#and how friking clunky the sleeping beauty au is

[kinetic-elaboration]

100 Days of Writing: Day Nine

Hobbling along with 100 days of writing, @the-wip-project and tagging my fellow participants @she-who-the-river-could-not-hold @thelittlefanpire and @hopskipaway.

Structure as offense and characterization as defense, or the other way around. Is this something you think about? Do you have other metaphors when you think about your stories and how they work?

Picking today’s prompt to reflect on as the path of least resistance because I do not feel well and creativity is just not on my mind.

I don’t get this metaphor at all lol because I don’t know anything about sports but also... I just don’t think of my writing metaphorically I guess. I’ll be even more honest and say that I just don’t think structurally in this manner at all, like, how are the parts moving and what is in opposition to what and what’s the motivation and what’s the driving force or whatever. 

I guess to some degree I approach writing like I do interpreting written works--but from the other end, of course. What works in the writing I love, and how can I create something that makes me feel the same. I was very into close reading in college and I like working on the micro level. Every sentence and every image needs to be precise and clear; the atmosphere should be well-defined; the actions should be easy to picture. Atmosphere and emotion is created by sentence structure and pacing as much as by vocabulary or literal description. Everything should flow.

I mostly write specifically to create A Mood so I would be lying if I said I always cared so much about crafting a great plot. If I’m writing something on a deadline, then I basically decide what the absolutely essential plot points are, and I narrow it down to just those. I do something similar for my non-deadline work--but not as well, because those stories tend to ramble, sometimes to their detriment. I do think it’s important to know what a story is ABOUT, and I don’t mean that in the ‘well duh’ sense, I mean that the central conflict must be resolved, the central lesson learned, the central mystery answered, and anything adjacent can be left more open or ambiguous. In other words, I think the structure itself should alert the reader to what a story’s central plot and/or purpose is.

However, I am often just in it myself to tell a nice yarn or to examine particular moments or feelings.

I definitely think that writing is a craft, but for me it’s also an Experience. It’s something I create partly through decided effort and careful (fore) thought and partly through impulse and and subconscious work. Good writing sessions can feel like trances or out of body experiences, at least in retrospect. I often discover something new while writing

It doesn’t speak to me to break writing down into like the Elements of Proper Storytelling I think in part because it takes some of the mystical element out of the experience. For me I guess it’s... I’ve read so much and thought so much about what I’ve read, and talked about it and discussed it and written on it, that I just inherently get (imho) story/narrative/style components. At least, as far as I care to get them.

#100 days of writing #my 100 days of writing #100daysofwriting #this doesn't answer the question but it speaks to a different issue that's been rambling around my brain a bit at some of the prompts #i dont mean to sound defensive about it but i am actually kind of defensive #i want to be taken seriously or whatever fwiw but i also refuse to flatten the experience with like... dialogue is the defense or whatever #it doesn't help that i'm still deep in my feelings of self doubt and negativity #i've been thinking about the absolutely effortless styling of roadside picnic #and how friking clunky the sleeping beauty au is #or feels like it is #and it makes me feel down