Comments on: Unpacking The Story

By: Patty

Patty — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 17:21:32 +0000

What a great idea, Nienke! That just spawned some ideas for one of my stories too … thanks!

By: Nienke

Nienke — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 14:41:17 +0000

Not that I know what I’m doing, but these are the places I put scenes that reveal and develop character. For me, brainstorming often works. I use some key theme or plot words and they lead to ideas that may seem unrelated at first, but will work well to flesh out the story while continuing to move the story forward.
For example, if I’m brainstorming fear, I may come up with fear of mouse. I can use a scene with a mouse (sorry, bad example but you get the gist) to help develop and reveal the character’s fear and well as foreshadow events to come.

By: KG

KG — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 20:41:58 +0000

Yes, the generation is key. Sometimes writing about the mundane stuff is just a block-breaker to get the writing flowing.

Other times, however, I’ve started completely mundane scenes that become completely wonderful and surprising. The ordinary walk down the street becomes something else entirely. Somehow something would click for me while writing the boring, non-pressured, daily routine, and imagination kicked in.

These mundane scenes are a trigger for better scenes for me. Maybe writing them frees up my subconscious to release the “real” story.

By: S William Shaw

S William Shaw — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 17:31:37 +0000

I’ve had many a story die after chapter 3 when the unpacking started. What did I do? I swited to a smaller format to cut my teeth. I wrote 2 45k children’s novels.

My next novel will be adult fiction. We’ll see what I’ve learned…

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 20:56:23 +0000

I thought it was advised to NOT write mundane everyday life stuff of the character? Cut all your “making coffee” scenes, etc. because they do nothing for the story.

Or perhaps you mean from a purely generative standpoint… don’t worry about the mundane stuff, just generate?