writing Q&A

[synecdochic]

Moved to Dreamwidth

Comments

[flingslass]

When writing a conversation between a few people, how do you distinguish between the characters? I mean like he said this and she said that, without using their names every time.
(I'm really excited to be able to ask these dumb but they're not really dumb because you don't learn if you don't ask types of questions. Thank you.)

[indywind]

You are not alone in that.

[beatrice_otter]

You could go to the Writing Meta table of contents, scroll down to the bottom section which is a list of topics synecdochic was planning on doing meta on eventually, and see if that sparks anything.

Some topical questions for me, at the moment.

[arantzain]

This is especially re: Howling, which is one of the most finely plotted stories I've read.

How do you arrive at the "rising action" incidents that lead to the showdown? Or how do they arrive to you? I'm thinking particularly of scenes between JD and any of the snakes; JD dealing with the hackers, also and especially, in a way, because it's almost a pre-plot/sub-plot, how he has to get his feet among them. How do you control the pacing? How do you know what order things happen in?

I suppose part and parcel of this: do you write scenes and then string together, or do you write chronologically within the story?

[zippitgood]

How do you vary your sentence structures?

How do you foreshadow and layer in subplots?

Tied into that is how do you analyze your work to see the subplots you've inadvertently already laid in?

How do you drag yourself out of a writing lassitude and maintain a consistent writing regime?

[rydra_wong]

Multi-POV stories: what? how? why? whuh? help?

[beatrice_otter]

Mm. Particularly how to balance them and the ways in which each POV character, if you're being true to the character, will warp the story to fit his/her own particular concerns. How to handle that, and how to use it to your advantage.