Monday, February 14, 2011
Don't Tell Us About It. Do It!
This is what I find myself thinking as I go through Polar Bear on the Loose trying to capture setting. There is no setting because Inuit is just thinking about what she's done or is going to do. So, even though I'm supposed to be capturing setting, I find myself scribbling where to make the thought into action in the margins.
7 comments:
C'mon, Inuit! Get out there and live the story!
You can do it, Jean! Turn thoughts into action!
Have you thought about approaching the scenes as if they were in a play? Of course, I'm used to the theater so that works for me, but it's hard to imagine a character on stage doing what you're saying your bear is doing. Not without using a narrator or breaking the fourth wall. Or imagine his story (Is your bear male?) as a movie. I'll look in my writing books and see if there are any other techniques that help writers with this.
You know ... Hilda didn't have that problem ... :)
Hilda was third person. I couldn't be inside her brain. Inuit (female) is first person, and I spend a lot of time inside her head. But people aren't looking for a cerebral bear anticipating what she's going to do. They deserve a bear who does it, and that's what they're going to get.
PBOTL is a pretty good detailed outline and has a few good scenes, but where the outline shines, action needs to take over.
I find myself writing in my character's heads, too, Jean. I catch myself doing it now, and I use it more for direction. I've been able to turn a 200 word monologue into a thousand word conversation. The monologue covers more, time-wise, but the conversation moves the story forward more. Does that make any sense to anyone but me?
Jean, of course, it's a female bear! I have to read closer and pay attention. I'm getting old. :(
Makes perfect sense, Wendy.
Aren't y'all just dying to read PBOTL? I know I am.
Thank you, Stephen. Your opportunity will come -- I'm not sure she'll measure up to Hilda in your mind, but she has her own charms.
Wendy, it makes perfect sense to me. In fact, I plan to use much of this inner thinking as outline for exterior action in the revision, so it's far from wasted.
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