[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Writing Excuses 11.25: Elemental Mystery Is Everywhere

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/06/19/11-25-elemental-mystery-is-everywhere/

Key Points: Why do people turn the page in a mystery story? To see if they're right! How will it unfold? Curiosity! What's the answer? Mystery as a subgenre may not have a body or a big problem, but it is still a mystery whenever the character tries to figure something out. Something weird just happened, what is the hero's dark past? Mystery is the journey, the curiosity leading up to the reveal, but the reveal shows what subgenre is blended in. Curiosity keeps you reading, foreshadowing tells you what kind of reveal is coming. To create mysteries, think about the information the reader needs to know. What do the characters want to know? Why? Start with what a character needs or wants, and what it will take to achieve that. Now, what information do they need to search for to let them accomplish that? There's a mystery! Whodunits, why is it doing that, even what is this thing we keep running across -- all good mysteries. Make sure you have the right mystery. Which one does your character interact with most? When you have a body on the floor, the question is obvious. But sometimes you need to plant stuff, and hang a lantern on it to make sure the readers notice the question. Mystery as subplot usually is easy to see, trying to solve a crime, but elemental mystery as subgenre may be more subtle, using curiosity to answer a question.

There's something happening here, What it is ain't exactly clear... (Buffalo Springfield) )

[Brandon] All right. Let's go ahead and give you guys some homework.
[Mary] All right. So what we're going to have you do is insert a mystery into whatever it is that you're currently working on. Short story, novel, whatever it is. All I'm going to ask you to do is look at what it is that your character needs. You've probably got the solution already in there. Take the solution out. Then build it in so that the character has to figure out the solution. So essentially, you have just created a mystery within your story.
[Brandon] Excellent. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go solve some mysteries.
[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Writing Excuses 9.3: Character Perception vs. Narrative Perception with Nancy Fulda

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2014/01/19/writing-excuses-9-3-character-perception-vs-narrative-perception-with-nancy-fulda/

Key points: Characters and the narrative do not always agree. For example, historical characters may have biases that modern readers and narrators disagree with. Be careful about sliding into didactic storytelling. One approach is to make sure the story is not about the bias. Sometimes it's just that characters have pieces of information that are wrong. You can use this to indicate what the characters don't know, but often you need to hang a flag on this. Author's notes, footnotes, and afterwords do not mean you don't need to be careful in the writing. Listen to feedback.
Do you really believe that? )
[Brandon] Exactly. We are out of time. This is a very useful podcast. But I'm going to require... Howard! You're grimacing. Give us a writing prompt.
[Laughter]
[Howard] Okay. Take something that you believe to be false. That you completely understand to be false. Write a character who has the absolute opposite belief. Do it in such a way that you take actual umbrage at the idiocy of your character. Now find ways to hang flags on that so that you're not mad at yourself as an author.
[Brandon] All right.
[Nancy] Also, make it so that at the end of the book, you almost understand why your character believes that.
[Howard] So Nancy wants you to actually write a whole book with this prompt. It's on. She has thrown it down.
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Writing Excuses 7.3: Fauna and Flora

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/01/15/writing-excuses-7-3-fauna-and-flora/

Key Points: If it's the right kind of story, do what's awesome and don't worry about what's scientific or realistic. But do think about whether there's some way this could evolve. Think about what would happen. Balance empathy, awesome, and all. Consider hanging a lantern on it! Don't forget the story!
Is that a monster in your pocket? )
[Mary] Wait, why don't we... We could actually make that our writing prompt.
[Brandon] We could. Let's do that. Writing prompt. Excellent writing prompt, Mary. Let's send people... We're going to pick one region. Just do some world building on your own. Focus on the flora and fauna. Less on the sentient life. But include it. But look at the base plants and the base animals that would exist in this ecological region, in our weird world here.
[Mary] Since this is a shared world, go ahead and post it in the comments.
Excustoria? )
[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Writing Excuses Season Four Episode 18: How to Steal for Fun and Profit

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/05/09/writing-excuses-4-18-how-to-steal-for-fun-and-profit/

Key Points: All artists incorporate their experiences. History and mythology provide a mine of experiences and relationships that you can use. Avoid plagiarism, make it yours. Or hang a lantern on it, make it an homage. But don't use borrowing as a shortcut -- use it as a buttress for your originality. Try combinations!
pesky plot snatchers? )
[Brandon] I think that it's a great idea. In fact, I'm going to give our writing prompt this week as being... I want you to go... I want you to go to Howard Tayler's website, schlockmercenary.com. I want you to click the button that says "click here to instantly teraport to some place inside the archives."
[Howard] [whistle]
[Brandon] I want you to take whatever strip shows up, read the next three or four, and have it... use it mailed in with some other concept to create a new story.
[Dan] Something wholly original.
[Howard] If you can stop reading after just three or four, that's probably best for you. You don't want it to cost you hours and hours of your life.
[Dan] Otherwise, you won't get any writing done.
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

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