Writing Question

Mr. Hudnall,

Please accept my thanks for the Secrets of Writing series.  I’ve noticed
that there are few if any comments for these pearls of wisdom and I wanted
to let you know personally that I greatly appreciate them.

Now for a writing question; I’m working on my first novel and of course became
stymied.  Your series has illuminated several problems with my ms and I’m
wondering what process you use to get the story done.

Do you develop ‘dossiers’ on every character, plot points etc. and then fill in
everything else? Or do you grab an idea and fill in the characters as you go?

I think I am struggling with the balance of telling vs. showing.

Thanks again for a great series,

Bill Bolton

It’s good to write down little dossiers on each major character. Because writing stuff down will help you put your impressions of the character in order and help you put them in perspective. You will need to give the reader a true account of who they are.

Your characters aren’t you, even when you are creating an avatar of yourself. And you need to understand what makes them tick and what makes them different than you. You also need to understand why react differently to each character they meet. We all treat people differently based on who they are and that also tells us soming about the character in question.

As far as plot the most important thing to understand first is what the characters want. The hero and villain. Every person alive is motivated by desire. We all want something. Why does what the hero want conflict with the villain and how can you make that stronger in your story?

To work on the plot you need to map out the key points and you need to know what the ending is and why that impacts the major characters. It should have some kind of impact that makes us care what happens. I will be getting into that shortly on the blog.

As far as showing and telling. You want to show things as much as possible. Figure out how you can do that. When characters explain everything, 99% of the time it slows things down an makes it boring. It’s always better to have the characters learn things and discover things on their own whenever possible. And that discovery should have some sort of impact on the story.

Good luck!

I’m really enjoying the series too. I’ve had an idea for a big story rattling around in my head for a few years and I’ve been writing bits and pieces of it down as I go. I’ve never sat down to pull it all together but your ideas are giving me some guidance/inspiration to not only sit down and do it, but to do it right. Thanks.

Posted by Paul T  on  01/14  at  08:37 PM

Mr. Bolton made me feel a little guilty for not commenting earlier. I, too, am an aspiring writer, and have found your posts on writing to be immensely informative. In fact, yours has become one of my favorite sites, not only because of the writing tips, but because of the variety. Most blogs I read are almost purely political, some have another primary focus, but I always know I can come here and find a constant stream of things which are random, informative and/or entertaining. Keep up the good work!

Posted by  on  01/14  at  09:18 PM

Most blogs I read are almost purely political, some have another primary focus, but I always know I can come here and find a constant stream of things which are random, informative and/or entertaining.

That’s my goal here. I wanted to make a blog that I would want to read. So I look for things that interest me and pass them on. Variety is the spice of life.

Posted by  on  01/14  at  10:15 PM

Roger Zelazny used to write a sort of short story/bio for his main characters as a way of “learning about them.”
I found this out talking to him at a con in Santa Rosa back in the early 80’s.  He mentioned that “Doorways in the Sand” actually was one of those character portraits that got out of control.  (It’s also one of my favorite novels he wrote.) He said he started with this idea of a character who is in a precarious perch on some high place, but he’s not scared--in fact he likes it there.  And the rest grew from that.  It’s one of the few times he actually used pieces of the original “creation script” in a story, as usually he just trashed them.
Even so, characters will often surprise you as you write a story.  That’s always fun!

Posted by  on  01/14  at  11:36 PM
Page 1 of 1 pages

<< Back to main