How do you know if your resolution is weighty enough to be an equivalent trade off? I know i should feel proud of the hero/heroin at the end..Should that just be my goal? The more i drag them through or the more i make the reader wait and feel for the main character, the more suspense builds? What helps you keep all that in mind when you're writing? Does anyone else ever get the feeling there are empty bits of the story that need to be taken out (because you lose focus)? How do you avoid writing empty things? How do you identify pointless or "empty progress"? Do you think I should avoid writing if i dont feel really excited or emotional towards whats happening in the action in the story? Because if emotion or excitement reflect in what you write doesnt it mean i should only write when im excited? Get myself excited about my writing and only pump it out afterwards? (this has to do with the "empty writing") You know how sometimes you only write to get yourself to write? And how that stuff can be really flat and boring? If you have comments about that lemme know.. Thanks=D
I really don't know what you mean here. As far as the part about the blank spaces - every part of your story should serve some pupose and keep the reader hooked, even and especially the parts that are necessary to convey crucial information or characterization. If you feel a part is dry or pointless, take it out.
Every vignette and existential detail is a chance to enrich the plot or character. If it's truly pointless, take it out or modify it to serve a purpose, however nuanced.
I am guessing this is first draft ? If it is don't worry about fluff it can come out once you know the story intimately and can link between events better.
I am very 'bitty' when I am writing, so I always end up having to write 'filler', so I have the opposite problem. I think if a 'scene', write it and then have to worry about where it fits in. Better to have your problem I think ) About the resolution side of things. I am not sure. Of course a resolution should leave a reader satisfied, but I feel you don't need to drag the story out to achieve this. Some novels are short, some are long, it depends how much story you feel your character needs. Don't write unnecessary bits if they don't add to the overall picture. But if you have some extra bits that would really plump out your narrative in a good way, go for it! A.
If you have a conflict and the character doesn't suffer, sacrifice or use enough wits to resolve the problem then it kind of falls flat dont you think How do you gauge an equivelent exchange. Sometimes it varies too i guess. That all makes sense when i think about it but when im writing i am thinking of visuals or dialogue -- or maybe i am over-thinking this and i already know
Yeah I always tend to drag things out unnecessarily. Like .. without ever getting anywhere. Sometimes even when i already have an end in mind. Do you ever write plot points? And then connect the dots?
Your first draft isn't going to the publisher. There is nothing in there that cannot be reworked, deleted, tweaked etc I tend to barrel through my first draft with the attitude I am Lot's wife and if I look back I will turn into a pillar or salt. I don't know the story well and I am learning new characters. The story will be in the wrong order usually, the characters will be flat and it will be full of fluff, filler (usually in my case too much magic, sex and talking to dead people), it will also lack description and be too dialogue heavy. Once I have written it I tend to put it aside and completely rewrite it,
From my own reading, I find that you can't, for example, just drag someone through something for the sake of doing it. Don't needlessly drag someone through the mud, just to prove something about them. Your story is as much a journey for your characters as it is for you. If you feel that they are ill-equipped to deal with the conflicts you've given them, they need to develop their skills. Write in smaller conflicts, perhaps flashback to a time when they faced something similar, to point out that they're able. If you do that, by the time you've written out the resolution to the main conflict, your character will be well-rounded. Drawing out a, sometimes very, rough sketch of the conflicts along the way to the resolution can be helpful. I find that people often forget that they're a writer. Sure, they're writing a story, but they ultimately design the book. Crafting every single word to be nuanced to a degree that even Da Vinci would be astounded at their ingenuity. In cases like these, I'm almost always wishing they'd let the characters fly a little. Characters will develop themselves if you flesh out who they are and why they do things. Suddenly, instead of asking yourself "How do I believably get John past his wives death" you're sitting there thinking "That poor man, I know EXACTLY how he'd react". At this stage, only YOU know your characters enough to say what they will and won't do. However, divining what they will and won't do based on what you need them to, rather than what they would do, will make them shallow at best. As for your works feeling bitty, yes absolutely. I'm always finding myself with ten or twelve great scenes that I've masterfully penned out. Then I realize that not only do some of these scenes seem like they don't go in the same book, but there's no clear connecting path between them. That is when I sit down and think about what I want my character to be like. Is he brave? Why? What made him brave? Is he intelligent? How intelligent? What KIND of intelligent? I think of various situations in my own life that he'd encounter. Arguing with friends, etc. From there, I have a basis on how he'll react to things and I can think about how he might go from one place to another. Suddenly, instead of wondering how to address my characters inability to go out in the sunlight, I see this in my mind: "Alex stared through the harshly treated windows, at the sky he could never again be under. Letting out a small huff, he retreated towards bedroom, his prison. It had not always been like this, trapped away in the looming mansion, hidden from the world. No, he remembered his life before, vaguely but he remembered. He had been a student at some university, a son with loving parents, a brother even. Many times he had attempted to recall what brought him here, only to find the same haunted, empty corridor in his mind. Stopping at his bedroom door, he stole one last longing glance at the sky before retreating further, slamming his door. " I've managed to answer a number of questions for myself as well as adding little conflicts and many answers. Is he intelligent? Intelligent enough to attend university. Is he a family person? I did find him brooding over his missing family. I've also fleshed out the fact that he spends a lot of time in emotional turmoil. He also seems to react to his fears and pains with a frustration and anger. To be truthful, I almost always avoid writing when I'm overly emotional or excited. I find that unless my character is that way, it seeps in and starts to affects him/her. If you're trying to write a scene, think of how you want that scene to feel. Find some music with that mood, and begin to imagine the scene. I hope this helps, I was overly verbose with this, sorry!
