Archive for June, 2007
Deeper into Voice
by Darcy Pattison
Q: How do you go deeper into a character’s voice?
A. I wonder if this question is about the character’s voice or about characterization in general. When a critiquer says you need to go deeper into a character’s voice, it could be either.
Characterization
If characterization is the problem, there are a couple things you might [...]
Real Readers & Writers
by Darcy Pattison
The only real readers are flashlight readers.
Real writers take risks.
Do villains really have to be politically correct?
Libraries are learning to cater to digital natives.
Writing Flashbacks
Flashbacks Effective in Deepening Novel
When you are writing or revising a novel, you want to be sure your story is believable and the characters motivated. Often, this means you must tell something that happened before the novel began. In other words, a flashback is a bit of back story that is presented out of chronological [...]
Backstory
by Darcy Pattison
Last week, I made a few comments about backstory, but I wanted to spend more time on it.
Impact of Reading SFF
Many of my thoughts about backstory are shaped by the needs of fantasy and science fiction writing (sff) where the writer creates a world, complete with complex histories and magical norms. The challenge [...]
Future of Revision Notes
by Darcy Pattison
Future of Revision Notes
Since I posted about Backstory on last week, I’ve been thinking about the topic all weekend and will post more about it tomorrow. Look for it!
I am also planning to move my blog to my own domain and off LiveJournal. The change should happen about July 1, so watch for [...]
Voice: Questions?
by Darcy Pattison
Voice. It’s a confusing, complicated topic. Do you have questions you want discussed, dissected, batted around? I don’t always have answers, but I like thinking about the nuances of voice. Please post Voice questions or Revision questions here, or email me privately at darcy at darcypattison dot com. I’ll try to research and [...]
Voice Friday: Point of View
by Darcy Pattison
Does point of view affect voice? Yes. The current trend is to encourage first person point of view for young adult novels, and sometimes, I think this adversely affects the voice. The default for many years for novels was third-person point of view; you only when to first person when the attitude/personality of [...]
Revision: Understanding critiques
I seem to be thinking a lot about critiques these days, probably because I’m getting critiques from a couple different sources.
The Strengths and Weaknesses of a Critiquers
In critique groups, I find that writers/readers have different styles of critiquing.
Grammar Witches: This person always finds the punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes; I’m grateful for them, because fixing [...]
Revision: Back Story
by Darcy Pattison
Early drafts of novels often open with an exciting situation only to devolve into a long explanation of back story. Donald Maass, in his Writing the Breakout Novel and the Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, says to put back story somewhere after page 100.
Yes, everyone wants to argue with this, saying that the [...]
Revision Attitude: Cut Short That Pity Party
by Darcy Pattison
Cut Short that Pity Party
When you get the letter from an editor about a revision, what do you do?
Frankly, I get mad. How dare that misguided editor diss my perfect mss?!
For novels, I give myself the luxury of three days of being mad before I get down to work.
I think it?s important to [...]
