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Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024

11:14am EST

Members: 807

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Writing Blog Number 2

by S

Rated: 18+ · Book · Personal · #2311764

This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC

This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. If it falls this year (2024), then I may stop the whole blogging thing, but that's all a "wait and see" scenario.

An index of topics can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"

Feel free to comment and interact.

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Kåre เลียม Enga

10 minutes ago
In response to "20241228 Messages In Writing"

It's the same with setting. There's no need to dump everything on the first page. Or describing the main character in minute details ad nauseum.

Is Narnia Christian? If it's a great story well told, does it matter?

Kåre เลียม Enga

Dec 21, 2024 at 12:34am
In response to "20241221 Kudzu Plotting"

IMO Anne McCaffrey does this well with the parallel Dragonriders of Pern and Harper Hall trilogies. Adults-with-dragons; youth with fire-dragons. Memorable world building. Wonderful characters.

Kudzu the plant... only a curse for those who don't know its uses: forage, food, fiber.

Dec 19, 2024 at 7:09pm
In response to "20241219 'Misogyny' In Writing"

🐕GeminiGem🎁 - I chose Grease because it is so egregious and goes against everything Sandy had demonstrated up to that point. Dirty Dancing was set a few years later (early 60s), and, though Baby changes, it is gradual and is more a change of growing up, being true to herself. So, I think the time period can be used effectively without being so demeaning. As I see it.

🐕GeminiGem🎁

Dec 19, 2024 at 6:58pm
In response to "20241219 'Misogyny' In Writing"

I agree that when a woman changes herself to attract a man shows misogyny and is annoying...but...using the movie Grease as an example it an interesting choice. Yes, the lead female changes her appearance to appeal to the male. I think it was more because of peer pressure, but the peer pressure happened because of the pervasive misogyny of the peers. Interestingly, the male character does the exact same thing for the same reasons.

The movie is set in the 1950's, a time where the misogyny we see now is even waaaay worse. So, here is a thought. If you are writing about a time period like that and are showing social interactions of the characters, something like the pervasive misogyny is going to be true to the time and place the story takes place. Does that excuse it? No, of course not, but having present-day sensibilities in an era like that would make the story seem really off.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Dec 19, 2024 at 3:57am
In response to "20241219 'Misogyny' In Writing"

In my travels I try to connect with most everyone. I wonder what my stats would be... but many contacts have names whether human or not, whether the boss or 'servant' or guest.

In my writings...

thinking.

I do have characters without names.

SAD Holiday Potato

Dec 18, 2024 at 3:54pm
In response to "20241218 Children Characters"

As someone who is an Aunt to two children who have an age difference of four years, I can definitely tell you that they act completely different. Even though one of them is neurodivergent, the older one definitely acts more mature than the younger one.(also the older one has never tried to lick my feet.)

With very few exceptions, I've never had to tell an adult "stop eating my dress," "please don't lick me" or "stop pulling my hair," to anyone over the age of six. Yet within the last year or so I've had to tell my five year old niece these things repeatedly. She thinks this is hilarious.

Anyways, thanks for pointing out that kids aren't just miniature adults! I'll try to keep that in mind while writing.

Dec 18, 2024 at 6:44am
In response to "20241218 Children Characters"

Elisa: Snowman Stik - Writing about those who are neurodivergent is not something I feel I can talk about comfortably. I am trained as a teacher of those on the spectrum, and so I would not write a character in that regard because I do not feel it is my story to tell. But, yes, that last point may not apply to a child with developmental issues.

1 Like

Elisa: Snowman Stik

Dec 18, 2024 at 6:28am
In response to "20241218 Children Characters"

I am curious if there is wiggle room for the last point for child characters with developmental disabilities. (I do recognize this kind of character presents its own set of development pitfalls in terms of depicting the disability without stereotyping. That said, I think this can be a reasonable exception to the rule when done with care.)

1 Like

Dave Ryan

Dec 16, 2024 at 1:26am
In response to "20241216 Poor Characterisation"

There was once a variation of "compressed vice" in an original episode of Star Trek ("Who Mourns for Adonais?"), where a landing party of the usual suspects + one random never-seen-before-or-since female crew member are captured by the god Apollo and they turn the usually gruff Scotty into a simpering, love-struck puppy to try to introduce some conflict when Apollo puts the moves on her. Why they didn't just have Kirk horndogging it as usual I do not know - at least then everybody would have remained consistently in character. It looks like Scotty, it sounds like Scotty, but WTF?

1 Like

SAD Holiday Potato

Dec 14, 2024 at 3:41pm
In response to "20241214 Punk Genres"

This is interesting yet confusing. So basically it's like world building but with the word "punk" in there to make it sound cooler.
Maybe I misunderstand.

February 21, 2024 at 3:19am

#1064580

20240221 What Is A Story?

What Makes A Story

This is one of the first questions that was asked of me when I said I was going to be writing this blog.

And the answer is simple:

How long is a piece of string?

Seriously, there is nothing hard and fast. However, something needs to happen. And it needs to happen to characters, even if they are inanimate objects. And this happening should result in a change, whether to the characters, emotions, their world or to something important to the story. Even a perception of the world; like, what changed in a Godzilla film? Humans suddenly knew about another kaiju or that Godzilla had powers they didn’t know about. It’s a small change, but it is still a change, one that could have far-reaching implications.

That is actually rather simplistic, and this brings up a technicality that many writers argue about – the difference between story and plot. Plot is often taken as the sequence of events, the order in which things happen. The story, on the other hand, is the bits that make a story more than just a series of “then… then… then…” events. Story brings a story to life, focusing on characters, emotional beats, underlying themes, etc.

To go a little further on this point: all fiction and a lot of non-fiction is based on a story. Something happens. It starts, there’s a middle section with the action, there’s an ending and the people involved have gone through a lot. Many consider it a story, as I said, only if there is a change. But, again, some works indicate that is not always the case. Story-telling is what makes this story into something interesting or worth reading.

To explain this, a plot without a real story is an anecdote, like a guy telling a story at the pub, or a vignette (an event with no set-up or real pay-off). The pub guy and his mate were fishing, a seal stole all their fish, they gave up and went home. Is that really a story? Was anything actually changed (apart from a seal getting a meal)? If the tale started with waking up, deciding to go fishing because they’d had a bad week at work, casting their lines, discovering that fish keep going missing, getting angry, finally seeing the seal, and realising the bad week is going to stay bad, so they went to the pub instead, and what had changed is that they are resigned to their fate, the theme of acceptance is there. Now we have added a little bit of story-telling, and the anecdote has started to become what is considered a proper story.

This is where it becomes awkward because some stories feel like nothing has changed. Last Year At Marienbad (a boring film that won awards everywhere) is a prime example. Whether you consider that a story or not is your own interpretation, but to me it feels more like a stream of consciousness.

So, what I am saying is that publishers will have expectations of something happening and a change occurring with some sort of theme (even if not necessarily overt; I personally do not write to a theme, but they apparently exist in my writing). But that is not necessarily the case. Experimental writing can be story-less. Anecdotes can be simple and without story elements, just bare bone plots.

But, in the end, the simplest explanation for what makes a story a story is: do you like what you have written and are you, the writer, entertained by it? If yes, then it's a story. It's your story.

2 Like • Comment

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