To see Creating Setting Part I, go to Skulljuggler's post
The key thing to remember about setting is that it goes deeper than just location or political structure. Setting is an emotion. Setting is mood. A setting tells us whether we are reading a horror or fantasy, whether it is going to be a happy scene or a sad scene. There are several ways you can set the tone of the scene using setting and a variety of tones can be used from a single setting.
Let's take an example, a meadow for instance. If you wanted to make a happy scene or an idyllic scene you could have the meadow lush with green grass and sprinkled with flowers, a strong sun shining and a warm wind curling through the air. If you wanted a sad scene you could have the meadow barren or the flowers looking dull and droopy on their stalks, the air still. It lends a sense of oppressiveness, of loneliness. Now of course there are a variety of ways to play with different thematic devices, but most importantly, the most effective setting will reflect back on the character.
What I mean is simply this. To make a truly effective setting, you should consider how your viewpoint character feels about the place and what mood they are in.
For the first, consider how much different it feels for you coming home to your house where everything is yours and you set your own rules compared to going to another's house, even a close friend's. There are things there which have histories you don't even know. It is stiffer. Mostly polite. You are unsure whether or not you should move things. This varies, of course, depending on the level of friend and your own disposition.
For the second, playing on emotion, if you're going home after a long days work and are tired, depending on your disposition, you might take comfort in the familiarity of home, or you might feel oppressed by it. Going to a friend's house might be your place away from home, where you can crash and not worry, or it could be stiff and awkward and a torment, depending on how your feeling.
As a writer you need to be aware of both how you react to places and, in turn, how your characters feel. Different characters should be able to look down the same street and feel differently about it depending on their disposition, how they feel at the time and even the history that street carries for them. For example: a young man in a good mood who enjoys architecture might stroll down the sunlight street, looking at edifices and enjoying the sun on his face. Another young man who say had gotten mugged before might feel exposed in the sunlight and see only the shadowy alleys and the dinginess of the storefronts.
In summation, don't be afraid to use scenery as more than just a painted backdrop. Make it come alive. Make it mean something. Create layers so the readers can come back again to the same spot, same story, same words but knowing the characters disposition, can understand just a little more of the world you've laid out.
Showing posts with label art of writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art of writing. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The Circle of Editing
Right now, I am working on editing Twisted and man, if you think it’s easier now that the story is finished, you’ve got another thing coming. When writing, it’s important to remember that, really, the story isn’t completely finished until it’s being shipped out to stores. There will always be edits, edits and edits again. And even then, if you happen to become as rich and famous as Spielberg you can fiddle with the source material. However, I’m banking on the assumption that most of us won’t be and, in any case, most of us are just concerned with getting the story done and out. Though I am more of a writer than an editor, as a writer I have to do both. Skulljuggler has helped me edit a lot of my stuff and she’s broken it down into four parts, book edits, chapter edits, scene edits and line edits. (Be sure to check out her companion blog on the topic.)
Book edits are just like they sound. They are the easiest edits and the hardest ones. You read the whole book and you think about it what the book needs and if you’ve gotten across what you wanted to get across and if you have all the scenes you need or if you have more scenes than you need. If you know exactly what kind of story you have in mind, then this part can be easy. If you’re not sure what you want to do exactly, now is the time to start thinking about it but you don’t and probably shouldn’t make a definite ironclad decision right there and then. The hard thing with book edits is getting hung up on phrasing or sentence structure and you need to learn to not pay attention. No, seriously. Don’t. Worrying about the nitty gritty stuff like that will come later. Right now, you’re just looking at the story as a whole.
Chapter edits and scene edits are pretty much the same as book edits but here there’s an extra step added. In chapter and scene edits you actually get right in there and revise, again, not for sentence structure, but so that the story fits with what you want. Here is also where you add chapters or scenes where you think you need them. Not sure if you do or not? Add it anyway. You can take away chapters/scenes here, too but don’t delete them. You can always use that material later, and if you change your mind, a deleted chapter is just going to cause massive amounts of frustration.
This kind of editing can also be the most time draining because adding or changing scenes/chapters can add a ripple effect. For example, you have your character do something really cool in this new scene, but this really cool thing majorly affects the way other scenes flow so you end up having to change them too. The ripple goes backwards as well as forwards so often you have to change the beginning of your narrative as well which just causes more ripples and between one breath and another, you’ve got an almost completely different story than you started with. This can be good or bad but at this stage, don’t worry about it.
Also, though I’ve clumped these two stages together remember to take them one at a time. First look at the chapter and see if there is anything that needs to be fixed and then fix it scene by scene. Another word of advice, in relation to the ripple, is that don’t try to stop the ripple. What I mean is, don’t try to force your story back onto the path that it was in before. Try to take all the implications of what changed and go with it, even though a lot may change from what you’d originally written.
Finally, there are line edits. Line edits are more than just fixing grammar/spelling mistakes and awkward sentence structures. Here is where you thread in lines of your theme, where you perfect character voice. This is where you fine tune every sentence and phrase so that your book is the best that it can be, you say exactly what you want to say in the best way you know how to say it. This can be the most fun out of all the editing stages because by this time you know your character and plot really well. This is the place you can play with words and just have fun.
So line editing is done. The last i is dotted, the last t is crossed. Now what? Now you go right back to book editing, or global editing as Skulljuggler calls it. This is to make sure you have your book exactly how you want it. You may find that, yay, you do! In which case it’s time to ship it out to perspective agents/publishers/what-have-you. You may find out that you still need to fix some stuff and then you go right back into chapter/scene and line edits. There is a real danger here, though of it becoming an endless cycle of editing. Sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and let go and work on something else. It’ll be okay, no really. Unless you want to keep writing the same book forever at some point you have to say, this is it. When you’re finally done, take a deep breath, congratulate yourself and start right in on something else. With luck you’ll get an agent and get to go right back into editing.
Book edits are just like they sound. They are the easiest edits and the hardest ones. You read the whole book and you think about it what the book needs and if you’ve gotten across what you wanted to get across and if you have all the scenes you need or if you have more scenes than you need. If you know exactly what kind of story you have in mind, then this part can be easy. If you’re not sure what you want to do exactly, now is the time to start thinking about it but you don’t and probably shouldn’t make a definite ironclad decision right there and then. The hard thing with book edits is getting hung up on phrasing or sentence structure and you need to learn to not pay attention. No, seriously. Don’t. Worrying about the nitty gritty stuff like that will come later. Right now, you’re just looking at the story as a whole.
Chapter edits and scene edits are pretty much the same as book edits but here there’s an extra step added. In chapter and scene edits you actually get right in there and revise, again, not for sentence structure, but so that the story fits with what you want. Here is also where you add chapters or scenes where you think you need them. Not sure if you do or not? Add it anyway. You can take away chapters/scenes here, too but don’t delete them. You can always use that material later, and if you change your mind, a deleted chapter is just going to cause massive amounts of frustration.
This kind of editing can also be the most time draining because adding or changing scenes/chapters can add a ripple effect. For example, you have your character do something really cool in this new scene, but this really cool thing majorly affects the way other scenes flow so you end up having to change them too. The ripple goes backwards as well as forwards so often you have to change the beginning of your narrative as well which just causes more ripples and between one breath and another, you’ve got an almost completely different story than you started with. This can be good or bad but at this stage, don’t worry about it.
Also, though I’ve clumped these two stages together remember to take them one at a time. First look at the chapter and see if there is anything that needs to be fixed and then fix it scene by scene. Another word of advice, in relation to the ripple, is that don’t try to stop the ripple. What I mean is, don’t try to force your story back onto the path that it was in before. Try to take all the implications of what changed and go with it, even though a lot may change from what you’d originally written.
Finally, there are line edits. Line edits are more than just fixing grammar/spelling mistakes and awkward sentence structures. Here is where you thread in lines of your theme, where you perfect character voice. This is where you fine tune every sentence and phrase so that your book is the best that it can be, you say exactly what you want to say in the best way you know how to say it. This can be the most fun out of all the editing stages because by this time you know your character and plot really well. This is the place you can play with words and just have fun.
So line editing is done. The last i is dotted, the last t is crossed. Now what? Now you go right back to book editing, or global editing as Skulljuggler calls it. This is to make sure you have your book exactly how you want it. You may find that, yay, you do! In which case it’s time to ship it out to perspective agents/publishers/what-have-you. You may find out that you still need to fix some stuff and then you go right back into chapter/scene and line edits. There is a real danger here, though of it becoming an endless cycle of editing. Sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and let go and work on something else. It’ll be okay, no really. Unless you want to keep writing the same book forever at some point you have to say, this is it. When you’re finally done, take a deep breath, congratulate yourself and start right in on something else. With luck you’ll get an agent and get to go right back into editing.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
The Art of Writing: Learn to Chill
It is a truth universally acknowledged that writers stress out a lot. No, really, they do. I know I do, and I'm sure you do, too. There is the pre-story drama where you are in the planning stages and the story is no more than a hardened seed of possibility in the root of your brain. 'Oh what a stupid idea. I want to write it but it's so cliched/weird/gruesome/mushy,' you tell yourself. Sometimes it stops there. Other times you take a tentative reach toward the keyboard, stretching your fingers, staring at the cursor blinking on the blank page and think of the perfect opening line; the one that will catapult your story to the top seller list, make you the next J.K Rowling or James Patterson. A household name at least and a movie deal or two in the making. Or maybe you're just looking for a clever line to get your story started. You write a sentence and delete, write a sentence and delete, write a paragraph and delete in frustration. It's not perfect. It's just not. But maybe you get over that and continue anyway. Characters appear. Plot happens. More stresses abound. Is this character too flat? No one is going to be able to connect with this character! You call this a plot? It's a mess! No one's going to want to buy this. No one is going to want to read it. You go to author chat rooms and agent chats and writers boards and ask fervently would this get published? Or this? Or this? What is hot right now? Is this too stupid?
First, chill out, take a deep breath. Breathe in, breathe out. It's going to be okay. No, really. If you're a writer, that is to say if you write, if you love to write and create worlds and characters and sentences that dance and sparkle on the page, then the first thing you have to do--the core element--is loving what you write. Love your story. Love your characters. Write your passion into every word, hook your heartbeats on every comma no matter how misplaced. Love it, live it. And most importantly, tell the truth, your own truth, in every single press of a keyboard or glide of a pen across paper or words dripped into a recorder. Write what moves you, what tickles you, what makes you want to sing, what makes you want to cry, what makes you want to hop in the sack and love all night.
Second, realize that the first draft is the first draft and it is not going to be perfect and what's more, that's a good thing. True, sometimes writers will have a flash of inspiration and write everything they mean to say in a frenzied pitch, the story writing itself like magic across the page. But that frenzied pitch isn't always going to be there. Sometimes you have to struggle and sweat and cry and moan and that's okay. You will get it right if you don't give up and the feeling of accomplishment is euphoric, filling your head, singing at your fingertips. Allow yourself time to explore your story and your characters. Let them take you where they will. Anything can be changed. Anything can be edited. In this process you not only discover what you're writing, but you also discover yourself. Editing is when you hone your craft, working and fixing until the story is tight and gleaming, characters strong, plot engaging, euphoric feeling over 9,000.
Third, it's okay to ask for advice, but realize at some point that no one is going to be able to help you but you. You can ask in all the chat rooms or forums you like but the most people can do is offer advice. The answer to the problem sometimes lies in your brain and your brain alone. If a story frustrates you, don't throw it out. Don't destroy it in fits of depression and whatever you do, as my dear friend tells me often, DON'T DELETE. Save it somewhere else if you don't want to look at it. Put it aside. Look at it with fresh new eyes another day. Most importantly, don't give up.
So you do all this and what, you'll get published? Maybe. I don't know. Not even an agent can be sure. And if it is published there is no guarantee that it will sell well or at all. There are so many factors going into making a successful book and probably the biggest factor of all is luck. Maybe you'll be lucky. Maybe you won't. The point is no one can truly predict the next big thing. The point is you never know when you're going to hit an agent or a publisher that will love your story just as much, if not more than you do. Maybe that will never happen. But if it doesn't at least you will have your story, the story of your heart that you poured your passion in. The story that exhilarated you and made you cry. The story of the truth of your life. The story that only you can tell and no one else, no one in the world, can tell it exactly the way you can. Treasure that. Write for you. Write with your passion. Write with everything in you because the one thing you have that no body else does is the story deep in your heart.
First, chill out, take a deep breath. Breathe in, breathe out. It's going to be okay. No, really. If you're a writer, that is to say if you write, if you love to write and create worlds and characters and sentences that dance and sparkle on the page, then the first thing you have to do--the core element--is loving what you write. Love your story. Love your characters. Write your passion into every word, hook your heartbeats on every comma no matter how misplaced. Love it, live it. And most importantly, tell the truth, your own truth, in every single press of a keyboard or glide of a pen across paper or words dripped into a recorder. Write what moves you, what tickles you, what makes you want to sing, what makes you want to cry, what makes you want to hop in the sack and love all night.
Second, realize that the first draft is the first draft and it is not going to be perfect and what's more, that's a good thing. True, sometimes writers will have a flash of inspiration and write everything they mean to say in a frenzied pitch, the story writing itself like magic across the page. But that frenzied pitch isn't always going to be there. Sometimes you have to struggle and sweat and cry and moan and that's okay. You will get it right if you don't give up and the feeling of accomplishment is euphoric, filling your head, singing at your fingertips. Allow yourself time to explore your story and your characters. Let them take you where they will. Anything can be changed. Anything can be edited. In this process you not only discover what you're writing, but you also discover yourself. Editing is when you hone your craft, working and fixing until the story is tight and gleaming, characters strong, plot engaging, euphoric feeling over 9,000.
Third, it's okay to ask for advice, but realize at some point that no one is going to be able to help you but you. You can ask in all the chat rooms or forums you like but the most people can do is offer advice. The answer to the problem sometimes lies in your brain and your brain alone. If a story frustrates you, don't throw it out. Don't destroy it in fits of depression and whatever you do, as my dear friend tells me often, DON'T DELETE. Save it somewhere else if you don't want to look at it. Put it aside. Look at it with fresh new eyes another day. Most importantly, don't give up.
So you do all this and what, you'll get published? Maybe. I don't know. Not even an agent can be sure. And if it is published there is no guarantee that it will sell well or at all. There are so many factors going into making a successful book and probably the biggest factor of all is luck. Maybe you'll be lucky. Maybe you won't. The point is no one can truly predict the next big thing. The point is you never know when you're going to hit an agent or a publisher that will love your story just as much, if not more than you do. Maybe that will never happen. But if it doesn't at least you will have your story, the story of your heart that you poured your passion in. The story that exhilarated you and made you cry. The story of the truth of your life. The story that only you can tell and no one else, no one in the world, can tell it exactly the way you can. Treasure that. Write for you. Write with your passion. Write with everything in you because the one thing you have that no body else does is the story deep in your heart.
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