FifthView
Vala
I don't know. I picked up Maid and Butler from listening to Writing Excuses, although I think maybe I'd encountered it in something Orson Scott Card wrote, earlier. It stuck with WE.
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Mythic Scribes Writing Jargon?
- Thread starter Devor
- Start date
I don't know. I picked up Maid and Butler from listening to Writing Excuses, although I think maybe I'd encountered it in something Orson Scott Card wrote, earlier. It stuck with WE.
Yeah, sorry, I dont mean that. I mean what specifically are we trying to Accomplish? Because we could just copy and paste tv tropes and call it a day lol.
FifthView
Vala
It's probably up to Devor. Maybe there'd be a section for all the non-TVTrope concepts, and a separate listing most commonly used (here) and/or useful TVTropes concepts.
Enter late. Exit early. (Not good pregnancy prevention, but great scene advice.)
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Demesnedenoir
Myth Weaver
We've kind of wandered from the Mythic Scribes specific jargon to geenral writing/story telling jargon.
pmmg
Myth Weaver
A term I use at times (though I am not sure I have had the occasion to on MS) is tag on's.
A 'tag on' extra words adding description that can easily be implied or is not needed.
She jumped through the window that was open and picked up the torch that was lying on the floor.
'That was open', and 'that was lying on the floor' are tag on's, they can be cut.
A 'tag on' extra words adding description that can easily be implied or is not needed.
She jumped through the window that was open and picked up the torch that was lying on the floor.
'That was open', and 'that was lying on the floor' are tag on's, they can be cut.
Aurora
Sage
I've not heard of these terms before. Didn't even such things were...things. This thread is blowing my mind.
When outlining, I tend to refer to each iteration (draft) of the outline as a scratch - since I picture it like I'm scratching away on the surface to reveal the details underneath. I think it may just be me though, as I've not heard/seen anyone else using it.
- Thread starter
- #109
Most of the stuff on tvtropes is really specific. Putting together a glossary would be more about pulling the 5-10 things that are more versatile, and putting them together with story structure terms like "inciting incident" and writing techniques like "info-littering" into one page.
A glossary wouldn't include something like Chosen One - which is a type of character - but might include Mary Sue (not really sure yet), which is a character problem writers sometimes run into.
That is, the advantage would be more about the trimmed and curated list, rather than the "new" content added to it - although insomuch as there are MS-original terms to add (waypoint writer, info-littering, etc.), that would be great.
Gurkhal
Auror
The only "jargon" I can think of is that people often picks examples from their writing to illustrate a point. But that don't need to be specific for MythicScribes.
pmmg
Myth Weaver
I think I would pick a piece from my own writing to illustrate cause that way I have no issues with someone thinking a comment is aimed at them.
Michael K. Eidson
Archmage
Coming in real late to this thread...
The discussion on Filter language reminded me of this recent post on literary agent Mary C. Moore's blog: Mistakes in the Slushpile: Filter Verbs ? Mary C. Moore - filter language, she says, is one of the most common mistakes she sees in the slush pile.
Narration vs Narrative: I've always considered "the narrative" as synonymous with "the story." I consider "narration" as the telling of the story. The narration includes all elements of the narrative, because what narrator, in reading the story aloud, would skip the dialogue? Can you imagine buying an audio book, narrated by Joe B. Narrator, where Joe skips all the dialogue bits? I'd ask for a refund.
But as was also pointed out, there have been plenty of discussions in the interwebs pertaining to narrative vs dialogue. In these discussions, narrative is often taken to mean the "action" of the story, the unfolding of events, as opposed to either dialogue or description. So you could have an equation of Story = Narrative + Dialogue + Description, though I'd rather think of it as Story = Action + Dialogue + Description, because I can think of that as S = ADD.
Anyway, I think context is often required to understand what is meant when someone uses the term "narrative."
As for the word "prose," I think of it as synonymous with "style," that is, word choice, but also how those words are strung together. You can have good prose, bad prose, flowery prose, purple prose, etc. Prose does not rely on meter, rhythm, or rhyme, as opposed to poetry, which needs at least one of those three. Some prose may border on the poetic, in which case, we could leave it to the most scholarly to debate whether the prose is actually prose.
As for nominations for the glossary, I'll nominate:
Scene-Sequel
MRU
I hadn't encountered MRU before reading about it on these forums. Had missed that somehow. I'd read about scene-sequel, but found the term "sequel" in this context a bit confusing.
The discussion on Filter language reminded me of this recent post on literary agent Mary C. Moore's blog: Mistakes in the Slushpile: Filter Verbs ? Mary C. Moore - filter language, she says, is one of the most common mistakes she sees in the slush pile.
Narration vs Narrative: I've always considered "the narrative" as synonymous with "the story." I consider "narration" as the telling of the story. The narration includes all elements of the narrative, because what narrator, in reading the story aloud, would skip the dialogue? Can you imagine buying an audio book, narrated by Joe B. Narrator, where Joe skips all the dialogue bits? I'd ask for a refund.
But as was also pointed out, there have been plenty of discussions in the interwebs pertaining to narrative vs dialogue. In these discussions, narrative is often taken to mean the "action" of the story, the unfolding of events, as opposed to either dialogue or description. So you could have an equation of Story = Narrative + Dialogue + Description, though I'd rather think of it as Story = Action + Dialogue + Description, because I can think of that as S = ADD.
Anyway, I think context is often required to understand what is meant when someone uses the term "narrative."
As for the word "prose," I think of it as synonymous with "style," that is, word choice, but also how those words are strung together. You can have good prose, bad prose, flowery prose, purple prose, etc. Prose does not rely on meter, rhythm, or rhyme, as opposed to poetry, which needs at least one of those three. Some prose may border on the poetic, in which case, we could leave it to the most scholarly to debate whether the prose is actually prose.
As for nominations for the glossary, I'll nominate:
Scene-Sequel
MRU
I hadn't encountered MRU before reading about it on these forums. Had missed that somehow. I'd read about scene-sequel, but found the term "sequel" in this context a bit confusing.
Russ
Istar
I have always had a certain fondness for the term "vomit draft."
- Thread starter
- #114
I just noted down the about 37 terms that were listed in this thread.
I can pick up the story structure terms elsewhere. But I noticed there weren't a lot that focused on worldbuilding. Do you have any you might add?
I was also wondering if there's a more intuitive word for something which, in creative terms, is called "integrity." Basically it means that every piece of the creative work has to fit together as a clear identifiable whole. But integrity has so many meanings, I'm not sure that's one people would think of. Is there a better term?
I can pick up the story structure terms elsewhere. But I noticed there weren't a lot that focused on worldbuilding. Do you have any you might add?
I was also wondering if there's a more intuitive word for something which, in creative terms, is called "integrity." Basically it means that every piece of the creative work has to fit together as a clear identifiable whole. But integrity has so many meanings, I'm not sure that's one people would think of. Is there a better term?
FifthView
Vala
Internal consistency?
- Thread starter
- #116
Consistency is more about not contradicting yourself.
Integrity would be more like putting things together like a jigsaw puzzle. I thought it might be useful as worldbuilding advice. Take the religion of the seven in Game of Thrones. The interesting part of that is "the Stranger" which fits so perfectly with Tyrion and his character arc. The one piece gives it integrity with the tone of the rest of the story and makes it important to the development of the characters (in the early books).
So if you're worldbuilding, the question becomes "How is this integral / add integrity" or in other ways "support" the story, the characters, the tone, and so on of your story.
But I'm not sure people would immediately respond to the word integrity that way, so I'm looking for a new term.
FifthView
Vala
For me, integrity means internal consistency, insofar as what breaks integrity is something that's not internally consistent. If it is internally consistent, then it has integrity, heh.
But you seem to be looking for a word that is prescriptive rather than proscriptive in nature.
That would almost seem to me to be a combination of "Dig deeply, don’t build widely" and internal consistency.
I don't know if another word is already in use to describe that. I looked up "tying together" in an online thesaurus and found various words that might work, if I'm understanding you correctly. Interlacing is a good possibility. You could maybe use a phrase instead of the word: "Make everything integral."*
*Edit: "Interlacing relevance" heh. Well, we could take this in numerous directions...
But you seem to be looking for a word that is prescriptive rather than proscriptive in nature.
That would almost seem to me to be a combination of "Dig deeply, don’t build widely" and internal consistency.
I don't know if another word is already in use to describe that. I looked up "tying together" in an online thesaurus and found various words that might work, if I'm understanding you correctly. Interlacing is a good possibility. You could maybe use a phrase instead of the word: "Make everything integral."*
*Edit: "Interlacing relevance" heh. Well, we could take this in numerous directions...
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Helen
Inkling
There are tons of words. Ordinary World. New World. The list is endless.
Generally, they all fall into the category of "craft."
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