Flying %^&$#!!*$@

[ksmith]

The hell with characterization. The hell with plot. Theme? We spit on Theme. ptooie!

It's the business that gets you every frellin' time. Is the lightstick still lit, or did Lucien already bag it? If he already bagged it, how can Jani see his expression? Ok, take that line and move it down a few paragraphs. Is it raining or isn't it? Is it blowing though the breaks in the windows, sending dead leaves clattering across the floor? It isn't? Should it be?

Is Jani wearing a weatherall? Why not--it's raining. Shouldn't we mention that she's wet? Does she get her hands on a weatherall? Does Dieter bring her one? Oh good--does she wear it into the library? If not, when the hell does she take it off?

Freakin' bloody transitions business hate hate stabbity hate...

Comments

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

Business as plot/character development is just as difficult, but seems to be more fun and have more of a point. But this simple moving the action forward stuff can be tricky, because every time I think I've sorted out the scarves and matched all the mittens, I find another singleton waaay in the corner of the topmost shelf, and I need to find the match right then and there. Because if I don't, I'll forget, and it will matter later.

Because business morphs. They don't teach you this in any of the classes. That which seemed a throwaway line at the time you wrote it will matter later. It will serve as a Clue, or an important bit of Insight, and don't you wish you had been paying more attention?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yupyupyupyupyup