Breadcrumbs

[AsylumSeeker]

I realize the Author thread is where this belongs but the AF has become more of a social site than anything else. So please forgive me for posting here, as writers also come here.

The best I can recommend writers do is to leave "breadcrumbs" in their stories. In other words add in other elements that fit the story yet don't detract from it.

I realize that's a vague concept so allow me to clarify.

In my Zombies series (not plugging it) I added early on where the survivors see a bird returning to its former cage to see the eggs dead. And that was the end of it, so I thought.

But many chapters later as the story progressed the bird and dead eggs has become a plot twist. Never would be able to do so (earlier chapters posted already).

I don't know if this is a natural talent, plain luck, whatever. Just saying.

Keep this in mind the next time you write a story. Put little stuff out there you can use later but insignificant enough to not follow up on if you don't use it. A phone call, etc.

Drop some breadcrumbs.

Just saying.

 

[PennLady]

I think this is a good idea although I'm not sure I could do it quite this way. I'm just not that clever. I can go back and drop a crumb in when I realize I need it, and I can drop a hint I intend to use later, but I can't just drop a crumb with no plan. I don't think.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

I think this is a good idea although I'm not sure I could do it quite this way. I'm just not that clever. I can go back and drop a crumb in when I realize I need it, and I can drop a hint I intend to use later, but I can't just drop a crumb with no plan. I don't think.

Yeah. maybe it's just me. But I find it works.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

I think this is a good idea although I'm not sure I could do it quite this way. I'm just not that clever. I can go back and drop a crumb in when I realize I need it, and I can drop a hint I intend to use later, but I can't just drop a crumb with no plan. I don't think.

When I write I fly by the proverbial seat of my pants. I don't envision a whole story, I just go chapter by chapter. Figure it out as I go.

Just me.

 

[JackLuis]

You have to be careful with crumbs, or your stories can be made into piles of uncollected crumbs that detract from the story you wanted to tell.

I too dive off the deep end when I start a story, not knowing where I will end up as my characters become unruly and demanding. I'm trying to get more discipline and plan my stories better.

This requires planning the inclusion of crumbs and knowing how they will be used, or at least having a good idea. Once a character starts breathing anything can happen!

 

[Feotakahari]

I'm with PennLady on this one (hence why I post my stories in arcs.) I often go back and add hints for things I didn't realize I was going to use later.

 

[sr71plt]

These foreshadowing references happen both ways with me, although I have more cases of finding as a write that I had put in a hook that could be played on later than of going back and putting them in.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

These foreshadowing references happen both ways with me, although I have more cases of finding as a write that I had put in a hook that could be played on later than of going back and putting them in.

Writing the whole story before submitting allows one to make changes before submiting. But the Zombie series was only posted as one story. Readers wanted more, and I gave it to them. It is just my habit of adding hooks, as SR calls them, and I'm glad that I do. A writer can hardly go back and submit edited stories when readers, having read them already, probably would not re-read them before continuing the series.

At the time I wrote the chapter where the characters find a bird returning to unhatched eggs the reason was completely innocent. Now I am using it to spawn an evil twist I had never, before now, imagined. And I never could have had I not included it to begin with.

So add breadcrumbs, hooks, little things that seem innocuous and that are not distracting to readers, and you open up future possibilities.

That's all I'm trying to share with new writers.

My thanks for all of your input. It can only help, or so it is my intent.

 

[palisa]

It's an interesting idea but, on balance, I'm not convinced.

An experienced writer could probably put in some extra elements gracefully, but an experienced writer is probably also better able to foresee the kind of things that might be of use later and introduce them with purpose.

The problem I see with many new or not-so-skilled writers is that the first drafts of many of their stories are a grab-bag of details that do nothing to advance the story line. Details should be introduced, IMO, in an effort to show, not say, what a character is like or to advance the story line.

It's hard to see how character development is served by detailing (as one writer I worked with recently did) how a character turned on the computer, waited for it to boot, opened the e-mail program, downloaded new mail, opened one, turned on the printer, printed out a form, filled it out, put in in an envelope, addressed and stamped it, and took it to the mailbox. That verbiage could have been used more profitably (and was in later drafts) by having the character muse about why she wanted the sexual adventure that the form was connected with.

Unless those details serve a dual purpose...character development AND dropping in a hook that may or may not be used later, I'd hesitate before inserting them.

 

[sr71plt]

It's hard to see how character development is served by detailing (as one writer I worked with recently did) how a character turned on the computer, waited for it to boot, opened the e-mail program, downloaded new mail, opened one, turned on the printer, printed out a form, filled it out, put in in an envelope, addressed and stamped it, and took it to the mailbox. That verbiage could have been used more profitably (and was in later drafts) by having the character muse about why she wanted the sexual adventure that the form was connected with.

There's more going on in a story than character development. A skilled writer might do that (just like they do it in the movies) to arrest the action for one of various reasons, e.g., to show deliberation or the tedious passage of time or the signficant turning point the action represents--or just to give the reader a bit of "catchup" relief breather after having thrown a lot at him/her at one time.

 

[bronzeage]

If a character walks up to a door and notices a cat on the porch rail, it's just a cat. It sets the scene in the reader's mind. If the cat is missing a foot, it better be part of the plot line.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

If a character walks up to a door and notices a cat on the porch rail, it's just a cat. It sets the scene in the reader's mind. If the cat is missing a foot, it better be part of the plot line.

I'm just sayig this works for me, could also work for others. Once I post my next Zombies chapter the twists will be clear as day and I will be making use of the "breadcrumbs". Just saying. Never planned it, just happened.

Just saying.

When its accepted take a look, you'll see.

 

[palisa]

AS, I don't think you and the missing-paw man have any irreconcilable differences.

My problem is with dropping so many bread crumbs that the reader gets bogged down. A cat with a missing foot WOULD bug the reader for many chapters and distract her from the story you're telling.

 

[mikey2much]

In my Skeeter series

I have a crack whore on the run working the streets, but I have in my mind the overall plan for the series. Skeeter is an artist and she is going to be discovered because of a crack whore competition that she is going to enter on the internet.
So I guess I have been dropping those breadcrumbs every time I mention how when she sees a scene and thinks of how she would try to remember it for later when she would paint it.

It would seem that you could put yourself in a situation where you had so many dots to connect that it would make it harder to write the story. Or you could paint yourself into a corner.

I may have done that when I referenced the fact that Karen Bates, the lead character in My story Lit World is the daughter of Skeeter bates an artist. Now I have to make that happen. It makes it like drawing to an inside straight.

 

[Ironiclaconic]

I think it's excellent writing advice but I would word it differently. Don't insert breadcrumbs, insert illuminating details about setting and characters that can be used later for purposes you didn't foresee.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

I think it's excellent writing advice but I would word it differently. Don't insert breadcrumbs, insert illuminating details about setting and characters that can be used later for purposes you didn't foresee.

I think of them as hooks which the reader will notice and on which I can later hang something.

An example is that I had a butler open the door of a grand country house in England in one of the "Delights" novels. This set the scene as to how grand the household was, but also could be mentioned later in another book ("They have a butler").

Even later in the series a whole novel based on an entirely different butler's life came along.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

AS, I don't think you and the missing-paw man have any irreconcilable differences.

My problem is with dropping so many bread crumbs that the reader gets bogged down. A cat with a missing foot WOULD bug the reader for many chapters and distract her from the story you're telling.

I agree. You don't want to "litter" a story with them. Another example in the Zombies series is in a much earlier chapter the main character notices that people looking for gas at gas stations spraypaint an X over the lid to indicate the tank is empty. So he finds one where there is gas, takes what he can, and sees some remains. So he marks it as if empty like the others, just in case he might need it later, hoping it will be overlooked.

Innocuous enough I think, maybe hinting that it might be of use in a future chapter but not throwing off the reader if it's not used. Now I may go back and make use of it after all. Adds a lirttle more credibility to the story. I mean in a post-apocalyptic world what's the chance of returning to an unmarked tank and finding gas?

Just a thought. I wasn't recommending adding hooks to the point where, as you walk through the story, you'll get "hooked", so to speak, lol.

 

[bronzeage]

AS, I don't think you and the missing-paw man have any irreconcilable differences.

My problem is with dropping so many bread crumbs that the reader gets bogged down. A cat with a missing foot WOULD bug the reader for many chapters and distract her from the story you're telling.

A three legged cat walked into a bar and said, "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw."

 

[AsylumSeeker]

A three legged cat walked into a bar and said, "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw."

LOL, cute, nice one!