Aug
6th
2018
Being a Better Writer: Micro-Blast #6 -Breaking the Rules, Poetry, Figurative Language, Breaking the 4th Wall · 5:16pm Aug 6th, 2018
Welcome back readers! It’s time for a Being a Better Writer Micro-blast!
What’s a Micro-blast, you may ask? Why I’ll tell you! A Micro-blast is what happens when I find I have a number of topics on my Topic List (either from readers or that I came up with on my own) that aren’t really worthy of a full post. They’re worth being talked about, but there’s no sense in dragging them out into a full-sized post.
But, rather than dump them or leave you with a bunch of short, concise paragraph posts talking about them individually, I’ve found it’s better to combine them into Micro-blast posts! Cover a couple of topics at once, get the brain stewing, and clear the current list of a few of the less in-depth topics. Ready? Go!
Good advice as always. You definitely nailed the breaking the rules one, especially since the one common exception with dialog is really a rule of its own. The fourth wall extension was also excellent because I see that horribly flubbed all the time on this site thanks to Pinkie, although it might have been worth mentioning that very subtle pokes at the fourth wall usually work better than an actual break. Also, from an organizational perspective, it would have made more sense to put the fourth wall bit after the general rules bit because it really does flow naturally from it.
The one I have more to say on is the part about figurative language because I feel like there were two big shortcomings there. First, for the expanding your mind part, I think you should have driven home the research part harder because that is something you'll naturally pick up as you research other things, and I'd also strongly recommend deep dives into Wikipedia and wandering from article to article as a great way to build that pool of knowledge quickly. Second, I feel like you forgot a paragraph on pacing because these kinds of long descriptions are a fantastic way to strategically slow the pacing down to draw attention to something important or deliver a particular effect to give a scene more punch (I'm personally a fan of using this to deliver an effect similar to the slow motion bits in the fight scenes in 300).