Do not FEEL your way through structure when writing stories · 7:22pm May 3rd, 2018
There are a lot of half-baked authors who seem to think that "feeling" your way through pacing, structure, and storytelling is the way to go. They are flat out wrong. Practice form and get good at it before you think about breaking form.
Be mindful of structure. Use a system. You can use one like mine or you can make your own, but make a hat-rack to hang all the pieces of your story on and keep pacing proper. Don't feel your way through the dark when there are a multitude of flashlights around you.
If you think the Hero's Journey can't be used as a solid basis for creating, not just looking at, fiction, then you've got a lot to learn. You can reverse engineer what works and then build stuff with that knowledge.
If you think word counts are unimportant, then you've never written for money. In fact, I'd say it's likely you've never written with any structure at all.
You don't tell someone who's building a house that hammers, nails, and blueprints are "crutches" because that's an idiotic statement. The same goes for rulers and compasses (and yes even camera obscura) when drawing. The same goes for structures, templates, and other tools when writing. Tools make your work better. Tools are good for your craft.
You're not a caveman. You don't have to make art out of nothing but mud and your own bare hands.
/end-rage-post
Peace out.
Note: Yeah. Sure. More "artistic" and "natural" writing can work out, but it's more of a gamble. Your work will see more acceptance if you have some sort of working structure to pin it to.
Well, up to a point. I tend to feel this is more important the longer your story is. My most successful ponyfic ever, both critically and numerically, was almost entirely bashed out in one evening with little beyond an idea and a punchline to guide me. Certainly nothing that could be considered a formal outline, or anything close. Having said that, I think that if I'd tried to do the same with a 200,000-word epic I'd have fallen flat on my face.
4853433
I think that's more that you got lucky and happened to have proper pacing. Unless you can whip out a new one that's like that every time, or a large percentage of times, then it's a nice coincidence that it was successful. If you can do it every time, then I'd bet you're naturally conforming close to a standard structure, which is nice.
Yeah, the longer the fiction, the more you need a plan. Also any length fiction benefits from a plan.
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I think it probably helps that this isn't my first rodeo as far as fanfic is concerned. I used to write Watership Down fics, and I definitely learnt quite a bit while doing that. I've kept on learning, of course, but I wasn't starting from a zero base.
4853667
Eyup.
That would help