Thinking Deeper to Develop Writing Skills, Discuss Options

[Guest_Nina_*]

I would like to pick up on a comment Fran made in her Flash thread talking about the character moving from river bank to boat, using the branch of a tree overhanging the water.

The bounce required a bit of planning - needs pace but yet to show readers what is happening very clearly.

Now I'm still very green when it comes to writing prose and have a long way to go in terms of learning and improvement.  How do you learn to get the balance right, becoming more aware of how you are writing?  I tend to just write what I'm thinking or seeing, rather than taking an objective step back to consider the readers. I feel perhaps that my writing is still too distilled, missing out on the little details that bring a picture to life but I just don't think about it when writing. How do I develop that skill?  When does conscious become subconscious or is it a case that you either have the ability or you don't?


Nina

[Guest_Don_*]

Hi all,

I've avoided novel writing because of habits from years of writing boring technical reports.  The idea in technical writing is to avoid people and remain neutral.  Novel writing requires plot and characters, which I seem unable to produce.  

I remember a successful novel writer hired by our corporation, which wrote lots of proposals and tech reports.  She didn't work out because her bent was to put life into the dull phrases.  She corrupted technical terms, understood by us when they were drab.  

What little I understand of the craft is that a grabber beginning is essential.  I've been educated that the all time best beginning is: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Just thinking up beginnings is a beginning.

Conversation is one means of keeping the story alive.  This area is not easy to master, but mastering it is a huge plus.

Pace is important because we quickly become bored.  Fast forward, flashback, new character, mystery, mixing short and long paragraphs. Interweaving long and short chapters.

Maybe the art has changed, but I was instructed to always insert a foretelling of major events to come.  In "Macbeth" the three witches provided this feature.

Above are a few thoughts which jumped into my head.  Must leave now for health maintenance exercise.

Don    

[Guest_Toumai_*]

I remember a successful novel writer hired by our corporation, which wrote lots of proposals and tech reports.  She didn't work out because her bent was to put life into the dull phrases.  She corrupted technical terms, understood by us when they were drab.  

My husband is a programmer and he says much the same thing; he would rather hire someone who knows the systems they are programming for (in his case mass spectrometers) rather than even the most highly trained "pure" programmer. You can teach programming skills - or grammer.

Fran