  Drama
This week: Fancy Meal verses Carnival Melange Edited by: Fyn  
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"Writing, for me, is a little like wood carving. You find the lump of tree (the big central theme that gets you started), and you start cutting the shape that you think you want it to be. But you find, if you do it right, that the wood has a grain of its own (characters develop and present new insights, concentrated thinking about the story opens new avenues). If you're sensible, you work with the grain and, if you come across a knot hole, you incorporate that into the design. This is not the same as 'making it up as you go along'; it's a very careful process of control."~~Terry Pratchett, in back matter for A Hat Full of Sky
"Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that, just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him out to the public."~~Winston Churchill
"There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories."~~Ursula K. LeGuin |
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Building a book is a bit like creating the perfect menu for a very special meal. One of the fancy meals that requires three forks, has multiple courses, several different wines and culminates in a 'Dessert of the Gods.' You've spent days planning and preparing, spent hours creating, cooking and waiting for pots to go from simmer to boil. You've set timers, chilled some foods and warmed others to room temperature. You've set the table and figured out which fork or spoon or glass goes where. Now, would you spoil the effect by serving ALL the food at once?
No. Of course not. It is much the same principle when serving up a delicious book. You want it to be variously nibbled, devoured, and snacked upon. You want to let your reader cleanse the palate between chapters, and come back for more. You want a variety of tastes and sensations, textures, smells and flavoring. You want to time the meal, let it have its pace, and yet serve the food piping hot or before it melts.
When writing, don't over whelm your reader with everything, all your ideas, all at once. Feed them slowly, bite by bite, giving them the opportunity to nibble, to taste one course at a time. There are foods one only eats small portions of, like, for example, a shrimp cocktail or escargot. You get a limited number to enjoy, to feast upon, to savor and then it is on to something else. We don't, as a rule, make a meal of them. So give your reader tastes, then switch. Indulge then switch to the salad.
Salads add character, flesh out story lines, and move the characters from place to place. A spoonful of sherbert to refresh. Then you get to the meat. Here is where the main stuff takes place. Eventually you will get to the resolution, the denouement, the Baked Alaska of happy endings (or not.)
Consider the difference between a special dinner and an afternoon at the carnival. Cotton candy in one hand, a corn dog in the other, sips of lemonade followed by popcorn, elephant ears, and snocone. It is a lot of fun, but there is no substance. There is a reason folks come home with tummy-aches! A short story suits a circus or county fair midway atmosphere, because so much happens in such a short time. A fine meal is never rushed with too many sense overwhelming the tongue. Such too with a novel. Don't dump all the back story in with the appetizers. Feed it in small bites along the way.
It is great-grandma's prized recipe; don't feel the need to share that what they are finding delicious in actuality includes anchovies, ground bull testicles and eye of newt! Reading a book is taking a journey, I'll skip the shortcuts and the toll road, thank you very much. I want the back roads, the scenery, the bumps, flat tires and the cozy B&B tucked down by the river.
She's worked hard to finally grasp that elusive envelope in her hand. Switch to another character for a chapter or so, then come back as she's reading it. He finds the map just as a blow crushes against the back of his head and all goes dark. Meanwhile, across the globe, his partner is . . .then comeback as he is coming to. Build the drama, build the suspense, and let it simmer for a time, don't rush it to a boil else the possibility of scalding the tongue, or burning it black on the bottom of the pan. Then all you can do is serve a hastily called for pizza or make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Each fine in their way, but not enough substance for a novel, and the only drama available here is pepperoni or ham, strawberry or grape. |
Folks are always cooking something up!
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StephBee  writes: Fyn, excellent points for self-published author. I might just add - have a pleasent Internet presence. Mind your manner. Please, and thank you go a long way on the Internet, too.
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Drama: June 22, 2011 Issue [#4465]
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