What are you writing about now?

It's actually a poem for my wife, but it works for the characters, too.

New computer arrived this evening. Setting it up now! Yeah!!!!

Protecting your writing time is a key skill. Teach those in your life that they are not to interrupt you during your writing time unless it's an emergency. And then give way no more.

99% of things your family want to ask or tell you can wait an hour or two.

I advise both setting specific times that you sit down and write every week (or day if you can) AND using an extremely visible cue you are writing and not to be disturbed. And when you are interrupted (as you will be), if it's not an emergency, don't do what your kids, roommates, or spouse want you to do, and let them know the interruption is why you aren't cooperating. They'll catch on if you hold the line.

Duguay said:

A major writing struggle for me is transitioning from outline form into zoomed-in scene-for-scene storytelling. I might be making it even more challenging by the fact that my current backburner slow reads, Le Morte D'Arthur and re-read of The Silmarillion, feel a bit like they are telling stories in the zoomed-out, outlining mode. For a few years I was focused on outlining stories, and then crashed into this wall: "I've already outlined the story...but in a sense, I've already told the story. Why would I want to re-tell the story when it's already been told?"

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I would recommend taking a good look at The Screenwriter's Bible by Trottier. Lots of used copies in older editions are available. Any of them will be good, the older the edition, the older the movies he uses for examples.

Screenwriting is different from novel or short story writing in two key ways. One is the formatting of the text, which is NOT why I'm recommending this book to help you as a novelist or short story writer. (Although he does an excellent job of it.)

The other way the writing is different is that pretty much everything you put into a screenplay has to be geared towards something that is seen and/or heard. Unless you want to have a narrator telling the audience what someone is thinking inside their head, it's got to be a description that an audience can see or hear when it's turned into film. Following that advice really aids me in making a story feel vivid and immediate instead of in the zoomed-out mode.

Here's a trick once that technique is mastered (and Trottier gives lots of examples to help understand how to do this better). Write your outline in screenplay oriented language instead of zoomed out language whenever you can do it. (The more you practice, the more you can do it.) You'll find that expanding your outline into a full text version is way faster and easier, and the results are much better as well.

Personally, I find a lot of joy in expressing the scene in just the right way. Trottier's techniques may help you find the joy in doing that too, so it won't feel like you're "just retelling the same old story", but instead, "vividly and fully telling the story".

Duguay said:

Weirdly enough, in contrast, one possible project I've pondered is dabbling in writing Arthuriana. Le Morte D'Arthur seems like a fantastic wellspring of expandable storytelling. I latched onto the story of Sir Gareth, and how he completes his quest to save a lady and her kingdom from a tyrannical opposing knight. And then the lady tells him to swan off and prove himself! So Gareth goes off with major depression, and the lady, Lyonesse has what looks like panic-y second thoughts. So Gareth goes journeying and adventuring under a cloud of depression, while Lyonesse sends her brother knight out to hunt for him, and her sister Lynette is able to help the hunt with some truly frightening sorcerous skills.

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The Arthurian Legends were not told in a single story or novel, nor were they intended to be. They were a Story Cycle, a set of stories in a common setting. It was truly an extensible wellspring of stories - and intended to be.

There is something to be said for bringing this form of storytelling back instead of settling for the novel format that has taken over the world of written storytelling.

I'm doing that in a partial way in Volume II of my Middle-earth series and also in the appendices in each volume.

I've got most of my computer set back up again. Custom Dictionary is probably about 90% loaded, the rest will shake out as I edit.
I have custom entries in the autocorrect feature in MS Word that automagically change words like Lorien to Lórien I think its in the 60% to 90% loaded range.
That's the feature I miss the most, but I've learned where that custom dictionary is held, so it's being added to my backup list now.

david_wendelken said:

I would recommend taking a good look at The Screenwriter's Bible by Trottier. Lots of used copies in older editions are available. Any of them will be good, the older the edition, the older the movies he uses for examples.

Screenwriting is different from novel or short story writing in two key ways. One is the formatting of the text, which is NOT why I'm recommending this book to help you as a novelist or short story writer. (Although he does an excellent job of it.)

The other way the writing is different is that pretty much everything you put into a screenplay has to be geared towards something that is seen and/or heard. Unless you want to have a narrator telling the audience what someone is thinking inside their head, it's got to be a description that an audience can see or hear when it's turned into film. Following that advice really aids me in making a story feel vivid and immediate instead of in the zoomed-out mode.

Here's a trick once that technique is mastered (and Trottier gives lots of examples to help understand how to do this better). Write your outline in screenplay oriented language instead of zoomed out language whenever you can do it. (The more you practice, the more you can do it.) You'll find that expanding your outline into a full text version is way faster and easier, and the results are much better as well.

Personally, I find a lot of joy in expressing the scene in just the right way. Trottier's techniques may help you find the joy in doing that too, so it won't feel like you're "just retelling the same old story", but instead, "vividly and fully telling the story".

Click to expand...

Thanks for the book recommendation, and writing suggestion! I've wondered sometimes about writing out a script or dialogue as a starting point, and even pondered doing an experimental exercise of "novelizing" a movie or television script, or a comic book as a test of what extent the material would work for my mind as a springboard for creativity. This was recently renewed when I came across a memoir by author Alan Dean Foster, writing about his experiences as a prolific novelization author.

david_wendelken said:

The Arthurian Legends were not told in a single story or novel, nor were they intended to be. They were a Story Cycle, a set of stories in a common setting. It was truly an extensible wellspring of stories - and intended to be.

There is something to be said for bringing this form of storytelling back instead of settling for the novel format that has taken over the world of written storytelling.

Click to expand...

Yep, it's why I felt like I could separate the story of Sir Gareth as a story that inspired all kinds of different stories in my mind. Or alternatively take the notes I have on what I thought the Clone Wars in Star Wars would be like before the prequels and write something structured like Le Morte D'Arthur. My original thought was to expand them into a series of pulpy short stories in the vein of Robert E. Howard's Conan or Solomon Kane or Bran Mak Morn.

david_wendelken said:

I'm doing that in a partial way in Volume II of my Middle-earth series and also in the appendices in each volume.

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That sounds like a fun project! Is Volume I available to read?

There are a lot of small stories in The Silmarillion that I could imagine expanding to something more sprawling, the benefit of going through The Silmarillion very slowly through a year helped with understanding it better and comprehending the density of content. Any simple paragraph in The Silmarillion that says characters went on a long and perilous journey through many dangers, I could bring to mind all the hazards and challenges the characters contended with in The Hobbit and TLotR, to better understand the scope of the stories in The Silmarillion better.

I'm doing that in a partial way in Volume II of my Middle-earth series and also in the appendices in each volume.
That sounds like a fun project! Is Volume I available to read?

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Not yet. It's half done, but key portions are only sketched out.

Vol III is sketched out.

Vol IV is done. It covers Lorien in the year surrounding the War of the Ring.

Vol V is started, but not sketched out. Haven't figured out all the key aspects of the story yet.

Once Vol II is done, there will be enough context to make beta-reading workable for Vol IV.

I've mentioned that when I write a conversation, I tend to write the words that are spoken first, then go back and add what I call "the fidgets". It's the bodily movements and expressions that go with the dialogue. It looks like industry word for this is "choreographing the dialogue," which is a much more descriptive term.

I recently completed a section of the first chapter of my novel. Been trying to keep up with the RPs and my own solo stories as well.

I strongly sympathize with the effort being made. Congratulations on your progress! 🎉🎉🎉

I have finally begun the process of publishing the slew of content I've been writing for IC&SF for the past few months! This is an entire novel's worth of content, which will be published over the course of the next 10 weeks (if not more, depending on whether or not I break up some of the bigger chapters into smaller chapters.)

Super excited to start sharing my hard work, and if the story at all interests you, please check it out!

Maedhros_Nelyafinwë said:

I have finally begun the process of publishing the slew of content I've been writing for IC&SF for the past few months! This is an entire novel's worth of content, which will be published over the course of the next 10 weeks (if not more, depending on whether or not I break up some of the bigger chapters into smaller chapters.)

Super excited to start sharing my hard work, and if the story at all interests you, please check it out!

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Awesome!

Writer's Circle meeting on Dialogue was interesting. Some takeaways:

1. Dialogue is not speech. It's an abstraction of speech that's clearer, more concise, and hopefully more crisp.
2. Because it's not speech, a little bit of idiomatic dialect goes a long way. No need to go overboard.
3. Dialogue, done right, **IS** action, and a response given in dialogue can be an action as well. In other words, dialogue should be mostly limited to the important part of the communication, not the boring parts.
4. One way to do the above is to seamlessly merge narrative summaries in with the dialogue.
5. If a character gets a turn to speak, they should only use that turn to communicate one thing. Get a reaction. Then speak again to cover the next thing. I've been playing with this idea for the last week with existing dialogue and I think it's an idea with real merit. The dialogue seems crisper this way.

That last one...I'm not sure about it off the top of my head, but may try it at some point. It sounds like it would break up the dialogue a lot, which may not have a good effect on the flow of the conversation.
Then again, it may bring the reader more fully into the visuals of the two or more speaking together, as there is a lot more reaction and possibly movement.

I'd say most writing 'rules' are merely tips or suggestions. Something to keep an eye on in case you habitually do something which hinders your intents/goals for your story. And I suppose they're useful to get you thinking about the way you write and how it works for you. I'm wary of 'shoulds' unless it's something necessary for clear communication, like grammar rules.

Server Room Gremlin said:

I'd say most writing 'rules' are merely tips or suggestions. Something to keep an eye on in case you habitually do something which hinders your intents/goals for your story. And I suppose they're useful to get you thinking about the way you write and how it works for you. I'm wary of 'shoulds' unless it's something necessary for clear communication, like grammar rules.

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Agreed! After all, when the time comes, the evil villain who's about to take over the world has to have their lengthy monologue!

david_wendelken said:

Dialogue, done right, **IS** action, and a response given in dialogue can be an action as well.

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I found this validating, since my writing style is predominantly dialogue-based. And I think for less action heavy writing, such as stories with a focus on interpersonal drama, politics or romance (all three of which are usually strong focuses in my writing), then yes, dialogue can absolutely be equivalent to action. In a tense diplomatic meeting, delivering a well-articulated insult to the pompous Lord Snottington is a point of conflict and excitement. Or in a romance, one character professing his/her love to the other is a climactic point.

I had never realized before that there was a connection between my love of dialogue and my love of emotion-based plots. But it makes total sense now that I think about it.

This is the next online writing conference that Daniel David Wallace is organizing. I've been to two of these and they were chock full of great advice and ideas, and for a very good price. Historically, they've been free to watch in real-time, and a fairly nominal price (especially if you buy your ticket right away) if you want to be able to watch the sessions again.

https://summit.yourwritingprocess.com/

You can sign up and you'll get a notice when the conference details are published.

Took a break from Volume II to work on Volume V, which is in modern times. There's a small story embedded in the appendices that I wanted to edit based on some of the things I've been learning. The story is in the Appendix that covers the timeline of events. Like the LOTR timeline, it references things that are not in the main story. It's set on a small island off the NW coast of Eire in 1573. An English nobleman, Francis Walsingham, soon to become Elizabeth the First's spymaster, comes to the island to meet the Irish noblewoman who rules there. On a personal level, he's interested in her reputation as a healer as he has a tumour. John Dee, a noted alchemist in England, believes she may be a sorceress of great power and Walsingham wants to recruit her to English service if that is true. He arrives on her isle with a small coterie of warriors as his escort. The lady of the isle is known as Seoidrua Rí Scéalaí, Lady of Innis Gluaire.

I identified a part of their meeting that dragged on a bit and cut half a page out of the slow section, but still kept the meaning. (Yeah!)

Some people do not realize that the modern chemotherapy treatment for cancer is to poison the tumor and the person in the hopes the tumor dies first. Yep, that's precisely what it is! Seoidrua undertakes to heal Walsingham, but has to use methods that appear to be completely herbal remedy based, otherwise she ends up executed as a witch. She slips healing magic into the mix but takes pains to mask its presence. Walsingham is out of action for the next week and a half.

Seaán Mac William Íachtar, the local ruler of Connaught (NW Eire), shows up with a larger entourage of soldiers a few days after Walsingham shows up. Seaán had word of English warriors heading to the isle. He fostered in Seoidrua's home and they are close friends. He knows his help defending her isn't really needed, but a manly man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Plus, if he can put a spanner in the works of perfidious Albion, it's a win. (Hmmm... That makes me wonder. What's a medieval/renaissance appropriate expression that means the same thing?)

There's a young nobleman fostering in Seaán's home, one Hugh, the heir to the Earl of Tyrone. He later inherited his father's title and was believed by the English to be loyal to England for decades - until he went into open rebellion that he had been planning the whole time. Sadly, from the Irish perspective, he lost the war and fled overseas. Hugh helps Seoidrua to nurse Walsingham back to health.

All the above men are real historical personages, as is the island of Innis Gluaire and the legends that are attached to it. The lady, of course, is my own invention.

Now the house is overflowing with English, Irish, and Scots warriors. The Scots are mercenaries in Irish service, which was quite common at this time. The English don't like the Irish or Scots and the feeling is more than mutually reciprocated. Leoric is the head English warrior, who's in charge of Walsingham's men whilst he is receiving medical care. He's a perceptive and clever man.

Lots of potential for problems, some of which I chose to have happen.

Now, here's the remaining problem I faced:

I'm meticulous about the POV (Point of View) in my writing once it's at first draft quality. I work hard to ensure the POV I choose for a particular story remains consistent. This story was an exception and I knew it, because the POV wandered a bit, and that means I needed to fix this. I wasn't looking forward to it as I liked the story just as it was written. A perplexing problem, but I also didn't want to break the

Only one character could tell the story from a 1st person POV and I didn't want to have her tell it. I wanted the story told by someone who was meeting her for the first time. That left me with Walsingham, Hugh, or Leoric.

Walsingham could tell the first part of the story, but not after he received medical care (until it was finished, by which time the problems have been resolved). Leoric was present and in full possession of his faculties and mobility for the entire time, but he's English, so the local villagers would not tell him important things the opening of the story needs to include, that Leoric could not have witnessed. Walsingham would have the same problem after he recovered.

That left Hugh.

Solution:

Then I realized he was perfect for the part, and that I didn't need to change the POV at all. He learned the first part of the story from Walsingham as the two of them became friendly whilst Hugh helped nurse Walsingham back to health. Being Irish and obviously a charmer, he could get the earlier bits from the local villagers. He was present for the latter part of the story, but could easily have been on friendly enough terms with Leoric to get his input also.

So, the reason the POV wanders is that Hugh has related the different parts of the tale as they were told to him, by 3 different people in addition to what he witnessed. I added a modern editor's comment at the end of the tale explaining that this story was not from the trove of historical documents found by Tolkien, it was from an entry in Hugh's diary that had been documented back in the 1880s in a (made-up) academic Irish history journal.

This let me slip in the "fact" that Hugh drew a portrait of Seoidrua and inserted it in his diary. So, I got some additional mileage out of the story this way!

Yeah!