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FILL: Nanonotes #14: Off we go!
Jan. 29th, 2011 03:12 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
mbarker.livejournal.comOriginal posting 14 November 2010
Oddly enough, although today has been somewhat restful, I haven't really produced very many words so far. But I did get interested in a series that Darcy Pattison has been writing -- 30 days to a stronger scene -- and she's been putting out one a day in November. If you go over here http://www.darcypattison.com/tag/scene/ I think you can see most of them, or even sign up for her e-mail postings. Something else to keep you writing!
Reading through it, I found it interesting first to be reminded of kind of the key points about scenes. Mostly materials and points that I had seen before, but it's good to be reminded again. One thing that particularly caught my eye was the notion that a scene is both external action and internal change. Oh, I know that's not the first time I've seen this, but for some reason balancing the two seems like something I should pay more attention to.
Maybe it's just that this podcast http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/10/31/writing-excuses-5-9-character-arcs/ had emphasized character arcs, and then I see Darcy also putting a little bit more attention on the internal side than some writing advice seems to, but it's something I'm going to think about. I also appreciated the advice about listing possible scenes, and then selecting among those -- and taking a scene and developing it through lists of what she calls beats (and I would tend to call bits of action) before writing. Fun!
And over here in the aging Nanowrimo notes http://community.livejournal.com/writercises/144414.html, we have some hints about using beats (where this means little actions among the dialogue). The kind of interspersed fiddling with the menu, playing with a pen, or whatever that helps to keep your dialogue from being just two or more talking heads.
Scenes. The basic building blocks of a plot. Where a character sets out to do something, runs into obstacles and complications, and most of the time fails. Followed by a short regrouping and reaction, which sets up the next scene. Scene-by-scene, slowly they turned? and the plot grew! Yeah!
Sigh. Why is it that doing the research and thinking to make the writing time productive feels like somehow slacking off? Oh, well, time to hit the wordmills!
Tilting at wordmills, the author felt like Don Quixote, and wondered where Pablo had vanished?
Write!
Oddly enough, although today has been somewhat restful, I haven't really produced very many words so far. But I did get interested in a series that Darcy Pattison has been writing -- 30 days to a stronger scene -- and she's been putting out one a day in November. If you go over here http://www.darcypattison.com/tag/scene/ I think you can see most of them, or even sign up for her e-mail postings. Something else to keep you writing!
Reading through it, I found it interesting first to be reminded of kind of the key points about scenes. Mostly materials and points that I had seen before, but it's good to be reminded again. One thing that particularly caught my eye was the notion that a scene is both external action and internal change. Oh, I know that's not the first time I've seen this, but for some reason balancing the two seems like something I should pay more attention to.
Maybe it's just that this podcast http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/10/31/writing-excuses-5-9-character-arcs/ had emphasized character arcs, and then I see Darcy also putting a little bit more attention on the internal side than some writing advice seems to, but it's something I'm going to think about. I also appreciated the advice about listing possible scenes, and then selecting among those -- and taking a scene and developing it through lists of what she calls beats (and I would tend to call bits of action) before writing. Fun!
And over here in the aging Nanowrimo notes http://community.livejournal.com/writercises/144414.html, we have some hints about using beats (where this means little actions among the dialogue). The kind of interspersed fiddling with the menu, playing with a pen, or whatever that helps to keep your dialogue from being just two or more talking heads.
Scenes. The basic building blocks of a plot. Where a character sets out to do something, runs into obstacles and complications, and most of the time fails. Followed by a short regrouping and reaction, which sets up the next scene. Scene-by-scene, slowly they turned? and the plot grew! Yeah!
Sigh. Why is it that doing the research and thinking to make the writing time productive feels like somehow slacking off? Oh, well, time to hit the wordmills!
Tilting at wordmills, the author felt like Don Quixote, and wondered where Pablo had vanished?
Write!
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