I should make a journal, to have one on my page. So, what to write? What matters to me, what I would let the curious know. Perhaps some shop, for those who would read:
I write by methods gleaned from what I have read and what I wish to read: conventions, restrictions, budgets and patterns and principles. Many of these methods keep me from indulging the easiest, most common, and least interesting ways to make prose. They also slow me down, of course, but I much prefer what I have at the end of each day. So, now, something practical.
- "She was angry." This states a simple summary of her emotional state. It's easy to tell an actor to be angry, because it's their work to figure out the how. But here, is this not the job of the author and not their audience?
- "She was furious." That's a little spicier, a narrower range to the emotion, but still not that far off from the first.
- "She was angry. She was furious!" Now there's repetition, there's escalation, there's motion to the emotion. The text itself is heating up, and doing it to a drumbeat. Something is going to come of this.
I oversell, of course, but I hope this still serves as a simple premise. There's more to writing than stating states. Pacing isn't just the peaks and dips of the story structure, but the cooperation between complexity of text, rate of reading, and what action plays out on the page—moment to moment, sentence to sentence, word to word. There must be a term for this, but I do not know it; so I will borrow one that nearly-fits from gaming: ludonarrative. This is the story the gameplay tells, opposed or complimentary to what narrative is presented outside or alongside. If the plot weaves a trail of hardship and sacrifice but you always have the tools you want and more, you won't feel the pinch and may object when the cutscenes impose consequences on you that you should have easily avoided yourself. And in text, I can insist on how fast and furious and nail-biting my fight scene is, but if it drags on for two chapters and little-to-none of what is done has any lasting effect, you are not going to feel what I am telling.
So that is my little rant, for those who have read this far. Maybe I'll do more, if there is want.
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8 months, 1 week ago
13 Apr 2024 00:45 CEST
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