The BSN writers club

It happens frequently that I go back over something I wrote which felt right while I wrote it, but comes off as slow and unnecessary when I read it out loud.

So I cut it. I'm finding more and more that being willing to "kill the darlings" (deleting the favorite little bits of prose that sound great when we come up with them but add nothing to a scene) actually is the best option.

I may not be able to delete them as ruthlessly as some--I often save them in a document for writing fragments just in case I can use them somehow later--but I can accept that I might go into a scene thinking I know which are the most important sentences and dialogue exchanges, but find that in the end they were actually the least necessary.

My other failing I'm trying to work on is my bad habit of defusing my own plots of their urgency. I was recently trying to write a scene where a character found something she wanted more immediately and desperately than anything else, yet waited hours (and pages) to start trying to do something about it. That might have worked for some characters, but in this case it just let all of the urgency just seep from that part of the story.

I think that might be a huge key in writing something exciting, always work towards tension and a sense of immediacy, and forget the unnecessary flourishes.

take a break?

It actually is the same for me.  I can't speak for everyone but I think its fairly typical.  Get used to it, it does not have to be, your ideas usually are better in your head then on the paper, rarely do they match perfectly 1 to 1.  But when they do, man its a great feeling.  Even better when you can truly get into the flow and actually do something you didn't plan but it works perfectly.  

Its like a look into an completely foreign place. People born in the late 70’s early 80’s would probably get it, but not others.

I own a typewriter. I just need to find ribbon and desk space for it

Almost done with a re-write on a Keri T'Vessa/FemRyder one shot, and chapters 11, 12, and 13 of my Sloane/Addison long fic. Writing Sloane Kelly brings out the best in me.

Your wording gives me the impression you're interpreting the video as criticism of Stranger Things, when it's doing the opposite.




The video actually addresses this in the mention about Cumberbatch's Khan. It matters for exactly the reason you point out: If a younger generation watches the media and the reference makes no sense without the nostalgic context that a previous generation might have had, it's a dated shortcut for the writer to take.

For those who watch that scene with the dramatic close-up and Cumberbatch snarling, "My name is Khan!" and aren't aware of the events in original Wrath of Khan film, it just comes off as weird.

Whereas, as the video details, Stranger Things integrates those references with a skillful hand, so that they can stand very well on their own.

In other words, when utilizing nostalgia in your writing, make sure you're in control of the nostalgia rather than letting it control the work.

Sorted out the timeline of the first four chapters and the movements of the three characters and their entourage, and worked my way through the outline to find opportunities for adding more exciting events like magic displays, duels, sword fights, and a few fights/battles. Had to work in another character (really did not want to) to strengthen the links between different parts of the plot. I want my novel to have an old-fashioned adventure romance feel, and it still feels a bit too much about just "love & life", so I am bumping up the adventure parts. Still have to do a few sweeps of edits in Chapter 1 until I am ready to draft the second chapter. There are a few chapters in the outline still that I had not thought of content beyond a few sentences with the intention of "well, I need to make this much more interesting somehow".

I am really paranoid that the critique I will receive will be "the main character is kindda cool!" about the guy who's going to die in chapter 3. Which is a really weird feeling because nobody is going to read this stuff anyway beginning to end except for me.

I don’t think it actually is going to be clunky to handle a flashback if it’s long enough if you create a scene that is conductive to the character to make a trip down the memory lane. Obviously if they are hanging over a fiery chasm and a horde of wild barbarians are throwing stones at them, it’s hardly a moment for one of them to regal another with his life-story. But if it is a lul in the events while they are waiting or travelling or have time for a vision, a chapter of memories or a “the Stranger’s Story” Is fine imo. I am actually more annoyed by people trying to strategically dump the lesser walls of italics in the body of the main narrative to handle the past events, particularly when they swap narrator and start going into the first person from the third.

I would prefer the character who experienced events narrate it, and I want the descriptor context, that fits the voice of the rest of the story, so I would be happy as a reader as you would just do something like making the character who tells his story to start out as a dialogue, then give the scene to the narrator:

"So, I am here now, but I was born in a land of Wild tarantulas...."

Narrator, helpfully: "As The Guy from the Land of the Wild Tarantulas started telling his Life Story his voice turned wistful, and the Avid Listener could just imagine the Totally awesome Land he came from, and the Young Version playing with the baby tarantulas happily in the really big sand box they had built all over that land. Then, one day a big bad orangutan came hopping in---"

That's a great idea and will probably work.