Tag: Writing

Finding nothing but questions and devils

Goal 1) Revise BM&A3

  • My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
  • Where I planned to be: Lesson 6, complete
  • Where I am: Lesson 6, complete
  • On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Ah, the good ol’ character sharpener lesson. Once again, I prove to be very tight with my cast and don’t tend to let just anyone waltz onto my stage without a good reason. I do have two—count ’em, TWO—unnamed characters that can probably either be recast with another existing character or written out, but that’s the easy part. What will be a little bit harder is making sure the introduction of each of my new characters is what it needs to be.

But figuring out how to do that comes later. Onward.

Gave up who I am for who you wanted me to be

Goal 1) Revise BM&A3

  • My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
  • Where I planned to be: Lesson 5, complete
  • Where I am: Lesson 5, complete
  • On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Welp, this lesson has definitely highlighted some issues that I didn’t know were there, so there’s that. Trying not to think too much into how to fix them because that’s not where I’m at yet in this process, but I don’t think it’ll be difficult for most of them. I’ve even had a few ideas on how to improve parts that are already pretty good too.

On to the next!

Explorations in narrative density

Goal 1) Revise BM&A3

  • My Goal: Finish one lesson every two weeks (roughly)
  • Where I planned to be: Lesson 5, 32 scenes in
  • Where I am: Lesson 5, 33 scenes in
  • On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
It occurred to me a while ago to deconstruct some of the episodes of cartoons I watch (I’m addicted to Adult Swim, sue me) to explore plotting and narrative density. Why a TV show and not a book? Because I’m literally already ripping a book apart, number one, and it’s exhausting. Two, I’ve seen these episodes several times and I’m familiar with them, but even if I wasn’t, I could easily refresh my memory in less than thirty minutes. And three, I enjoy them on their own, so poking them with a stick is also entertaining to me.

How am I doing this, then? First, I’m taking everything I’ve learned from Holly Lisle’s classes to separate the episode into scenes, represented by a single sentence of thirty words or less. Then I’ll map those sentences to Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! method.

…I have no idea what I’m gonna do after that or what exactly I’ll accomplish by doing it, but I guess I’ll find out.