The Writers Thread
- Thread starter Jon
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I can't agree with your better than/worse than ratios. Writers improve by writing. It should follow that subsequent writing will improve on what has been produced before - even if that improvement is in small increments. Words are the baseline. What is subjective is the story, plot, characterisation, setting, voice, tone, and point of view of the narrative.
Jon, though you addressed it to Bee, this is my own viewpoint on your question on the distinction between writing and story.
Analogous to writing, computer-based product creation involves the technical side of things (programming code, syntax), the visual side of things (interface, complexity of use), and the utility/importance of the project (whether you should have bothered in the first place because it is something NOBODY in or out of their right minds would buy).
In creative writing, you have matters of precision of verbiage, to include proper use of words, attention to verb/noun issues, and use of words consistent in difficulty with other words in the same passage. Then there are matters of style, including 1st, 2nd (rare), or 3rd person; fluidity of action narrative and/or dialog descriptions; lushness of scenery descriptions; and glimpses of protagonist thoughts. Add to that the basic idea that the story has to make sense.
The parts that improve with practice are the first two groups of things I named. Word usage issues, clarity of writing issues, and the like. But the wild card in all of this is whether your story leads to a good or a bad situation. I cannot speak to Bee's style, but for me, a bad story concept will quickly lead to an untenable situation that either goes nowhere at all or goes somewhere where nobody cares to follow.
Of the seven stories I have started, I finished five with clear start, middle, and end situations. One is still in work with a clear start, clear middle, and no end in sight though I knew where I want to go, I'm just having trouble getting there at the moment without making it obviously contrived. The last story fell into the untenable pit and I am still wrestling with trying to decide whether it has a future or not. At the moment, I'm thinking "not" but am unsure enough that I have not deleted the files yet.
Analogous to writing, computer-based product creation involves the technical side of things (programming code, syntax), the visual side of things (interface, complexity of use), and the utility/importance of the project (whether you should have bothered in the first place because it is something NOBODY in or out of their right minds would buy).
In creative writing, you have matters of precision of verbiage, to include proper use of words, attention to verb/noun issues, and use of words consistent in difficulty with other words in the same passage. Then there are matters of style, including 1st, 2nd (rare), or 3rd person; fluidity of action narrative and/or dialog descriptions; lushness of scenery descriptions; and glimpses of protagonist thoughts. Add to that the basic idea that the story has to make sense.
The parts that improve with practice are the first two groups of things I named. Word usage issues, clarity of writing issues, and the like. But the wild card in all of this is whether your story leads to a good or a bad situation. I cannot speak to Bee's style, but for me, a bad story concept will quickly lead to an untenable situation that either goes nowhere at all or goes somewhere where nobody cares to follow.
Of the seven stories I have started, I finished five with clear start, middle, and end situations. One is still in work with a clear start, clear middle, and no end in sight though I knew where I want to go, I'm just having trouble getting there at the moment without making it obviously contrived. The last story fell into the untenable pit and I am still wrestling with trying to decide whether it has a future or not. At the moment, I'm thinking "not" but am unsure enough that I have not deleted the files yet.
Think of the story/plot as the idea. What is it you are trying to convey to the reader? Let's take a fairy-tale (for no reason other than it's familiar territory for everyone):
That's the plot - and it is very subjective as to whether the plot will be interesting/engaging etc.
The writing of the plot includes:
The tools for writing are:
Give the plot to 10 different people and you will get 10 different treatments because of the way individuals use writing and tools.
- Woman is jealous of step-daughter
- Woman commands Huntsman to take step-daughter to the forest and kill her
- Huntsman decides not to kill her
- 7 strangers take step-daughter in and give her a home
- Woman poisons an apple and feeds it to step-daughter
- Step-daughter falls into a deep sleep
- Sleep is broken by kiss from a prince
That's the plot - and it is very subjective as to whether the plot will be interesting/engaging etc.
The writing of the plot includes:
- Making each character distinctive
- Setting the scene/time/location
- Point of view (Examples: 1st person: I was taken into the forest. 2nd person: You took her into the forest. 3rd person: Snow White was taken into the forest)
- Dialogue
- Clarity
The tools for writing are:
- Grammar
- Sentence structure
- Nouns, verbs, adverbs (not adjectives. If your writing is littered with adjectives, think again)
- Punctuation
Give the plot to 10 different people and you will get 10 different treatments because of the way individuals use writing and tools.
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