experience in words...

[icarus_chained]

*nods* I'm having the same ... well, it's not really a problem, more an extreme case of mental dissonance ... thing happen trying to write the Alien POV essay. I lay out all these steps, and while it is like that after the fact, while I'm actually trying to write something it's this big buzzing ball of instinct and ideas and ... mental stew, mostly, I think. But you can't say that, because it doesn't translate into words, not unless you straighten things out a bit first.

Admirable job, by the by!

[mithen]

while I'm actually trying to write something it's this big buzzing ball of instinct and ideas and ... mental stew, mostly, I think. But you can't say that, because it doesn't translate into words, n

*grin* This sounds like a great essay!

1. Idea!
2. Things happen!
3. ???
4. Story!

That's the basic summary I started off with... :P

[bradygirl_12]

I really enjoyed this, Mithen! :)

I'm endlessly fascinated by how other writers work, and this, complete with labels, was a fun read! :)

I like that homesickness angle and how Clark doesn't feel as if he fits in. That's a theme I'd like to explore maybe this summer when I start writing some different things.

I wouldn't want to make it all "Human--Good", "Kryptonian--Bad", because heaven knows humans have messed things up pretty badly at times, but right now Krypton is caught in a fascist culture, and there's that little details about guilds...

I do like the loops, especially, because I find myself doing the same thing sometimes, too. Hopefully the reader catches it if you do it subtly enough, but sometimes blatant works, too! ;)

This is definitely one of your best stories, because I find myself thinking about it now and again. :)

[mithen]

I wouldn't want to make it all "Human--Good", "Kryptonian--Bad", because heaven knows humans have messed things up pretty badly at times, but right now Krypton is caught in a fascist culture, and there's that little details about guilds...

The New Krypton storyline has so many cool opportunities for fic! Homesickness, culture shock, issues of identity... I'd like to see some stories that found more of the good in Kryptonian culture, preferably without glossing over the bad--a tall order considering how bad the bad is, but there's got to be some positive as well...

[starsandsea]

*blushes*

Whee! It's so interesting to see this about the story! I'd never thought about things like hooks or keyholes before, so it was fascinating to see you talk about them here.

It still makes me go 'owie' when I think of Clark alone on New Krypton without the moon! *sniffles*

[mithen]

I'd never thought about things like hooks or keyholes before, so it was fascinating to see you talk about them here.

I'd never really thought of them in such specific terms until writing the essay myself! :) It was very strange...it's stuff that floats around in my mind, but rarely gets articulated...

[snake_easing]

Thanks for that process explanation! I think those are very reasonable things to aim for, a hook, a keyhole, and a loop. Were you trained to include those, or did an awareness of the need for them just aggregate in you?