oggbashan
Dying Truth seeker
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2002
- Posts
- 56,017
Confound them
27 Combine, contrast and confuse
a) Write one A4 page using Rule 19 then one Lit page using Rule 20.
b) Write two A4 pages in the 3rd person omniscient viewpoint before switching to 1st person without warning, then 2nd person and back to 3rd limited.
c) Give each character at least three names and use each one interchangeably and if you can have a nickname that only one other character uses. The Romans were good at this. Marcus Tullius Cicero could be called Marcus or Cicero or Tullius or the 'Silver-tongued one' without explaining that they refer to the same person. If that isn't enough, forget who is who and use the wrong name yourself.
d) Write 3 or more way dialogue without identifying the speakers.
e) Never explain, especially when it is important that the reader clearly understands.
f) Include your trademark subjects randomly whatever the plot. Mine are sheep and garderobes. This ploy is very useful if the story is set on the 30th floor of a skyscraper or a science fiction story on an airless planet.
g) Ignore logic in the plot. Why should the reader solve the mystery? Let them curse you. They'll remember your name.
h) Tenses are only rules to be broken. Why should they be consistent?
i) Write only three chapters of a five chapter story, post it and forget to the write the ending. When you do, ignore all the loose ends from the previous three chapters and change the style so it doesn't match.
j) Break up multiple-chapter stories so that each is incomplete. Never use a cliff-hanger ending or if you do make it impossible, following with an improbable solution e.g. leave the hero handcuffed, gagged and suspended in a padlocked bag from a beam in the sealed hold of a sinking ship that is on fire and start the next chapter with "With one bound he was free!".
Og
27 Combine, contrast and confuse
a) Write one A4 page using Rule 19 then one Lit page using Rule 20.
b) Write two A4 pages in the 3rd person omniscient viewpoint before switching to 1st person without warning, then 2nd person and back to 3rd limited.
c) Give each character at least three names and use each one interchangeably and if you can have a nickname that only one other character uses. The Romans were good at this. Marcus Tullius Cicero could be called Marcus or Cicero or Tullius or the 'Silver-tongued one' without explaining that they refer to the same person. If that isn't enough, forget who is who and use the wrong name yourself.
d) Write 3 or more way dialogue without identifying the speakers.
e) Never explain, especially when it is important that the reader clearly understands.
f) Include your trademark subjects randomly whatever the plot. Mine are sheep and garderobes. This ploy is very useful if the story is set on the 30th floor of a skyscraper or a science fiction story on an airless planet.
g) Ignore logic in the plot. Why should the reader solve the mystery? Let them curse you. They'll remember your name.
h) Tenses are only rules to be broken. Why should they be consistent?
i) Write only three chapters of a five chapter story, post it and forget to the write the ending. When you do, ignore all the loose ends from the previous three chapters and change the style so it doesn't match.
j) Break up multiple-chapter stories so that each is incomplete. Never use a cliff-hanger ending or if you do make it impossible, following with an improbable solution e.g. leave the hero handcuffed, gagged and suspended in a padlocked bag from a beam in the sealed hold of a sinking ship that is on fire and start the next chapter with "With one bound he was free!".
Og
