TECH: Flesh It Out (Moldy Oldie!)​

[mbarker]

 Original Posting 2021/4/17

Writer's Digest, July 1994, p. 24-27, had an article by Michael Ray Taylor about fleshing out your writing. He suggest you draw. Oh, not literally, most of us aren't artists enough for that. No, DRAW is an acronym for delineate, ruminate, analogize, and write. Here's his four steps.

Delineate. Make a list. Refine and develop your ideas by listing, and then picking examples. Then for each example, make a list of the sensory aspects of that idea or example. He suggests timing yourself, give yourself 5 to 10 minutes per point.

Ruminate. Summon a vision. Look at your list about one idea or element. Close your eyes, and think about it. Is it primarily visual? What does it suggest? You can add things to your list at this point. This also is timed, 3 to 5 minutes per item.

Analogize. What's it like? For each item, come up with some other things, idea, or image that describes it in an unusual or creative way. Go ahead and write those comparisons down on your list. Again, this is time, about 10 minutes per item, and keep going.

Write. Sketch the flesh. Now, go ahead and create descriptive sentences using the analogies and other thoughts you had. Go ahead and make us see and feel each and every element.

Now, take all the pieces you put together and put them into finished piece. Setting, action, characterization, plot… Put it all together. DRAW gives you a number of written sketches you can use as part of your writing.

TECH: A cliffhanger, then a bit of color...

[mbarker]

 Original Posting 2021/5/8

I was just ruminating on something I've noticed a number of authors that I really like do. See, they have colorful descriptions of the scenery, the towns, even the meals around the characters, and they don't make me feel as if I've hit an infodump or something. The reason they get away with it is two-fold.

First, they often have a cliffhanger or other bit that makes me want to keep reading just before the descriptive stretch. Someone says something, there's a knock at the door, maybe a reveal that throws things into confusion, something that foreshadows that in just a little bit, we are going to learn something important, see some action, or whatever. Then, while I'm looking ahead to that next step, they slip the descriptive bit in.

Second, it's well written description, and not too long. Not so long that I feel as if we're avoiding getting on with it. And it is description that I enjoy reading.

What do you think? What tricks do you use, or have you seen used, to slide that description into the middle of the story and make readers enjoy it?

TECH: How do I handle that great idea that hits in the middle of writing?

[mbarker]

 Original Posting 2021/5/10

Elsewhere, someone asked for advice about whether or not to stop and make a revision to their work in progress or not. They explained they were about 50% or better into their story, but had just realized that there was a bit character in the early part who could play a bigger role as a red herring, and they wondered whether to go back and rewrite the early part now, or press on to the end and then do the revision. Here's my response...

I think the answer is yes. Seriously, I've seen advocates for both approaches to handling that great idea that comes in the middle of writing. One group suggests that you write yourself a note, to be used during revision, but then press ahead and write the whole thing. Their argument is that you may (and probably will) come up with other changes that need to be worked in, and pushing to finish first (a) ensures that you do finish, and (b) let's you work in all those changes during a revision pass or two, instead of repeatedly restarting during the first draft race to the end. Another group says no, when you have a change like this, go ahead and rewrite, patch it in, and then work forward from a strong base, with the change already in place. That way you don't have as much rework to do on the later parts, since you already worked in the change.

I think a lot of it depends on your own approach. If you are trying to keep the whole thing in your head, and writing, writing, aiming at that finish (aka discovery writing or pantser), then it probably makes sense to just make a note and keep going. You're going to keep on discovering things to work into the story, and that revision is going to be fairly hefty anyway, so go ahead and get a whole list before you go back and start making changes. On the other hand, if you have a pretty good idea of where you are going, and the change will be fairly major, (aka plotter?) then it may make sense to go back and work it in now. Incidentally, Lois McMaster Bujold has talked about her process, which involves writing herself a series of fairly extensive side commentaries while writing (I think of this as co-writing), which lets her keep track of changes like this for later revision, while still pushing ahead on the mainline without too much major upheaval. I suppose that might be a third approach, pause, write up bits and pieces without working them in, enough so that you think you have the idea well in hand, then go ahead.

So, yes. You may want to take a little time and at least write yourself a note, perhaps some character scenes and such, to help you keep track of that new red herring until you come back during revision and work them in everywhere. And go ahead and write the rest of the story as if you had made those changes already, but go ahead and push for the finish. OR stop now, go back and rework things to at least bring out that new character, add some scenes and dialogue and so forth, and then pick up again with a firmer base to work from.

Your choice. Whichever works best for your writing process, at this time, for this story.