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.

[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.

[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.

[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!