Thank you so much Alison! Reading through this piece felt like mining. There are so many questions I ask myself that I think will be put to test/rest once I go through my drafts referring back to this piece. The defining scene section was particularly impactful for me, because for most of my writing I don't consciously mix the different elements of the story and I have a harder time with transitions between scene and narrative. More on my reflection of this piece later. Thanks again :)
Dec 29, 2021·edited Dec 29, 2021Liked by Alison Acheson
I remember having (+) and (-) marked beside different scenes when outlining a novel in your class. Your advice on "scene" having a shape reminded me of this memorable activity. If I have a beginning of a scene that is a minus (-) for the protagonist, it should proceed to bring a plus (+) by the end.
I think some of the scenes in my story are static, without any advancements in time and action. For example, some scenes where the protagonist enjoys her food last for more than one page. It's still a rough draft, and I was thinking of cutting out most of them, but I just learned from the post that they do not qualify as a "scene" after all. Maybe it could be used as part of a scene; an element that threads actions/time in-and-out within a bigger picture?
"Creating is always a mix, a collection of choices, a deciding of what and when. And "exceptions"—outliers—can be exciting." Here, can I understand "exceptions" as things like unexpected events or character decisions added to make a story more interesting?
Thanks for this, Alison! Super helpful as I'm in the thick of a gnarly draft making some of these scene-or-introspection decisions.
Thanks, Alison!
Thank you so much Alison! Reading through this piece felt like mining. There are so many questions I ask myself that I think will be put to test/rest once I go through my drafts referring back to this piece. The defining scene section was particularly impactful for me, because for most of my writing I don't consciously mix the different elements of the story and I have a harder time with transitions between scene and narrative. More on my reflection of this piece later. Thanks again :)
I remember having (+) and (-) marked beside different scenes when outlining a novel in your class. Your advice on "scene" having a shape reminded me of this memorable activity. If I have a beginning of a scene that is a minus (-) for the protagonist, it should proceed to bring a plus (+) by the end.
I think some of the scenes in my story are static, without any advancements in time and action. For example, some scenes where the protagonist enjoys her food last for more than one page. It's still a rough draft, and I was thinking of cutting out most of them, but I just learned from the post that they do not qualify as a "scene" after all. Maybe it could be used as part of a scene; an element that threads actions/time in-and-out within a bigger picture?
"Creating is always a mix, a collection of choices, a deciding of what and when. And "exceptions"—outliers—can be exciting." Here, can I understand "exceptions" as things like unexpected events or character decisions added to make a story more interesting?