Hallo. This is the last batch of advice from Wi… That. We’re about to delve into the mysteries of writing fiction through what I’ve read and done but not published. I’m just a shameless one who writes about nonsense. And so, here.
7. KEEP ACTION PLAUSIBLE:
…. Do you remember my bout about real and unreal and History in the same series of entries? Well the wi…ow page voices for making the things credible enough within the universe of the novel. Worked out characters, of consistency, laws of chemistry and physics in place. That stuff. Or magic rules such as being able to shot only one spell at a time…
This can be bent a little. You can find characters who are super short sighted in manga, whose glasses are round and big… That will never weight so much to fall every time they look down. I mean, I’m kind of an expert on it. My eyesight requires very and by very I mean VERY thick spectacles. Even with the special plastics. I always ended up with scratched glasses because the damn things were so heavy, they fall from my nose just by looking down. Thus, I can tell. No glasses are light enough to not fall from your nose being that short sighted! Unless you wear the goggle type… Oh, and your eyes look bigger. Not smaller. Thus, I think these manga authors just glide over the fact of density and weight and the need of a strap. But straps make you look like a grandma \(-_-)/.
Thencefore, exercise!
8. TAKE A BREATH:
Right. A tired brain does what drunkards do. Spew unconnected stuff. Go to the movies, kiss the love of your life (the cat of course!), spoil the dog, stroll the toddler… Sleep. It is forbidden to think all the time in the plot.
9. RE-READ YOUR WORK:
Yes… To review and edit (I know I should be promoting editors but there’s something called self edition too) is to be done.
It’s almost the same as being an accountant. Your numbers (data) have to sumate or you will be burn in the stake of audience’s wrath. Tough, it is common to forget what colour where the eyes of the main character or if he had or not a beautiful mother…
10. UNDERSTAND THAT FIRST MANUSCRIPTS ARE NEVER PERFECT:
And now they tell me? Asimov hated writing fiction cause it took him 6 months, something that didn’t happen to him with not fiction and certainly not with short stories (he wrote them in a single day)… Why? Cause novels require a bit more to unravel and they change to characters’ actions. And sometimes, characters do things that make you go crazy. Fighting!
So that’s it about writing a master piece. Next time… Ta Chan! How to review your text without trashing it… Hopefully.
Don’t overthink your like and be kind to my nonsense. Pasto kalo.
Last time I reviewed a couple of advice points in a renowned site on How to do things and I plan tho continue with the rest. As you have seen, it is not as simple as they propose. Yet it is THAT simple. The thing is to recognize the problems of writing and being willing to solve them or enjoying solving them, more than the techniques. The techniques, you acquire them if you want to solve something. But are useless of you don’t want to solve it.
4. START WRITING:
In a video with more advice on how to write by Cesar Mallorquín (I haven’t had the pleasure of reading his work and the video is in Spanish but I’m telling you what he says anyways…); he advices to have the garbage bin handy.
And this is relevant given the fact the famous site mentions to write on paper with pencil. Why? To eliminate the difficulty of feeling stuck on screen. A paper can easily be thrown away (remember to use it both sides, being wasteful has nothing to do with writer block) and it can be easier to ignore what you wrote before and continue by doodling or writing anything else. For some unknown reason (maybe the feeling that it is definitive), it is more complicated to DELETE what’s on screen than balling the paper and… Throw it away.
This advice point should say: WRITE, WRITE, WRITE (something I haven’t been doing). AND FINISH WHAT YOU START. Bad or good, it will have to go throughout the process of edition (erase a lot, change POV ). If you’re like me, you’re bad at finishing stuff… For me, it was really useful to take a course on making clothes on Saturdays. And how the heck is that related to writing? Simple, it is not.
Spending 2 months fighting a machine I didn’t have idea how to use, in a regular schedule and every Saturday; made me realize that, quitting feelings included, you end up with a child’s pajama set! Ok. That you can finish a project. Any project. Maybe in more time than the expected. Still, a project done!
5. FACE YOUR WRITING IN SMALL PIECES:
This website is wise. We can’t throw ourselves to be «the greatest writer of all times» or «to write the great novel» because we’re going to end up failing. In consequence, we should start the same way the anonymous author does. REPEAT AFTER ME: «Hi, my name is Doe/Joe Smith and I am a writer«. A page at a time, right?
6. READ DIALOGUES ALOUD:
The website says nothing about audio books and yet… Tentatively, said one author —whose name I don’t remember but if you know anything about, I’ll gladly receive any lead and give the proper credit[1]— «Don’t use the text left on the screen by the cat’s ass, no matter how cool it sounds. Audio books do exist«… Another media to make our talents public!
As it is, the website mentions interjections and silences of real life that become bothersome in a novel’s dialogue but passes by the need of review.
It is awfully tiring to read aloud, long and poorly punctuated sentences that don’t flow at all. Plus the difficulty of changing voices, accents (most authors don’t but you might feel a bit of seiyuu) and to top it, get perfectly stuttering and stop and go silences. Think your throat will pay the price of you become successful![2]
It also prevents you or helps you (your choice) from/to choose overwrought words. Some readers prefer a simple speech and some others, pages plagued of words that need a dictionary. Reading Gerry [Durrell] you find every now and then unknown words. Contrasting with Danielle Steel… In such case, you better not let go of the dictionary. Maybe and this is my nosy opinion because I’m great [farting sound], it is unavoidable depending on the context.
The noble enchanted prince [Oxford degree] snorts a «What’s ap dude»… And excuse my double use of question marks…. ¿Who the beep wrote this? Is he a prince Oxford educated or is he an American guy?
Now, returning to the website advice… It asks you not to be so obvious by telling: ”I’m not happy in this marriage». Instead, it recommends showing an uneven, unconnected and unequal dialogue that will prove how the marriage is a proven disfunctionality. Asimov would have said something like: They were happy. She told him things and he didn’t bother listening to.
Author’s originality strikes back! Just be kind. Information shouldn’t be repeated every other page unless you’re writing a legal contract in which you need to prevent loops. Readers can remember on their own. The white queen id one of those books I’m not finishing. It has at least three times, yes three times, the same thing repeated. Either as explanation, dialogue and then the same… And it is not regressive iteration. It is pure and simple repetition. Don’t do that.
For today, that’s more than enough. You need to go and write and make mistakes and come back and check on more advice on how to write fiction. Or not. Maybe you just need a course and not this nonsense of blog. But if you needed it and liked it…. Give me a like, subscribe and comment! Pasto kalo.
[1] He was invited to explain what he had learnt writing his book in Terrible minds, Chuck Wendig’s blog. Now, there are so many of them I can’t really remember his name or review them all.
[2] Think in possible podcasts, radio émissions and audio books. Not that I have ever been published. I know because I read aloud things for my own YouTube channel in Spanish and Gerry Durrell leaves me breathless sometimes. Ah, interested? Here’s the link. So far I’ve uploaded the three whole books of the Corfu Trilogy, Konrad or the child who came out a tin; A fishing boat without fisher, Me Jane searches Tarzan and Green fried tomatoes is still being recorded. If you’re not… let the Earth swallow you… Kidding. No problem.
What an excitement! We’re to write our first baby! By the end of the pregnancy, we can start to feel like killing outselves, thus write your will and hang on, some kids take longer than others to be born. Now, the advice to write.
1. DETERMINE THE STAGE AND BASIC PLOT:
Planning…. It is more difficult than it seems. Besides Sarah Domet’s (90 days to your novel), we can use the one of the website; to make lots of questions about the thing itself (novel, short story, being, etc). Yet, before that. One thing that can help is to choose the genreso you know the requirements or points to be fulfilled andthe controlling idea. The controlling idea is like a compass to guide you in the wild.
Consequently, decide if it is romance, sci-fi or an erotic depiction for vampires. Also, pick up if revenge is satisfying or it destructs the main character. If love is not enough or if love conquers all. That’s the controlling idea.
2. AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DECISION, THE POV:
I didn’t use to know that POV means the point of view of the narrating voice; so I said in the original entry that they were confusing point of view with the narrator. Now I know, it is about who is telling, therefore the narrating voice is the POV.
And despite this decision looking a bit obvious, it is not. First because names such as first person, limited third person and omniscient person can change to the tune of the person doing the explanation. Just like «if clauses» can turn into «present conditional»/»zero (first, second…) conditional» to the tune of the elite person in the throne of knowledge who wishes to change the furniture of the office with a name makeover. And if you don’t actualize your vocabulary, you’re taken as obsolete no matter how much a network FTP is the same thing as “the cloud”.
Therefore, we need to decide who is going to speak. Because of three reasons.
a) Clarity of speech (with this you know what grammar to use).
b)Chasm (I’ll clarify this later) and
c)Head hopping.
About the chasm, Robert McKee thinks to change the POV to every action the characters do, since this is what creates the chasms that keep the reader hooked into your piece; since they’re the things that complicate the main character’s life.
I’ll explain myself: if the detective is hoping to get the door opened for him, he is sent to the freakish Goulag cause he got in turn, an old moody goat who hates cops. In consequence, he doesn’t open the door and the detective work gets delayed. He can’t talk to the one only witness because; cherry on top, our detective has been accused of excessive strength before thus he can’t irrupt in the place. Then, he gets to talk to the moody goat by cheating him with a fake warrant. The lead ends being pretty vague due to the old goat wearing magnifier glasses or glaucoma. Your call. As a matter of fact, this advice is mostly about picking a narrator and following their POV for as long as possible but following the actions a character would take against the expectations of the character in spotlight. It makes sense… In novels and short tales (specially in short tales where there’s no really much time to be switching POV). But…
What happens in comics and movies? A comic, image wise, is much more flexible than a novel —were we doing a long one. A four choma or strip, doesn’t have that leisure.
A comic can even be deemed more flexible than a movie script. Why? Because movies with a voice in off explaining things… Don’t work as well as movies where the things are being shown. It is not as easy have this «I am Peter Parker» in off or omniscient anonymous narrator who never said a mu until the breaking heart event. Movies almost never have a limited narrator such as friend or bystander since it has the advantage Hillary Mantel mentions in Adaptation[1]: movies have a spotlight of a camera telling us, this is your hero.
When writing, we need to think the capabilities and weaknesses of our media. In movies we expect movement and action not a voice in off telling us what’s happening. In a novel it is all right to have thoughts and more thoughts despite us needing conflict. A comic can have both. McKee says a boring book is one with a lot of explaining…
I doubt McKee read “Doña Flor y sus dos maridos[2]” by a Brazilian called Jorge Amado in spite of (I think) liking the movie. En the book, there are a lot of «explanations» in recipe form of all the dishes the FL can cook —speaking of recipes l, if you happen to speak or be learning Spanish, Meg’s kitchen has a lot that look quite delicious or at least, are written as Sunday friendly gossip[3].
A movie has music to take us to feelings. It has visual rhythm. A novel is made in fists of words. This one in particular is a little bit like “The witches of Eastwick” by John Updike, in the sense that everything that might look as redundant in a not as experienced author’s writing, gets a rhythm with Amado: 1, 2, 3 turn around, 4, 5 step ahead, stomp, do a hand right pass, turn again and the double is over.
It is the tool for an author to rise tension or to indicate tension or, as in Mistress Flor’s inquiry, to burn slowly unable to quench your tail. And it depends on how each writes.
3. WRITE A SKETCH:
¿Isn’t it already sketched? To Domet, we have already done that entire job. To Libby Hawker (“Take off your pants!”), we have already established motivations, strengths and weaknesses and the rest of almost entrepreneurial info! In my opinion what follows is the next advice.However, for the moment, that’s more than enough. You have material to think over until the next advice.
Pasto Kalo. Have fun thinking how to solve the problem. Gift me a like, subscribe, comment. Or maybe not. This is… Pure fiction.
[1] One of the five Reith lectures of 2017. You can get it in the BBC radio website.
[2] Back then I read it in thin slices. It was and still is a very curious thing filled in Brazilian cuisine. You can watch the movie in YouTube, it is part of a cinema university course. It is in Portuguese but I don’t know if there are subs in English.
[3] Thank you for reading the nonsense in this blog. I hope you’re still around cause without you, I wouldn’t be translating. I’d love to know how to really cook and invent recipes but it seems I’m just an inventor of bubbles.
And I continue in the analysis. The website is lying on the couch and I gently suggest in a whisper: is it related to your mother? The website opens its little eyes in surprise. It has no mother or father… Lots of people edit it every day.
Ah, right. I was in the business of writing more advice on getting ready to write fiction (despite the web being filled with advice and advice and there’s no ending to it). Therefore:
Do a rain check using the cube technique:
Oh mein Gott! This looks interesting. Shall we borrow it from the website? No, you better go to the website or google it. They deserve the credit and I’m just a coat tailer. In a big stroke it takes us to examine an event from 6 different angles:
description of the event (what?)
comparison (I’d it like this or is this not like this?)
association (expense? formal dressing?)
analyze the elements
appliance (how is it used or what for?)
evaluate
This is kinda like the deep research to make details credible but is great to bring out good ideas.
Do a rain check using a mental map:
And this is going back to school. This changes with your personality and goals. Mental map or outlaying friends on how much you prefer planning or allowing yourself to go wild. The colour inks to separate character’s plots or wishes on paper and/or on cards… Sewing as you plan the title. The website recommends to identify the relationships between elements… McKee (yes, the guy of STORY: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting) would discourage you to do it until you master the typical intro-development-climax trio. Patricia Highsmith would say not every system is good for everybody. I say, make a map but be prepared to derail.
Rain check for your topic asking yourself what would happen if…:
In my not humble opinion, this advice is by far surpassed by an ideal of Ronald B. Tobías in 20 master plots. «The best plots are those where you have a good point of view against another good point of view»
I’m stealing his example since it is great (paraphrasing not quoting). Take a Catholic girl who believes in life being sacred[1] (yep, one of those) and make her face rape (yep, we’re facing something awful but it still happens and could happen to me, you… despite civilization). She ends pregnant. She now has to choose between an abort, great sin, or give birth to a sinful, tainted baby to leave it (hypothetical point of view) in an institution. Both points of view are valid. No one should carry a baby that reminds you of a traumatic experience or bond you to look after someone who will be despised and practically abused as a result. And religious convictions should be something people can honour to their satisfaction. The plot will be good so long you’re honest. Otherwise this plot will end up being propaganda.
Good examples of this are: Kramer vs Kramer (McKee lived the movie and I second the motion) and Ana Karenina[2].
Feed your ideas:
«A good writer is also a good reader and very observant[3]«
Rain check ideas for your topic:
This one to pick a topic is a bit backwards. Normally we try writing part of the plot and researching along the way or research before writing but after choosing the topic. Specially because some details appear only after you’re already writing or facing what you want to write about. Nonetheless, this is to your choice.
Use other inspiration sources:
The website encourages the creation of soundtracks! To me, who can’t play the triangle, sing horrible and can barely salsa…this is outrageous. From the creation of soundtracks to reading the same genre to figure out how to write a novel of the same kind I can add an ideas from Sarah Domet in «90 days to your novel«.
DO NOT WATCH TV cause you will get distracted (add internet says the flea writing this blog… internet is my drug). On the other side, Japanese invented doujinshi. A word any fan file who has been introduced to the world of boy love will understand quickly. All right, all right just in case you’re not a stan and you have no idea. A doujinshi is a spin off created by fans to alter the ending or the outcome of a certain story to fit their wishes. It can also be used to partner in bed, favourite characters who ended with different characters. Just because and without logic. It happens in western media, like the one time I read a Rowling apocryphe with Draco Malefoy falling in love with Ginny. It was to an «t» so alike an original, that only this minor detail gave it away.
Do you remember your bankbook notebook? The one in where we write thing that happens to the ant getting her petticoat wet[4] and we think about? So that! Do it. Besides learning opera, reading the newspaper, reading science books. I’m not inventing, just observing.
Next entry: finally writing!
Now, are you preparing your like or are you ready to give it? Are you subscribing or are you just thinking it? The difference? In one you fail but do and in the other, you never fail but will do nothing either. What side of the fence are you?
Pasto Kalo
[1] Sorry but for me life is sacred so long it means every life and by every life I mean even the ant in the garden. But given the circumstances, we never treat life as sacred according to circumstances. Ants’ lives are sacred so long they don’t destroy the garden and babies are sacred until it is you who has to clean their poop and pay for their needs when that baby isn’t yours… In my opinion, giving options to the individual brings out the best of the person and avoids children being born into trauma or has parents giving their best. We can’t be prepared for all the possible backgrounds but we can make it possible for people to choose and react accordingly. Would you pay the taxes for sin-born babies to be looked after in orphanages so the holiness of life is kept? Are you personally going to explain to the baby that they are unwanted?
[2] My second hand Porrua edition deserved a homemade bookbinding with rustic wallet and so so calligraphy plus a hard cover in canvas
[4][4] *»Ahí va la hormiga recogiéndose las enaguas, pobre chorrito la salpicó» There goes the ant grabbing up her petticoat, poor water spring got her wet. Gabilondo Soler Cri Cri.
Puff… I know this is a blog about how to write fiction and I should encourage you but this is also true: there is no way to get prepared for something you don’t have idea how to do… Each book is different. Each book is as difficult to write as the previous one. Thus, whatever you learnt about writing becomes useless… In a sense. Nonetheless, we need to review the following 2 steps.
1. DECIDE THE FORMAT
The website on how to «Ki», says it all depends on if you want to tell a genealogy of the character’s relatives lives o a memory regarding a single character.
As certain as it might come as difficult for me to base a whole book in a single character’s psyche whilst some people are more than skilled in doing; this doesn’t determine the format. The less if we include comics or other adaptations.
Truthfully, the format might come out from abandoning technologies. Webtoons for example are wildly more popular now than the overpriced gringo[1] comic of 25 pages and their publishing, is more a result of public approval than one editor’s solo decision. Yes, webtoons have editors but you can still publish digital comics in your own page, Patreon, Webtoon or other places I have no idea about. And get popular without having an editor to decide if it can be published there. Editors jump into scene once you become popular … Same wise, self publishing in Amazon or other places, «erases» the editor as intermediary but it carries within on other troubles. Such as paying ourselves for publicity.
Besides these, there is Twitter, for there already are novels published 140 types at a time. Thus, why not Facebook, Line, Wattpad? Wherever.
Plus, there are many other things to consider about. Rookie writers like I was when I first wrote this entry in Spanish, use to start by writing short stuff. Which doesn’t mean something as a short story, can’t become a 150 pages length, in a more experienced writer’s hands. Like Brilliant phoenix by Bradbury. What started a short story, ended a great novel.
The decision of format is not just a decision. It is a summation of chained elements.
2. GET ANY IDEA OF SOME KIND
The phrase would get Sarah Domet a ‘little’ upset. How could you get an idea of any kind when you shall use the third or the fourth, perfectly reflected upon?
Not that the advice is bad. It is just the wording. It sounds like us corrupting the idea genie by buttering his toast[2] in order to be given one.
The website adds some more advice on how to better the empty universe of our mind, which I think, belongs to the area of creative or not creative exercises to write taught by different writers to start writing. You might know some, after all you must have already seen a lot or can read some more in Terrible minds[3].
Did you learn something new? If you did, give a like or comment and subscribe. Pasto kalo. Next entry I’ll review the advice. Let’s keep it short and simple for you to mull it over. Writing is an activity that needs lots of ruminating.
[1] Even Batman and Marvel have migrated to Webtoon
[2] I’m kinda aware my country is famous because corruption and in the original it says «mordida» (bite). Tough, one never knows who is reading and my particular way to anglanize idioms is not to translate but by making dot connections. Anyways, a mordida is a nice encouraging donation of security plastic paper printed with heros and remarkable people to enhance the imagination of its acquisitive power. And it is quite universal. You might say your country is free from, but I’m sure there are cases of it very well hidden on plain sight. Only in the Antarctic it must be difficult to be practiced.
[3] Original entry, there’s a reference to tips by Viaja con P de Pasaporte in Spanish.
