FILL: Happy New Year! And what are you going to do this year?

[mbarker]

Original Posting 2022/01/01

Happy New Year!

Yep, it's that time again. Celebrations, lots of fun, and... maybe a little pause to consider what you want to accomplish this year. I'm seeing several writers regroup, making lists of things they want to tackle this year, and thought maybe you might like to do that...

I mean, one of the things about New Year's resolutions is that they are goals you set for yourself, and you get to decide how public or private you want to keep them. But it is a good turning point to sit back and consider...

Do you want to join a writing group? There are online versions around. Critiques, writing prompts, and other helps to keep you going. (Psst? Take a look at https://moreoddsthanends.home.blog/ if you want to join in a weekly challenge!)

Or maybe you just want to set yourself a goal of writing at a certain time or place regularly? Lots of people find that discipline useful.

Maybe take a book, or some other guideline, and work your way through the approach they suggest? Hero's Journey, Save the Cat!, there is a lot of guidance out there, take your pick. But set yourself a goal, and work on it!

For that matter, take the plunge and plan on posting something here on Writers from time to time! Weekly, monthly, whatever works for you. As I used to suggest, either a post about technique (aka tech!) or a submission (sub!) are good ways to participate.

Heck, close your eyes, and let your dreams take wing. What kinds of things could you see yourself doing, what do you wish you were doing, what do you really want to try? I'm sure there are many ways to go, and you can make your own this year!

Anyway, might be a good time to sit back, and think about what you want to achieve this year. Then think about how to do it, what are the steps, the habits, all that to get there. And, of course, decide to start. One step, just to get started....

Write!

TECH: What structure do you use? Why?

[mbarker]

Original Posting 2022/01/02

Hum... over here, https://writingexcuses.com/2021/12/26/16-52-structure-is-a-promise/, they're talking about how the various frameworks, structures, or whatever you like to call them make promises to the reader. For example, there's the hero's journey, seven-point story structure, Save the Cat beats, Hollywood formula, M.I.C.E. Quotient, and various others. Probably some others that I can't think of right now.

Along with the various tropes and so forth of genres! I mean, when you stumble across that first dead body in the living room, you might guess you are in for a mystery ride, with a private eye, or perhaps a detective, or even a funny stranger who just stumbled into things, but you have some idea what is ahead. Lots of suspects, clues and red herrings galore, maybe a chase scene or two, and the infamous gathering where we find out what it all means...

Anyway, it's something to consider. Which frameworks or structures do you like to use? What do they do for you? How do you keep them from becoming too obvious to the reader, and still make it easy for the reader to follow along? What twists or combinations do you use, or might you consider trying?

What about new genres or different ones to try? Want to mix a little romance into your mystery? Or vice versa? How about science fiction or fantasy added to your tale? A bit of historical retrospective? Go ahead, mix them up and see what happens!

Write! 

TECH: Write the Ending first!

[mbarker]

Original posting 2022/01/03

I suspect some of you remember JC, one of our Writers from a while back. I still contemplate his advice for writing from time to time. It was pretty simple.

Write the ending first.

See, when you visualize your story, fairly often the ending is the exciting, fun part. It's where the climax is, the detective pointing out whodunit, the fateful happily ever after, the ride into the sunset, or whatever. So, JC recommended that you start by writing that piece. Write that great ending scene, the climax of your piece.

Then, of course, you get to work your way backwards. You can do tentpoles, highlight scenes along the way to that ending, and then tie them all together. By the way, foreshadowing gets easier when you know where you are going! Or you can literally write it backwards, one scene at a time, until you get to the beginning. Or, of course, you can ratchet all the way back, and start from the beginning and go on until the end (which you already know, because that's what you wrote first!).

Heck, even if you are an outliner, carefully working out all the bits and pieces in outline before starting to write, you still might want to consider starting at the end, both for the outline, and for the actual writing. Keep your goal in mind!

It's an interesting twist. Instead of starting at the beginning, and then bogging down in the middle, and never quite getting to the end...

Write the ending first.

Then you can keep your eye on that horizon while you beat your way through the jungle towards it.

Write? 

TECH: Pulp Plotting?

[mbarker]

Original Posting 2022/01/06

Huh. I was trying to remember Lester Dent's formula, and tried plugging "pulp writing formula" into Google, which immediately coughed up Michael Moorcock's summary of it from Wikipedia. Except... it seemed to suggest dividing your story into four parts, and then gave short versions of three parts? So, I went over to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Dent and skimmed it... and there it is! Quote:

Dent's "Master Fiction Plot", often referred to as the "Lester Dent Formula" is a widely circulated guide to writing a salable 6,000-word pulp story. It has been recommended to aspiring authors by Michael Moorcock, among others. Moorcock summarizes the formula by suggesting: "split your six-thousand-word story up into four fifteen hundred word parts. Part one, hit your hero with a heap of trouble. Part two, double it. Part three, put him in so much trouble there's no way he could ever possibly get out of it...All your main characters have to be in the first third. All your main themes and everything else has to be established in the first third, developed in the second third, and resolved in the last third.[28]

That's bizarre. Split your story into four parts. Part one, two, three... what about four?

Wait a minute. So I visited http://www.paper-dragon.com/1939/dent.html which is what I remembered. Ah, yes. Start with a different murder method, a different thing for your villain to be seeking, a different place, or a menace to the hero (one or more of those). Then the four parts. Get the hero in trouble and introduce everyone. Next, more trouble! Third, yeah, you guessed it, more trouble again. Fourth, the hero climbs out of trouble through his own efforts. But at least here, there is a fourth part!

Keep that pot boiling!