Goose Warning

[Wrensul]

Hello, fellows.

I’m Wren. On the big quest to make my writing publish-worthy. All experiments and practice for now.

I am absolutely and delightfully haunted by my world building hobby. Call it a special interest. I am developing a world called Parsk and I hope that Parsk is my career someday.

If the writing thing doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll just try raising geese instead. . .

Very much looking forward to talking craft and inspiration. And hearing about other people’s worlds, too!

Now, I do have a big few questions to start with.

As a visual artist, I’m always working from the imagination-movies in my head. I understand the common rule; we’re not listing out every action in the character’s day, right? Don’t start at waking up on the pillow. Don’t end at brushing their teeth and going to bed. Focus on the plot.

How do you focus on the flow of your action?

Where do you start your scenes from? How do you trim up your work so that only the most pertinent beats remain? Do you have any suggestions for keeping action tight? If you’re seeing absolutely every moment of a character’s experience in your own head, how do you hone in on just the right details to express?

Ultimately, I know there is a “loss of data”, for those of us seeing “movies”. And that we have to allow readers to fill in and invent many things.

Their relationship to our work is as valid as our own.

Anyway, here are my grimy baby geese from the view of a doggy door, and also my pudgy, judgmental little dog.

 

[pmmg]

Howdy Wrensul, Welcome here.

I have been writing for many years. When I started, spitting out 2000 or more words per scene was very easy, I just said what people were doing and added a lot of detail. As I went on, my scene length got shorter and shorter, to the point that sometimes I struggle to get 700 words per scene, which in my mind, is the smallest word count I want.

I tend to start scenes right up against whatever is supposed to happen in a scene. If its a battle, usually with something showing the intensity, or the decision to fight. If its a court room, with the King having to make a decision, then somewhere near the part where the problem is presented.

Trimming is not a problem (and really, you should not worry about that until the rewrite). I like to keep thing to the point, and not meander. So, if the King has to make a decision, and is drinking coffee...I might cut out the stuff about coffee, if I am feeling stuff needs to go.

In action, I actually dont like writing these. They take up so much space. I try to keep them quick and resolved quickly. My battles are not Clang, clang, clang, and someone gets a hit. They are fast and usually one pass exchanges, and someone is messed up or dead.

I think the approach I use is to keep things focused on what the scene really has to tell. In battles, I try to show things about the characters and not dwell on motions of weapons and blades. I think a great example of good story telling through action, is Luke vs Vader in ESB. The swords are flashy, sure, but the choices they make, the body language, and the dialog are what sell the scene. It matters that Luke ignited his blade first, that his actions wide and all out, and Vader was calm and barely moving. That Vader found him easy, and then was surprised. And the instant Luke got in a hit, Vader cut off his hand as if he could have all along. We learned something about each. One was way over matched for the other.

And in the longer story, we know Luke has got to somehow beat that, and it does not look like he can.

The story mattered, the blow by blow, not really.

I try to capture things like that in my own action scenes.

 

[RoccO]

I tried writing from beginning to end. It worked for a younger audience than I had intended that do not enjoy shocks. The best way for me to approach it was to remain encouraging. Not get the wires crossed. It was an exploratory mission. It had no anchorage but was worthy of my time.

I felt like I was the chaperone, doomed to failures, but chaste to their misery. I think I managed to dig my own hole and floor the pedal. It were as if…

Maybe music is a good comparison, the more notes you have, the less likely you will repeat the same tune. They say, it has all been done before, that we are in a perpetual time loop. I am afraid the ship never left the river.

Maybe to drown you in praise, this Parsk sounds like it is an anchorage to your own river - an offbeat connection to your own roots - try to do the little things then maybe the little things will try to do you.

 

[Wrensul]

spitting out 2000 or more words per scene was very easy

Relatable for me even now. I'm one to struggle with purple prose. I think I'm getting better, though! I recall someone saying something along the lines of "the best way to say something is to just say it". Which makes the Luke/Vader scene really work, huh? Foggy words have their place.

Maybe music is a good comparison

I profoundly agree with this. I don't have any formal training with language. Not enough to count. So I'd like to understand one day what's happening when I edit and my brain goes "yes, now that this one word is gone, it flows better". Where does that intuition come from. Thank you for a lovely response!

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

How do you focus on the flow of your action?

Where do you start your scenes from? How do you trim up your work so that only the most pertinent beats remain? Do you have any suggestions for keeping action tight? If you’re seeing absolutely every moment of a character’s experience in your own head, how do you hone in on just the right details to express?

These are all very good questions that I've been trying to answer for years. One bit of advice I can give for especially tense action scenes is, picture where "camera" is in relation to your characters, and how it "moves".

Also, those are very funny-looking baby cobra chickens, and a lovely dog.

 

[Karlin]

I had a writing "experience" a few days ago. My 4 main characters went off for a beer, which opens up a scene in a pub, along with a conversation- the conversation being the goal of the scene. Then I realized- "what are they going to talk about?"- I didn't need the scene or the conversation. Instead, I sent 3 of them off to the pub, and left one behind. He has a dream that is important in the story. Then, one of the characters at the pub comes home late, and does something without thinking (late hour, a little too much to drink), that has an effect on the story.

 

[xena]

How adorable!!
Welcome Wren!