A place to discuss the craft of writing: tricks, philosophies, styles

[StillStunned]

Repetition and mirroring are some of the most fun you can have while writing (or at least the most fun that I can have while writing). Having scenes that wrap around to prior ones lets you play with the gravity of a plot beat in such wonderful ways. Dead Space: Kendra does this with the opening and closing pages, and Chasing Cars does it with a scene in a coffee shop. In the first, it yanks the rug out from under the reader, while in the second, it's meant to knock the narrator/protagonist off-balance (and possibly the reader as well).

A lovely, powerful spice that is easy to overuse, but when you see someone nail it, it's so awesome!

I've used sequential scenes with similar beginnings a few times in my stories. The first was The Walled Garden, which was going to be just one scene until I discussed it with @Devinter - I'm pretty sure it was his suggestion to do multiple, repeating scenes. Each one builds up the tension, and the result is much stronger than if it had been just one scene.

I've done the same with Annie's Inhibition Removal Therapy, and a new story I'm working on will probably use the same device.

 

[bally_3]

Here's a question for you all. Is your second draft a complete rewrite or a brutal edit?

So far I've been editing, but I wonder if starting over would be easier in the long run.

I also want to thank you all for your insights into writing. As a new writer, they've been incredibly helpful.

 

[StillStunned]

Here's a question for you all. Is your second draft a complete rewrite or a brutal edit?

So far I've been editing, but I wonder if starting over would be easier in the long run.

I also want to thank you all for your insights into writing. As a new writer, they've been incredibly helpful.

Welcome! And, moreover, you're welcome!

As for your question: I edit a lot as I go along. So by the time the first draft is done, all it needs is a quick once-over for continuity, some foreshadowing, maybe a line or two here and there, and then proofreading with Read Aloud.

 

[Statius]

Here's a question for you all. Is your second draft a complete rewrite or a brutal edit?

So far I've been editing, but I wonder if starting over would be easier in the long run.

I also want to thank you all for your insights into writing. As a new writer, they've been incredibly helpful.

Same as @StillStunned

 

[Publius68]

I’m about fifty-fifty from story to story between @StillStunned’s process and major surgery: swapping around scenes, deleting and adding, and re-writing whole passages. Every once in a while, I’ll give up the first draft as a bad job, usually before it is done, and start over completely. Usually when that happens, I abandon the project, to be honest.

 

[SpermBankHoliday]

Here's a question for you all. Is your second draft a complete rewrite or a brutal edit?

So far I've been editing, but I wonder if starting over would be easier in the long run.

I also want to thank you all for your insights into writing. As a new writer, they've been incredibly helpful.

I'm a somewhat new writer, but this is my process: I write my shitty first draft. It's not quite the whole story, but it lays down what will need to be paid out. Every time I open up my story, I re-read it, looking for mistakes and embellishing what's there until I can get to the newer stuff. Embellishing means adding description, clarifying things that were muddled, and making sure the pace of the story is .
I generally write the ending quickly, because it's the most fun. Once it's all down, I like to re-read the whole thing several times over the course of a few days. Unless it's for a contest, and that baby's got to go out by midnight, ready or not.

I don't mess with flashbacks, and I'm disciplined/lazy enough to save the "flashes of genius" for BEFORE I start writing, because once I get going, it is ON.

 

[iwatchus]

Here's a question for you all. Is your second draft a complete rewrite or a brutal edit?

So far I've been editing, but I wonder if starting over would be easier in the long run.

I also want to thank you all for your insights into writing. As a new writer, they've been incredibly helpful.

I am trying to adjust my process for novels to include a major revision phase. I have a draft sitting while I work on the first draft for another novel (and write a novella for winter event). I will let you know how it worked in a couple of months.

 

[AG31]

In order to convey information to the reader, without "dumping," always have another reason for mentioning it. Here are two examples from "Fifty Fifty" by Steve Cavanagh.

1 - <The speaker is at his retirement party. This is the start of his speech.> "I've been a dishwasher, short-order cook, paperboy, the youngest African American captain in the United States Militrary, a law clerk, a lawyer, and a judge."

That's the only direct mention of his race in the book.

2 - "You've had four weeks of retirement. Don't tell me you're starting to regret it now."

This tells us that four weeks have past between the preceding chapter and this one.