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In Soviet Russia, story tells you.
Looking over my old novel excerpts depresses me. I'm outlining (for real this time--yay!) those parts of the story right now, because they're the only ones that really stayed the same when I completely revamped the plot. This new story really is a 'new story'...the characters are the only aspect of it that hasn't changed, and even they've gotten more developed. Everything is different, even my style of outlining. I think all of the detail that I've been told was absolutely necessary in the outlines was actually killing my story. Not only is every process different, but every story as well. I don't think you can combine a trans-universal fantasy with anything that's supposed to make logical sense at all. You have to keep spaces open and ties loose, or you'll strangle your story to death. It's like squeezing a bird and saying, "No! You can't fly away because it's illogical! Mwahahahahahahahahahahaha!" knowing perfectly well that birds can fly even though most things can't.
In other words, the more things you make certain and set in stone before you start to write, the more your story is going to resist you. I definitely advocate a more paragraph-like summary type of outline now in place of the rigid, hyper-detailed one that I was using. It has to be fluid, like a living organism. Don't tell your story, let the story tell you.
To an extent...
...oh man, I totally just broke the floodgates and let myself remember every single Soviet Russia joke I've ever heard.
I know there wasn't much to today's post, other than an admittance of the fact that the writing was extremely stilted in any and all of the excerpts that I've posted. At the time I was reading a book that went about everything in the wrong way, you see, and was too scared of never finishing a novel to realize that you shouldn't believe everything you read. If it feels like it isn't working, then for the love of all that his holy try something else before it makes you go crazy. Chances are it works for someone else, not for you. A good story cannot be formulated.
In addition to me rambling about my mistakes in hopes that I can save someone else from making them, I'd like to say that I believe I'll be sticking with Creawriter as my main DFW software. I'm getting absolutely giddy with the background feature. I have a different one picked out for every scene. What can I say? Pictures have always been just the thing to put me in the mood.
In Soviet Russia, story tells you.In other words, the more things you make certain and set in stone before you start to write, the more your story is going to resist you. I definitely advocate a more paragraph-like summary type of outline now in place of the rigid, hyper-detailed one that I was using. It has to be fluid, like a living organism. Don't tell your story, let the story tell you.
To an extent...
...oh man, I totally just broke the floodgates and let myself remember every single Soviet Russia joke I've ever heard.
I know there wasn't much to today's post, other than an admittance of the fact that the writing was extremely stilted in any and all of the excerpts that I've posted. At the time I was reading a book that went about everything in the wrong way, you see, and was too scared of never finishing a novel to realize that you shouldn't believe everything you read. If it feels like it isn't working, then for the love of all that his holy try something else before it makes you go crazy. Chances are it works for someone else, not for you. A good story cannot be formulated.
In addition to me rambling about my mistakes in hopes that I can save someone else from making them, I'd like to say that I believe I'll be sticking with Creawriter as my main DFW software. I'm getting absolutely giddy with the background feature. I have a different one picked out for every scene. What can I say? Pictures have always been just the thing to put me in the mood.
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