Tuesday Tip: Why *do* we do what we do to our OTPs?!

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

I've been slacking on the Tuesday Tips, my apologies for that. I'd planned to use the class I'm taking as fodder,but we've reached the point where it's mostly critique. So today I thought I'd toss up a tip from the web and see if it inspires any conversation....

It's from author Kurt Vonnegut and his much-republished  "8 Basics of Creative Writing." If you haven't seen it, it's a fun read in itself.

Tip number four really jumped out at me the first time I read it. It states: "Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action."

Every single sentence! Wow - there's a goal. In one way, it makes perfect sense- you wouldn't send your character around the corner for coffee unless something will happen on the way that adds to your tale. It might be that the conversation he has while running the errand provides clues to what's coming next. Or maybe the coffee shop's about to get held up, a-la "Pulp Fiction" and all manner of craziness ensues.

The other piece of the directive is a little more subtle and, to me, more about craft and the reason we write. Do you consciously work to reveal character in each of your stories? Does it happen naturally for you, or do you have to look for ways to bring that into play?

I think it's one of the trickier things to do but one of the more compelling reasons to write fan fiction; to take a well-loved character and put them through something, see how they react/cope/act - and ask myself what it says both about them and why I care about them.

So what do you think? If you read the most recent thing you wrote, do you see every sentence either moving things along or saying something about your characters? And what proportion would you say you focus on each of those goals?

Comments

[azziria.livejournal.com]

Interesting...

I think I'd add one more item to 'reveal the character or advance the action', and that is 'set the scene' and make the reader experience it, because sometimes that's needed too. I give an example here of trying to do this from a drabble I wrote recently (and with drabble writing almost every *word* needs to move things on):

Three a.m. is the Devil's hour, the time when body and soul are at their lowest ebb, when death is most likely to occur. Danny wakes just after three, neck stiff and knee aching, and Steve's still with him. There's no noise except for a faint electronic hum and the soft, rhythmic hiss of the ventilator, and the lights are dim, augmented only by the green glow of the monitors. Danny shifts in his chair, grateful beyond words to be here, and wills Steve to live. If he can make it through the Devil's hour then he has a chance.

The line about the ventilator and monitors doesn't advance the action or reveal character, but I feel that it's necessary to put the characters and their situation in context (and I hope I succeeded with it). I don't think that just saying "Danny sat in a quiet and dark ICU" would have had the same power.

As for the second point, I don't consciously try to reveal/explore character, but as my stories tend to be character-driven rather than plot/case-driven then it's something that I've probably already worked out in my head and is the point of writing the piece.

[witchyemerald.livejournal.com]

Good point. I find it is hard to follow rules that state Always, Never, Every etc. There are exceptions to the rules.

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

That may be why it struck me when I first read it, because I'm not a fan of absolutes either.

[goneahead]

I don't think there should be absolutes, but I will say it certainly does help to have guideposts!

One of my guideposts is to always have a character arc in every chapter/scene - at least one character should come out of each chapter/scene changed in some way, even if its a small or subtle change.

I bring this up because knowing that one teeny tiny tip would've have saved me many years of sweat, tears, and most likely even blood. Personally, I find that if I have a part of a fic that is not working, when I go back and check for character arc/change? Sure enough, the character(s) is not actually doing anything but just bobbing along. So then I smack myself and ask, 'OK, what is the character(s) learning, figuring out, deciding, refusing to decide, etc' - and voila! I usually have a much better idea how to actually fix it.

I hesitate to mention how many fics I've scrapped, screwed up, or wound up not being happy with because I didn't know this one small, but oh so vital, bit to storytelling!

**eyes the dead plot bunny pile in the backyard**

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

That's a good one. I've certainly heard how at least one major character should change by the end - usually the protagonist, except maybe in the case of a story like Gatsby where Gatsby dies because he doesn't learn/change, and it's the narrator who grows in the end. Someone's gotta grow, that's the bottom line.

A change each scene is ambitious - but as you say, it doesn't have to be huge. Even a character entertaining a thought he wouldn't have harbored at the top of the page is change. Forward motion.

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

Agreed about the drabbles. I hadn't written many before January, and I think playing with them has already made me less wordy in my chapter fics.

I think what you chose to describe does further the action in a subtle way. It tells us that time has passed since we checked in last, but Steve's still on a ventilator. Picking the details that add power but also further is a knack - some days I feel like it comes to me with little effort, others I really have to make a conscious effort.

Danny's aching neck and knee make us feel him in the room rather than simply seeing him there, but they also reveal character. This is a guy who's sitting right by that bed no matter what.

And oh, poor dead bunnies! In a pile.

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

oops.. the dead bunny reference got added to the wrong reply, lol.. sorry. LJ is... challenging.

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

Oh God, I never focus on anything!

It's wonderful to see your tips, and really, creative writing and learning the craft are fantastic, don't get me wrong. I certainly don't think I'm above learning about how to write or any other pretentious bullshit I could spout to make myself sound wonderful, but honestly, I just don't think most of the time. I just write and see where the muses take me. If I think too much, I tend to trip over and land in a big heap. Crash and burn.

Having said that, I do edit and re-edit, and hope I haven't put too much extraneous crap in the story, but then sometimes it's inevitable, and I'm a hopeless case at allowing my stories to go sideways, or in a completely different direction from what I'd thought they would.

I doubt I could follow a rule to save my life with writing, but if it happens by accident, then I know it's one of my better stories. If it doesn't, and yes, I know it's not all wonderful (HA!), then yeah, that's what happened.

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

I agree that it's most fun on the days when a story just kind of evolves. It's almost like playing a video game, where you get in that zone where you're only three quarters aware of what you're doing but you're racking up the points, lol....

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

Ha! Most of my fics are evolvers; I have a pretty hard time plotting! ;-)

[amaryllisssa.livejournal.com]

I think that's a really useful line to bear in mind ... but for me it has to be AFTER I've written the first draft otherwise it can be paralysing! It really helps to know when to switch your internal editor off and when to switch it on.

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I like to save editing for nights when I'm tired or cranked out from work, and don't feel like anything new is forthcoming. Then I still get to play with the words, do a little sculpting, but no pressure to let it flow when it's not going to!

[kaige68.livejournal.com]

YES!!! EXACTLY! I think it comes in handier in an editing phase than in actual writing.

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

That does make sense! ;-) And way easier to handle for me.

[kaige68.livejournal.com]

If I take the most recent thing I've posted, then no. I don't adhere to the rules.

Jealousy wasn’t green, it was yellow. Envy was green; a pleasant I’d like that kind of thing for myself. Jealousy was cowardly, bilious, That should be me; I need to take it away.

They’d fucked, and he was keeping the secret. They’d fucked, and he was working to keep the shit storm at bay, keep Kono safe. They had fucked, and Danny was yellow with jealousy.

Now, at the gym, he pictured the two of them. Machine after machine, rep after rep, yellow after putrid shade of yellow. Steve and Noshimuri together; unsuitably together. Bitter yellow jealousy screamed internally MINE!

In looking at it after, in picking it apart sentence by sentence, I don't feel the entire first paragraph reveals any action or character. And in looking at it afterward, I do feel this is the weakest of the 3 paragraphs. However, I do feel the drabble is one of the strongest drabbles I've written.

I do think (same as others above) that these are more guidelines than emphatic rules, and that it might be something better to do in an editing phase than initial writing.

I don't know. Having read this now, it will be in my mind the next time I write, the next time I edit, and possibly the next time I read.

I LOVE THIS COMM!!! You all break my brain, but in an excellent way!

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

Ohhh I'd say that's all pretty revealing of character, of a person recognizing that desire can be keen but positive or too, too sharp and bitter- and he now knows he's capable of both.

[kaige68.livejournal.com]

Okay, I see that, but then what wouldn't be revealing of character? Even a description of scenery would speak to the character's perspective.

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

This is why I'll always be a student and never a teacher, lol... but I think it's really only a matter of degree. Yes, just about every sentence says something - some just reveal more, and vividly.


Here's the same basic info, drained of the character voice and the dawning realization of bitter, possessive feelings.


Damn, he was pissed. Couldn't remember the last time he'd been so mad. And jealous, too, like a kid who'd just had his favorite toy snatched right out of his hands.

His "friend" got the pleasure of getting laid, but now he was the one stuck with the secret. And damage control.

An hour at the gym was theraputic, but couldn't block out the images in his head or make him forget this new feeling dawning that Steve was supposed to be his.

The same basic information is there- but ew, I wouldn't bother reading those few lines more than once!

[kaige68.livejournal.com]

I will give you that it doesn't see all that fun to read frequently, but doesn't it still speak to the state of mind of the character? Angry and jealous.

The only thing I can think of would be something like this:

The sky was blue, like a button, or a well worn shoe. The sun, a yellow-orange-warm.

These things are academic to BoBo. BoBo live underground, there is no sky, no sun, no real concept of underground really. There is just work, home, market.

So in something like that, it doesn't have action in the first para, or arc for the character. It doesn't even set up BoBo's world. But it does set up that the BoBo's world is not one that we know. So isn't it valuable in that aspect?

Is Vonnegut wrong? I'm not saying that everything written is 'needed', but doesn't it all relate?

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

I think your example is good. The first sentence is a place that's just like the one I'll see if I go out for lunch in a minute. But we jump more directly into the BoBos' world and their story if we go with....

The sky's always a brilliant shade of sapphire on Ixera, no pollution to alter or obscure it. The sun's rays warm rivers, streams, and billions of acres of untouched flaura and fauna-- but not a single thing of artifice.

The BoBo would be stunned at the riches of sweet, highly oxygenated air just yards away from their stifling, dank warrens -- if they knew it was there to be had.....

And now I'm feeling bad for the poor BoBo! :)

[kaige68.livejournal.com]

ME TOO!!!

We're going to need to write this now!!!

[thtwzjustadream.livejournal.com]

:). I really can feel a story in this, a kids' story maybe. But I have to wrestle with the original fic I've been stalling on. The people in my class have been so kind saying they want to know where it goes... And I have three weeks. I can do this!

[kaige68.livejournal.com]

You can do it! YOU CAN DO IT! YOUCANDOITYOUCANDOIT!!!!

We'll save BoBo for later!!!