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So, I was thinking about this after reading the topic about how much support people get for their writing in the day to day. I guess I've just heard a lot of advice on writing coming from just about everywhere, and sometimes it's things that I don't pay a lot of attention to, and sometimes it's things that really stick with me. There's a ton of people out there saying a ton of things about what you should or shouldn't do in a book, so I was just wondering, what are some of your favorites? I've got two that have changed the way I go about things.
1.) I remember reading an article called, "Does My Character Sneeze?" It went into detail about how some characters are larger than life and would never do a basic human thing like sneeze, but other characters are normal people in a larger than life situation and they would absolutely sneeze from time to time. This was super interesting to me to look at my characters and decide if they were meant to be an idealized figure in a story, or a relatable person who had a crazy time once. And, the question, does my character sneeze, it actually helps me wrap my head around thinking about what I want to do with a character.
2.) A long time ago I was watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie with a friend of mine after work, and he made a very good observation about the movie that's stuck with me. He said something like, "You know, I really like how there is always a few things happening in the scene." And it's true (for the first movie at least) that there are always multiple characters who are after different things and a lot of the time they are focused on different parts of what is in the same scene. Now, I don't do exactly this thing all the time, but I do like to think about my chapters before I write them and think about how more than one thing would be happening in the same chapter. Where the characters would focus, what's the undercurrent of what's happening, how does this fit into the larger picture, or is there something building into the larger plot? I really try to keep that in mind ever since my one friend said that one thing one time.
Heh, this may be super long winded, but I mostly just wanted to see what people out there have for the favorite advice they ever got/heard. Even if it's something like, someone told me to do this thing then I did the exact opposite and it's the best decision I ever made. Just curious
1.) I remember reading an article called, "Does My Character Sneeze?" It went into detail about how some characters are larger than life and would never do a basic human thing like sneeze, but other characters are normal people in a larger than life situation and they would absolutely sneeze from time to time. This was super interesting to me to look at my characters and decide if they were meant to be an idealized figure in a story, or a relatable person who had a crazy time once. And, the question, does my character sneeze, it actually helps me wrap my head around thinking about what I want to do with a character.
2.) A long time ago I was watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie with a friend of mine after work, and he made a very good observation about the movie that's stuck with me. He said something like, "You know, I really like how there is always a few things happening in the scene." And it's true (for the first movie at least) that there are always multiple characters who are after different things and a lot of the time they are focused on different parts of what is in the same scene. Now, I don't do exactly this thing all the time, but I do like to think about my chapters before I write them and think about how more than one thing would be happening in the same chapter. Where the characters would focus, what's the undercurrent of what's happening, how does this fit into the larger picture, or is there something building into the larger plot? I really try to keep that in mind ever since my one friend said that one thing one time.
Heh, this may be super long winded, but I mostly just wanted to see what people out there have for the favorite advice they ever got/heard. Even if it's something like, someone told me to do this thing then I did the exact opposite and it's the best decision I ever made. Just curious
