Why do I waste precious writing time on this blog instead of writing? Well, first off, I’m procrastinating. It’s one of the things I do when I’m a bit distracted and also have to solve a particularly challenging problem. Another part of it is the rubber-ducking aspect of it. When I blog about a particular issue I’m trying to sort out, I’m forcing myself to collect all of my thoughts on an issue and write them down in a setting where scribbling half-assed notes isn’t acceptable. In doing this, the solutions I’m making for myself have to be justified, and clearly thought through. It might be, I come up with very wrong solutions, but it’s better than what I had been doing. The last thing I feel like I’m accomplishing is writing practice. It might not be creative, nor does it help with the larger writing issues of plot, setting and characters or anything, but putting thoughts down in a blog is a way for me to try and improve the basic mechanics of my writing.
Category Archives: writing
Sometimes life gets in the way
As the chores of the day start of stack up against me, the one thing I realize I won’t be doing much of is writing, even though it’s Sunday, one of the best days for it. I’m sitting here at the kitchen table, drinking my coffee, and pondering the scene I’m working on just now. When that cup is empty, I’ll be off to what has to be done: Homework projects, ducks & chickens, clean up, run errands, set up the Christmas tree, cook, general decorating, baths, and of course, at some point, I’d like to get a shower. I try to make writing a habit, something I do every day even if the best I can accomplish in the time given is to rework a sentence or two, or even just open the file and stare at it. What’s clear for today is there won’t be a block of time where I can do more than just think about what I want to write, visualizing the scene and working through various permutations of action to come up with something I feel is believable and works well. Oh well, I guess life happens, and now my cup is empty and I’m off to find my boots and tend the ducks.
It’s not working
The last couple of days, I’ve been plugging away at a chapter near the end of my current story. (No I’m not nearly that far yet, but I’m trying to give myself a road map so I stay on track and make sure I’m laying the foundation for the end I want.) After burning a couple of hours on it last night, I reached the conclusion it’s not working. The dialogue feels forced, it’s hard as hell to write and I can’t seem to transition from one part of the action to the next. Even though it’s not narrator heavy, it may as well be. In the same way you end up with problems when there aren’t enough characters to drive the action and dialogue, too many characters can result in having too much information come all at once. I should call the problem by it by it’s real name The dreaded information dump (sometimes these are necessary and, if done well, good).
Once again, I think back to my work-shopping days and how I was frequently told that I had an information dump problem, and I’m dead certain I told people that as well. It’s an excellent thing to help someone find, but saying “you have an information dump here” isn’t particularly helpful. From the reader’s perspective it’s an easy thing to identify. I feel like it can be harder to see from this side of the page. Even harder yet is finding a way to eliminate the problem, or find a way for it to work. In the situation I’m working through now, the solution is to simply break up the conversation. I’m going to remove a character or two from the problematic scene, and have them go away before bringing in the characters I had to remove. In this way, the dialogue will be split up according to the relevant character instead of trying to work it in naturally, after the fashion of a real conversation with a bunch of people.
On Writing Dragons 