Comments on: Laundry, My Writing Inspiration

By: Treat it as...

Treat it as... — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:46:06 +0000

…an isolated event. Something awful happens, but its something aweful that could happen to anyone. Or is it. Let the awful event at the beginning be used to bring the characters together, and the event alone will be all the foreshadowing you may need. Its existence in your beginning will gnaw at the reader until you get to the unraveling of more an suddely the reader says, I knew that was going to be more relevant than just a random event. Sounds like you’re on your way nicely.

By: Kate

Kate — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:46:18 +0000

Okay. Still thinking. Your suggestions up the intensity. I think I’m afraid to do that. But I want to. I need to. Yeah, I’ve got a lot to think about. I really like the ending scenes I’ve written because of the intensity, but it took six weeks of being frozen at the keyboard because I was afraid to write like that. But it was really fun.

By: Okay...

Okay... — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:44:42 +0000

So, may I make some suggestions from the brief outline you’ve given me?

By: Hey mom...

Hey mom... — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:01:36 +0000

I don’t plan my dramatic points. I discover them. While I’m writing. And then I go back and make sure they are written properly, since when I was first writing the scene I wasn’t sure of the dramatic point. I usually stew over WHO SHOULD BE THE POV character. And often I get it wrong. That’s how you discover the dramatic point. By determining the POV character. You try to figure out WHO IS BEST SUITED TO VIEW THE SCENE. And in order to make that determination you have to figure out what is it they are going to be viewing. So you muddle through, you figure out what it is, really, they are vieiwing. In other words you figure out the PURPOSE OF THE SCENE. Then you have them view it. Then you decide if they are the best choice as the POV character. And if not, you go back in a rewrite another character into the POV character.

There are other considerations like who can’t and can know something which will add to the difficulty of selecting your POV character.

If Sean is a major character, then you may need to start earlier in the story-line. If he is a major/minor charcter who will be discarded later in the book, start there, at the discarding.

And finally, if you want to know where to start your story, figure out how it is going to end. Once you know your ending, it will be a simple matter to figure out how it will begin.

So, how does your story end?

By: And even more...

And even more... — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:48:40 +0000

Jennie:

Just a short comment about using HER in the middle of ID in first person. Remember that weirdo guy named Shakespear. He did that all the time. I remember one line in particular in much ado about nothing:

The World must be peopled.

Granted, he wasn’t using the pronoun, but it was a self talk moment, and Shakespear did that all the time. Its loads of fun. And using the ROYAL HER AND HIM in place of the me, is perfectly fine. You’re not changing point of view. You’re talking to yourself, about yourself in a sort of third person way which ends up falling into the Shakesperean self-talk sililoquoy sort of moment. Know what I mean?

By: Hi Jennie K.

Hi Jennie K. — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:15:24 +0000

The use of HER is still in first person. Surprise. You’re right. It was done as the ROYAL HER. Its self talk. She giving herself a pep talk, telling herself that she’s up to this confrontation, that Sean is wrong to do what he did and it acts as a springboard into the conflict of this exchange. USING me doesn’t work here. Using her includes the reader in her most intimate interior dialogue. That’s my opinion. What’s yours?

By: Jenni K. H.

Jenni K. H. — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:32:40 +0000

Perhaps I’m infringing on a private exchange between you two — but as a newbie I find it oh, so fascinating. Thank you for sharing.

Mystery writer, I have a question about this paragraph you wrote:

The only thing I could see was a thirty-something bacelor living in an apartment waiting for Better Homes and Garden’s to find it. He owned a Martha Stewart dining set, Rachael Ray cookware that matched his granite countertops and where did he get the idea for the kitchen color? What does a Ph.D. student in Physics need with Spanish Rose walls, back-lit glass cabinetry, a Roech bread mixer and a special order, double bowl, under mount sink? Buying new China without her was simply over-the-top.

I noticed the paragraph opened in the first person and ended in the third. (The use of “her” instead of “me.”) Was this deliberate? Because, if so, it seemed to subtly cast a much broader, more authoritative judgment against Sean than Eva’s opinion alone — as if all readers were in agreement. And so my question is, can such a shift in POV be an effective tool?

By: never mind...

never mind... — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:38:02 +0000

…I found the OLDER COMMENTS button. All is well in panicville.

By: What happened?

What happened? — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:27:37 +0000

Hey. All the posts have magically disappeared. I don’t see any of the fifty, except the most recent one. What happened? Am I lost in cyberspace. Ops.

By: error

error — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:54:00 +0000

In my first sentence of the post above I wrote:

I’m not sure what you want out of the next SCENE WITHIN THE SCENE, but we are NOT about to enter a dialogue scene in your opening.

The word NOT, should NOT have been in there. It should have read:

I’m not sure what you want out of the next SCENE WITHIN THE SCENE, but we are about to enter a dialogue scene in your opening.

Sorry about that NOT…