Love all this, especially about voice & in medias res. You once told me to write the whole backstory for me, but cut that out for the readers and start with slice of life, and in middle. Sure some of that info is going to go into flashback if needed. But it’s so true that it’s super boring to read the whole Wake up the in morning and press snooze opening.
I think a lot of the time I know this stuff intellectually but still have a hard time knowing what’s the middle. Or insecure about creating obfuscation. But this topic is prescient because many of us binge shows (or books—I know lately I read them faster) and we’re smarter—and more jaded to overdone storylines or ones that don’t have authentic voice. This is why I think every project whether a new poem, short story or novel is its own new “foundational” thing like you’re saying.
Alison, this helps so much. I had to audition so many characters for my current book. I won't toss the scenes they were in, but curate them in a collection of short stories. As an emerging fiction writer it's easy to be confused on who is the main character and who can narrate the story most effectively. It depends.
I was just rereading this post (trying to catch up on my reading and rereading) and it caused an interesting reaction in my brain. I have been revisiting a novel I put away a decade ago. It was crap, but the idea was good, so I did a bunch of background work on it with a goal of starting the writing soon, but that first scene just would not come . . . until this morning, when I read this post. It's like it pushed the key log and broke the logjam. I'm thrilled with these opening pages. Thanks, Alison! :-)
Love all this, especially about voice & in medias res. You once told me to write the whole backstory for me, but cut that out for the readers and start with slice of life, and in middle. Sure some of that info is going to go into flashback if needed. But it’s so true that it’s super boring to read the whole Wake up the in morning and press snooze opening.
I think a lot of the time I know this stuff intellectually but still have a hard time knowing what’s the middle. Or insecure about creating obfuscation. But this topic is prescient because many of us binge shows (or books—I know lately I read them faster) and we’re smarter—and more jaded to overdone storylines or ones that don’t have authentic voice. This is why I think every project whether a new poem, short story or novel is its own new “foundational” thing like you’re saying.
Alison, this helps so much. I had to audition so many characters for my current book. I won't toss the scenes they were in, but curate them in a collection of short stories. As an emerging fiction writer it's easy to be confused on who is the main character and who can narrate the story most effectively. It depends.
I was just rereading this post (trying to catch up on my reading and rereading) and it caused an interesting reaction in my brain. I have been revisiting a novel I put away a decade ago. It was crap, but the idea was good, so I did a bunch of background work on it with a goal of starting the writing soon, but that first scene just would not come . . . until this morning, when I read this post. It's like it pushed the key log and broke the logjam. I'm thrilled with these opening pages. Thanks, Alison! :-)