Browsing All posts tagged under »structure«

Being the Voice in Someone Else’s Head

May 8, 2012 by

2

So, I think I definitely could switch Wizards to third person. Because I had an idea about how to do it and I think it could be good… The plan, weirdly, has a lot to do with swearing. Or at least, where the swearing occurs.* That sounds odd but… okay, look at it this way. […]

One Wizard Chunk, Two Wizards Parts, Three… Now it Sounds Like I’m Dismembering Someone

April 20, 2012 by

3

So I’ve written enough of Wizards now that it’s a bit unwieldy to think of it as a single whole. But it doesn’t seem to break into chapters sensibly. I’ve been calling paired scenes ‘chapters’ but they’re not. They’re just two scenes. Which becomes particularly obvious when a conversation breaks off in a scene in […]

A Good Opening Scene is Worth a Cocktail in the Face

April 16, 2012 by

0

So I’m about thirty thousand words into Wizards and I finally got to the scene fragment that started the whole thing. Finally.* I’m really glad now that I didn’t decide to start the book there. I don’t think the scene would have had the same resonance without the context you get from the what comes […]

Even in Fiction Climaxing Early is Not Cool

April 10, 2012 by

2

I have concern. I’m afraid the climax of Wizards is going to come too soon. I’m afraid the first act, those first four hours, will be too short to be a book but if I add their second adventure it will be too long. And I have to account for the fact that it will […]

First Person, Third Person, Or What in the World Am I Doing?

April 5, 2012 by

4

So yesterday, because my brain was stupid and apparently didn’t want me to write the argument that I was supposed to be writing, I rewrote the first chapter of Wizards into the third person. Just to see what it would look like. The answer is, the first half looks pretty good. Not so sure about the […]

Plot: Gladiator Style

January 19, 2012 by

4

I am trying to figure out what happens in this book. I have at least six different ways it could all go down. And they’re all good, but at this point no single one seems truer or stronger. The problem is, I don’t know my characters well enough yet. I have the voices of the […]

It’s Not That I Want to Eat Your Brains, I Just Want to Be Inside Your Head

January 17, 2012 by

5

I have this problem. I’m a little too fond of people’s brains. Not in zombie way, in a… I want to crawl inside their heads and rummage around sort of way. (I was going to reassure you that I didn’t mean you, I meant my characters, but you know what? If I could I’d go […]

The Prequel to The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe

December 19, 2011 by

2

This. This is what I like about Doctor Who. Okay, not the only thing. But prequels of TV episodes, even if they are not always downright hilarious, are a particular brand of awesome.  

Frankly, Watchin’ Donny Beat Nazis to Death is the Closest We Ever Get to Goin’ to the Movies

November 11, 2011 by

0

So I just finished watching this Tarantino movie, Inglourious Basterds. (Wow, it actually kinda hurts to deliberately spell that wrong. Although ‘wrong’ is really a misnomer in this instance as that’s the correct way to spell the movie’s name but… eh, you know what I mean.) I had forgotten that I tend to really like […]

Sometimes the World is Just Waiting for You to Notice

November 8, 2011 by

13

I just had an ‘Oh‘ moment. You know what they are. That second when you suddenly put two and two together and reach such a blindly obvious four you wonder how you could possibly not have noticed it before. There’s a storyline I’ve been playing around with in the back of my mind for a […]