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TECH: Nanonotes 19 & 20?
Feb. 5th, 2011 02:06 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
mbarker.livejournal.comOriginal posting 20 November 2010
Drat, skipped a day again. Yesterday was an odd day for me, as far as nanowrimo goes. I mean, I'm making my words, but somehow? middle of the afternoon, I found myself just sitting there saying I'm not so sure this is going anywhere. Then I took a look at Holly Lisle's Plot notions, and got confused, because she starts with characters? and I wasn't quite so sure I knew my characters in the kind of depth she seems to expect, even if I do know the story I'm telling! So? I took the afternoon off. And went ahead and wrote some words in the evening, just to keep things moving.
Then today, I took a look at a set of YouTube talks by Dan Wells on story structure (5 of them, about an hour's easy listening). Very interesting, because he seems to be stressing a much more event-oriented approach to plot. And along the way, I decided I liked doing events, not trying to delve deeply into my characters' background and personalities.
Link for the first chunk is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcmiqQ9NpPE
And then? I was waiting for Mitsuko, and the TV was on. The daily kid's program, oddly enough. And they had a little tiny vignette. See, there's the big, strong, somewhat dumb character, and the short curious friendly character, and a couple of others. Big, Dumb is a brown slab of a character costume. Short is a little white ball of one. The others are more human.
And they're all playing ball. And the ball gets lost. Short goes to find it, and runs into a stranger! Who is holding the ball, and says, "Hey, you! Is this yours?" Short says, "Yes. Can I have it back?" The stranger shrugs, and tosses it to Short. Then he turns to leave.
And Short says, "Wait. Thank you!" The stranger turns around and kind of sneers. "You're welcome." Then Short says, "Say, would you like to play with us?" The stranger says, "Your friends won't like me." And Short says, "Sure they will."
And then the friends show up. And they aren't very happy to see a stranger. They ask Short if the stranger hurt him, and so forth. The stranger starts to leave again!
And Short says, "Hey, let's play tag. You're it!" and touches the stranger. Who looks around, shaking his head, and says, "Tag? Well?" So the stranger touches one of the friends, who immediately starts screaming. And Big, Dumb grabs the stranger.
At which point Short pushes Big, Dumb who starts to trip and fall on the screaming friend. And the stranger pulls Big, Dumb back, so that he falls on the stranger. Then they all help get everyone standing again. And now we're all friends.
For some reason, that little vignette caught my attention. And reminded me of other "little stories." And I realized that these little stories usually are just actions, very little character development. And yet they are FUN! I mean, yeah, the stranger goes from being a rude unknown to being a new friend, but really, we still don't know what's making him tick. And that's okay.
Anyway, that's what I'm chewing on yesterday and today. The balance between action or event-oriented storytelling and the internal stuff, the psychological intrigue of the internal world.
Let's see. Over here http://community.livejournal.com/writercises/145852.html I reflected a bit on the way that just letting the words flow in nanowrimo can be relaxing, maybe even cleansing. Fun, per se? And then here http://community.livejournal.com/writercises/145935.html I borrowed from Bradbury again, and his lists of words. So many writers talk about making lists, lists of words, lists of phrases, lists of one-line scene ideas? sit down and make your lists! Before writing, while you're writing, whenever you need to stretch a bit. Make a list, check it twice, gonna write out some naughty and nice, nanowrimo month is running along.
By the way, this is the third of the four weekends in nanowrimo this year. And if you're going to be tied up with Thanksgiving (oh, turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, stuffing, ah, all that great eating!) you may consider this the last weekend that you can devote to nanowrimo. So let the words roll! Make those wordmills grind hard and long.
Write!
Drat, skipped a day again. Yesterday was an odd day for me, as far as nanowrimo goes. I mean, I'm making my words, but somehow? middle of the afternoon, I found myself just sitting there saying I'm not so sure this is going anywhere. Then I took a look at Holly Lisle's Plot notions, and got confused, because she starts with characters? and I wasn't quite so sure I knew my characters in the kind of depth she seems to expect, even if I do know the story I'm telling! So? I took the afternoon off. And went ahead and wrote some words in the evening, just to keep things moving.
Then today, I took a look at a set of YouTube talks by Dan Wells on story structure (5 of them, about an hour's easy listening). Very interesting, because he seems to be stressing a much more event-oriented approach to plot. And along the way, I decided I liked doing events, not trying to delve deeply into my characters' background and personalities.
Link for the first chunk is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcmiqQ9NpPE
And then? I was waiting for Mitsuko, and the TV was on. The daily kid's program, oddly enough. And they had a little tiny vignette. See, there's the big, strong, somewhat dumb character, and the short curious friendly character, and a couple of others. Big, Dumb is a brown slab of a character costume. Short is a little white ball of one. The others are more human.
And they're all playing ball. And the ball gets lost. Short goes to find it, and runs into a stranger! Who is holding the ball, and says, "Hey, you! Is this yours?" Short says, "Yes. Can I have it back?" The stranger shrugs, and tosses it to Short. Then he turns to leave.
And Short says, "Wait. Thank you!" The stranger turns around and kind of sneers. "You're welcome." Then Short says, "Say, would you like to play with us?" The stranger says, "Your friends won't like me." And Short says, "Sure they will."
And then the friends show up. And they aren't very happy to see a stranger. They ask Short if the stranger hurt him, and so forth. The stranger starts to leave again!
And Short says, "Hey, let's play tag. You're it!" and touches the stranger. Who looks around, shaking his head, and says, "Tag? Well?" So the stranger touches one of the friends, who immediately starts screaming. And Big, Dumb grabs the stranger.
At which point Short pushes Big, Dumb who starts to trip and fall on the screaming friend. And the stranger pulls Big, Dumb back, so that he falls on the stranger. Then they all help get everyone standing again. And now we're all friends.
For some reason, that little vignette caught my attention. And reminded me of other "little stories." And I realized that these little stories usually are just actions, very little character development. And yet they are FUN! I mean, yeah, the stranger goes from being a rude unknown to being a new friend, but really, we still don't know what's making him tick. And that's okay.
Anyway, that's what I'm chewing on yesterday and today. The balance between action or event-oriented storytelling and the internal stuff, the psychological intrigue of the internal world.
Let's see. Over here http://community.livejournal.com/writercises/145852.html I reflected a bit on the way that just letting the words flow in nanowrimo can be relaxing, maybe even cleansing. Fun, per se? And then here http://community.livejournal.com/writercises/145935.html I borrowed from Bradbury again, and his lists of words. So many writers talk about making lists, lists of words, lists of phrases, lists of one-line scene ideas? sit down and make your lists! Before writing, while you're writing, whenever you need to stretch a bit. Make a list, check it twice, gonna write out some naughty and nice, nanowrimo month is running along.
By the way, this is the third of the four weekends in nanowrimo this year. And if you're going to be tied up with Thanksgiving (oh, turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, stuffing, ah, all that great eating!) you may consider this the last weekend that you can devote to nanowrimo. So let the words roll! Make those wordmills grind hard and long.
Write!
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