savoring the moment · 7:17am Oct 1st, 2019
So I've been doing a lot of long form fantasy-adventure type writing recently and I've come to the conclusion that I have no idea what I'm doing, which speaking rationally, should be pretty exciting, but i'm mostly feeling completely terrified
I love giant adventure stories, I've loved them for like, ever, and in regards to fanfiction I've loved them in every fandom I've been in. The way that you can get lost in them, the way that a good one can grip you and the way that it leaves an empty hole in your heart when you've finally lifted your head up. Or maybe that's just an experience unique to me except I know it's not don't lie to me
Anyway, the adventure genre is completely not in my comfort zone. It (yes, I'm speaking very generally) loves to revel in itself. It loves every single moment it spends in its own world. And
I have no idea how to do that!
My mind runs on screenwriting time, on movie pacing, because when I first started writing my own content in high school, it was movie scripts and the occasional greentext. My writerly instincts are impatient and annoyed; they want to get to the characters talking, or fighting, or running away from something. When my characters have a moment to breathe, or relax, it's a momentous occasion. A moment of "I love you"s or deep reflection before they're ushered on to the next trial.
Doing things like describing setting, describing characters walking from one setting to another, and what they see on the way, and reflecting in their own minds about how they feel? That's something I've always had to force myself to do, and something that I've had to deal with constantly in undertaking this genre. It's not because I hate doing it, I just don't have the inclination to, and sometimes I feel like I have no idea how.
But all of my favorite stories love themselves in that way. They savor every moment.
To emulate them, and to one day surpass, I must learn.
I'm still learning how to blog. Do I need a thesis? Is this like an essay? Do I end with an open ended question for my readers to reply to? Will my public image be as pristine and controlled as I want it to be after showing this level of vulnerability?
Eh, I'll figure it out eventually.
also check these pretty girls out
It is a difficult balance between building word and describing detail and actually having your characters engage in the world and interact with it and eachother. The best way I've seen is to have most sentences or paragraphs pull double duty. Few people want to read just about the world building or description of characters. In your stories especially character interactions are front and center.
Never change.
That being said, try to have every action or description describe something about the personality of a character or group that is difficult to convey through their speech. Actions speak louder than words, so make sure that what they do, how they carry themselves, who they associate with, and how they feel give readers insight into the less tangible parts of the story. Readers like feeling smart. To that end, they like being thrust into a world and asked to make sense of what they see.
Your work on Ennui was amazing, and I think you did most of this without consciously trying. I constantly wanted to know what was going to happen next, and while the characters escaping was what J wanted, more information from their reactions to their circumstances was what I needed, and got. We are tourists. First you notice the big things, but the smaller details of a place become increasingly important the longer we're in a place.
Explore your story and world with us. Write what you would want to read.