Hi, I'm the anon who wrote in. Thank you so much for taking the time to give such a clear, well thought-out reply to my question! It's been very helpful to me so far.
What you said about choices is such a useful way of looking at things while writing! Often when I write, I suffer from choice paralysis--when faced with a blank page and an infinite number of options, how to know where to start? It helps to narrow it down to a choice between just two options, both of which are valid but each of which would have a different impact on the story, if that makes sense? So this was incredibly helpful to me, thank you! :)
I also really needed to hear your advice about reading and editing; the reading especially is such a useful and flexible learning tool. I've been practising at analysing the books, fic and TV shows I consume in this manner. It's getting easier in most stories to determine what it is exactly that leaves me dissatisfied, but I can't always tell how to improve it. So I try and look at other stories that do the same thing very well, and that helps.
One thing I'm struggling with a lot at this point in my "journey" as a writer is theme and emotional arcs. I'm the sort of person that plot comes more naturally to, but I want to practise and get better at emotion, too, because my favorite stories (and that includes your stories in particular) are the ones that do this well.
If I may ask, to what extent is theme or your character's emotional arc something you think consciously about? Do you determine them before you start writing, as part of the outline, or do you find that theme doesn't emerge until after you've finished the first draft?
If you do it consciously, how do you go about it? This may sound like a silly novice question, but once you've decided that you want a character to grow from point A to point B over the course of a story (e.g. from guilt to self-forgiveness), how do you actually get them from point A to point B? What if the transformation is something major (e.g. if the character has done something so bad that you're having a hard time imagining how anyone would forgive themselves for it)? Or should that not make a difference?
I only ask because I got the impression that you enjoyed talking about writing--of course, if you don't feel like answering more questions or if you're short on time, please feel free to ignore this. Either way, thank you so much for the helpful advice you've given me already!
-- disclaimer: English isn't my native language, sorry if the above sounds clunky :)
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What you said about choices is such a useful way of looking at things while writing! Often when I write, I suffer from choice paralysis--when faced with a blank page and an infinite number of options, how to know where to start? It helps to narrow it down to a choice between just two options, both of which are valid but each of which would have a different impact on the story, if that makes sense? So this was incredibly helpful to me, thank you! :)
I also really needed to hear your advice about reading and editing; the reading especially is such a useful and flexible learning tool. I've been practising at analysing the books, fic and TV shows I consume in this manner. It's getting easier in most stories to determine what it is exactly that leaves me dissatisfied, but I can't always tell how to improve it. So I try and look at other stories that do the same thing very well, and that helps.
One thing I'm struggling with a lot at this point in my "journey" as a writer is theme and emotional arcs. I'm the sort of person that plot comes more naturally to, but I want to practise and get better at emotion, too, because my favorite stories (and that includes your stories in particular) are the ones that do this well.
If I may ask, to what extent is theme or your character's emotional arc something you think consciously about? Do you determine them before you start writing, as part of the outline, or do you find that theme doesn't emerge until after you've finished the first draft?
If you do it consciously, how do you go about it? This may sound like a silly novice question, but once you've decided that you want a character to grow from point A to point B over the course of a story (e.g. from guilt to self-forgiveness), how do you actually get them from point A to point B? What if the transformation is something major (e.g. if the character has done something so bad that you're having a hard time imagining how anyone would forgive themselves for it)? Or should that not make a difference?
I only ask because I got the impression that you enjoyed talking about writing--of course, if you don't feel like answering more questions or if you're short on time, please feel free to ignore this. Either way, thank you so much for the helpful advice you've given me already!
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disclaimer: English isn't my native language, sorry if the above sounds clunky :)