Day School
We had our first day school today. In the morning we looked at dialogue and the in the afternoon we practised our editing skills.
The dialogue session was very interesting. The focus was on sub-text. It wasn't something I'd really thought about much. When my characters speak they do so through me and any sub-text is either entirely subconscious or so blatent as to be obvious. To have the class take apart a piece of dialogue that I'd written was really good. At least half of the meanings they suggested weren't things I'd intended but they made perfect sense.
For the editing we swapped short stories and tried to reduce the word count by 30%. My main concern with this, beyond my usual reluctance when working on someone else's story, was that twenty five minutes wasn't enough time. It was. The time limit made me brutal. If something didn't look right it got cut. After a few minutes I was totally into the swing of things. When we discussed it afterwards, my partner and I found we agreed with most the cuts the other had made. It was quite liberating. After this we had to cut our own work by a further 20%. I didn't enjoy this part so much. I think it left my story almost barren of flavour and I don't think it did much for the pace.
All in all a very good day! Lots learned and lots to try and apply to my work as I go along!
Script Class Ongoing
Last night's script class was probably the most useful so far. We discussed sub-plots and how they are created by through the relationships that characters share. It was very interesting to see how two simple tools can help you to create and manage your sub-plots.
The first was what I call a plot-blob-diagram (I'm sure there's a proper term...). You draw a line representing your rising action and along it you place blobs that represent events and developments in plot. You use a different coloured blob for each of your plots and vary the size of the blobs depending on how much time is spent there. This can be very useful for judging if your sub-plots are underdeveloped or if they're in danger of overwhelming your main story thread. If your rising action is more of a jagged line it can help you judge whether each plot is receiving enough attention at the peaks.
The second was the relationship diagram. By writing the names of the characters in your story and drawing lines between them that represent their relationships, the dynamics between them can become a lot clearer. This visual representation can also enable you to see relationships that you weren't previously aware of and create new plots between those characters. We applied the relationship diagram to two people's stories and I think the ideas it generated were extremely useful (and they weren't even my stories!).
We also went through our stories and talked about/brainstormed ways in which they could be improved. I found this extremely useful and have a lot more material to work with now. I really enjoy workshopping!
On Poets
Okay I'll admit to having a particular idea of what a "poet" is. Unfortunately it probably matches certain stereotypes. I now consider myself re-educated. Tonight's speaker was both highly cynical and cut through the bullshit that often seems to follow writers around. He talked openly and honestly about what is required of a writer in order to turn themselves into a commercial success. As I'd suspected, the writing is only a part of it.
Script Timing
Things that don't work (for me)...
- Counting seconds in my head.
- Sitting down.
- Reading it flat.
- Attempting to use a stopwatch while simultaneously trying to read a script in my head.
Things that sort of work (for me, on my own)...
- Reading out loud and in the case of dialogue reading it in the way I intended it to be spoken.
- Using my hands to act out scenes (stops working when more than two people are in a scene).
- Walking around and acting it out.
- Timing an entire script all at once.
Things I'd like to try...
- Getting someone else to time it for me.
- Getting a few people together to actually act the script out.
- Have other people act it out so that I can observe.
Lorna Doone
I'm curious exactly what I'm supposed to be learning from classic stories like this. The first four pages consist entirely of descriptions of how a candle should be correctly inserted into a desk in order to "read one's lessons" and then something about floods. I shall persevere however...
Subscribe
Tweets
- No public Twitter messages.
Now Reading
}
Music
Photos
Links
- Bookworm Blues
- Dark Fiction Magazine
- Floor to Ceiling Books
- GavReads
- Gentle, Parochial Horror
- Mulholland Books
- NanoWriMo
- NextRead
- Only the Best Sci Fi
- Schizopolitan
- Scrivener
- The Eloquent Page
- Walker of Worlds
- Words and Pictures
Bluster
Categories
Archive
- November 2011 (3)
- October 2011 (1)
- May 2011 (2)
- April 2011 (2)
- January 2011 (1)
- August 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (1)
- June 2010 (1)
- May 2010 (1)
- April 2010 (2)
- March 2010 (2)
- January 2010 (2)
- December 2009 (1)
- November 2009 (2)
- October 2009 (3)
- September 2009 (8)
- July 2009 (2)
- June 2009 (1)
- May 2009 (5)
- October 2008 (2)
- September 2008 (2)
- August 2008 (2)
- June 2008 (4)
- May 2008 (6)
- April 2008 (4)
- March 2008 (12)
- February 2008 (12)
- January 2008 (16)
- December 2007 (16)
- November 2007 (17)
- October 2007 (42)
- September 2007 (36)
- August 2007 (21)
Habit
So I'm working on my story for the day school on Friday. I've decided on the simple approach. Tell a story using a well worn formula. The only difference (from normal) is I'm doing it in the third person. Easy enough right? Good practice? How far wrong can I go?
This is what I just typed into messenger.
"Fuck. I've totally slipped into the first person halfway through my story. I didn't even notice I'd done it."
I didn't realise how much I relied on the first person for giving a sense of immediacy to the rising action in my stories. I switched over the minute I got to a scene that leads up to a confrontation. So yeah. Control. Habit. Lack of.