I'm looking at Polar Bear on the Loose. Lesson 7 from How to Revise Your Novel requires me to analyze setting. Who would have ever believed that looking at your setting would reveal so many horrendous problems in a novel? I wouldn't have until I started doing it.
The last two scenes have been nothing. Make that three scenes. This last one spends a whole "scene" telling the reader what's going to happen several scenes from now. How stupid is that? The rationale was to show the MC's expectations so they could contrast with the reality that happens several scenes later. I don't think it's very effective.
I'm thinking a more effective method would be to show in real time how the MC responds to the situation when confronted with something that wasn't quite in alignment with her expectations.
2 comments:
Sounds like your bear is doing your plotting for you. All you got to do is write what it says it's going to do or have done.
My training in the theater helps me there. I always imagine my characters on stage or in a movie. They can't tell us things -- well, not without breaking the fourth wall -- so they have to act them out. I think that's why I find it so difficult to write scenes inside a character's head. I need him/her to have someone to talk to!
I can stay in a character's head all day. Just send me the stuff you want them to think about, and I'll put it onto the page for you. ;)
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