tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1859940184293909528.post4544995687544067667..comments2023-04-28T04:20:05.766-07:00Comments on WRITER on WRITING: The Pace CarVirtual Strangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01040333093180694172noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1859940184293909528.post-51055588441547868142015-09-11T11:02:34.226-07:002015-09-11T11:02:34.226-07:00Hey, Ken,
Very glad to hear you enjoyed my babbli...Hey, Ken,<br /><br />Very glad to hear you enjoyed my babbling at Mysterious Galaxy. I still feel like I was winging it for most of the time... :)<br /><br />As for structure... I think when most people talk about structure they're referring to the overall construction of the entire story, be it a book, screenplay, or short-story. While I agree with the basic idea of Scene and Sequel, I think approaching a story in such a way is going to end up with <a href="http://thoth-amon.blogspot.com/2011/08/stop-me-if-youve-heard-this-one.html" rel="nofollow">a very episodic story</a> because the elements aren't being weighed against each other. That's what story structure's all about--not just making sure each pair of elements work together, but that <i>all</i> the elements work together as a whole.<br /><br />There's a big three-part post on structure I did here a while back that goes over linear, narrative, and dramatic structures and how they all need to work together in a successful story.<br /><br />Wow... that was two years ago. Might be worth revisiting that.<br /><br />Anyway, if you're interested, <a href="http://thoth-amon.blogspot.com/2013/09/structural-engineering-101.html" rel="nofollow">the whole thing starts here with a discussion of linear structure</a>. It's three pretty big posts, just warning you ahead of time. But I like to tell myself there's lots of good stuff in there.Virtual Strangerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01040333093180694172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1859940184293909528.post-87419712262320907702015-09-07T03:04:07.703-07:002015-09-07T03:04:07.703-07:00First off, Peter, the wealth of information you--a...First off, Peter, the wealth of information you--and many of the participants--shared at Mysterious Galaxy this afternoon was a much-needed dope slap for me--a reminder that "Fortune favors the brave," and for writers that means writing--every day. Avoiding writing, as I have done for most of the last four decades, equates with cowardice. No more, no less. So this retired firefighter/paramedic thanks you for that as well as your awakening me to resources and markets I had no idea existed.<br /><br />Now, you asked for any suggestions related to pacing and structure. Structure has been the Holy Grail I was at first too ignorant and arrogant to know I needed (desperately) to find. Dozens of courses, books and workshop leaders spoke of, hinted at, alluded to its importance. But (perhaps because of my own Parsifal-like ignorance/foolishness) I never gleaned anything concrete about structure. <br /><br />To make a long story a little shorter, last November I came across ed2go.com writing classes taught by Steve Alcorn. Steve not only speaks about (as you did) that Plot = the physical action, and Story = (mostly) the inner reaction of the protagonist to the plot, he lays out how they fit together in what he calls Scene and Sequel. (Steve mentions Jack Bickham's book Scene and Structure as a major source of his knowledge).<br /><br />The Scene consists of Goal/Conflict/Disaster. The Sequel consists of Emotion/Thought/Decision/Action. A novel or screenplay can have 100 to 200+ of these scene and sequel sequences. There's far more in all of Steve's classes including a similar breakdown of all three acts. For me his clear parsing of the "dreaded" Act 2 into Crisis/Struggle/Epiphany is alone worth 10 times the price of admission.<br /><br />Anyway, hope this may prove helpful. I gotta get some shuteye--handing out coupons at CVS in about 6 hours. The wages of cowardice is counter work. ;o)<br /><br />Cheers,<br />Ken<br /><br />p.s. In case you might be interested in the work/inventions of Wilhelm Reich (Orgone/cloudbuster) as well as learning a little more about the nature of that square and peace sign, check out educate-yourself.org and look up Don Croft or Orgone Adventures. Some interesting stuff on Tesla and others of his ilk on that site as well. Royal Raymond Rife is one of my personal favorites in the tragic heroes category.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17423611503181260108noreply@blogger.com