Storytelling

[Bazzle]

Both of those issues (info dumping and verbosity) can be fixed with practice and time. Those are issues with technique, not with how you get the ideas. I often see the ideas in my head as scenes instead of whole stories as well.

Yeah, I am trying

First issue was long sentences. Fixed those over time. Now need to learn not to wafffffffffflllleee

 

[StillStunned]

First issue was long sentences. Fixed those over time. Now need to learn not to wafffffffffflllleee

First: issue was long sentences. Fixed those over time. Next: no waffling.Now need to learn not to wafffffffffflllleee

 

[onehitwanda]

First: issue was long sentences. Fixed those over time. Next: no waffling.Now need to learn not to wafffffffffflllleee

do you take pleasure in hurting me?

 

[StillStunned]

do you take pleasure in hurting me?

Believe me, this hurts me a lot more than it hurts you!

(If you want, you can imagine a feverish moan at the end.)

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

Tons of good information and viewpoints in this thread. Didn't expect to get up this morning and start questioning everything I do in my stories...

 

[onehitwanda]

Believe me, this hurts me a lot more than it hurts you!

I really do doubt that.

(If you want, you can imagine a feverish moan at the end.)

What a terrible day to be literate.

 

[StillStunned]

What a terrible day to be literate.

Like all great literature, my forum posts make people slightly uncomfortable. You're an ever so slightly better person for reading it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

do you take pleasure in hurting me?

Editing is one of only two professions I know where people will pay one for strict correction.

 

[StillStunned]

Editing is one of only two professions I know where people will pay one for strict correction.

At least editing doesn't leave any permanent marks.

 

[onehitwanda]

At least editing doesn't leave any permanent marks.

depends how deeply you thrust the permanent maker.

 

[StillStunned]

depends how deeply you thrust the permanent maker.

I think perhaps your editor isn't really an editor...

 

[onehitwanda]

I think perhaps your editor isn't really an editor...

But she does criticize me so!

 

[StillStunned]

But she does criticize me so!

Editors don't criticise. We just highlight your mistakes and let you draw your own conclusions.
The only thing about me that criticises is my cat.

 

[Bramblethorn]

depends how deeply you thrust the permanent maker.

Some people reeeally want to be edited.

 

[onehitwanda]

Some people reeeally want to be edited.

Edit me senpai

 

[TheLobster]

Edit me senpai

Gee, when I said in that nearby thread that grammar fetish could be a thing, I wasn't being this serious...

 

[SimonDoom]

depends how deeply you thrust the permanent maker.

Bramblethorn beat me to it, darn it. I SO wanted to be the one to first point this out.

There's nothing like a deeply thrust maker to get one all tingly.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

So many good points are brought up and I wish I could engage properly with all of those. For now, I would point out one thing that stands out from everything I've seen here.

We all kinda agree that grammar and punctuation, sentence structure, having a clear style, etc. all fall into the second category - "writing well". Coming up with a good plot, interesting characters, and worldbuilding clearly falls into the first category - "storytelling". But I would say that pacing, exposition, timing, foreshadowing, and similar, are the parts where these two categories overlap? Like coming up with them is storytelling, but putting them into words and sentences is also in good part writing well? Feels like those two categories are very much intertwined in these elements... Or am I out of my mind here?

 

[AwkwardMD]

So many good points are brought up and I wish I could engage properly with all of those. For now, I would point out one thing that stands out from everything I've seen here.

We all kinda agree that grammar and punctuation, sentence structure, having a clear style, etc. all fall into the second category - "writing well". Coming up with a good plot, interesting characters, and worldbuilding clearly falls into the first category - "storytelling". But I would say that pacing, exposition, timing, foreshadowing, and similar, are the parts where these two categories overlap? Like coming up with them is storytelling, but putting them into words and sentences is also in good part writing well? Feels like those two categories are very much intertwined in these elements... Or am I out of my mind here?

We just covered a story that exemplifies this in our review thread.

 

[Bamagan]

Some people reeeally want to be edited.

She could have been referring to a tooth of Shai-Hulud.

 

[AwkwardMD]

(and presumably those same readers have never read Lafayette Hills by AwkwardMD)

A lot of readers (and writers) sleep on me. The reasons are many.

 

[yowser]

A good deal of the pleasure I get out of reading has to do with the confidence, imagination and pure word creation of the storyteller. I can be roped into all manner of tales if the teller has style, a sense of adventure, knows when and what to emphasize, when to pause to let me think, when to immerse me with details on a character or setting, who can Seduce me with their enthusiasm and words.

So here is where things can get in the way of substandard storytelling:

If you are sloppy with your grammar and construction that tells me I am not getting your 'A' effort. You haven't even bothered to wear decent clothing to our first date. I (and most of us) don't mind the occasional typo, since they are seemingly unavoidable, but lack of care with the details suggests you aren't going to be all that good even with the main focus. I want to have confidence that a writer is going to give me a good tale. I like it when I am in the good hands of a perceptive, precise and focused storyteller, and that's where the silly details matter.

 

[CyranoJ]

But impressing readers with one's cleverness doesn't necessarily make for great literature, and keeping the twist secret from the reader also prevents the author from actually exploring that dissonance.

Oh, but I do love me a good lipogram.

 

[intim8]

I suck at plotting and characterisation.

No, I think your plotting is generally pretty good. Can't say I've noticed either way on characterization.

 

[Areala-chan]

One of the things I look for that separates great writers from decent ones is the proof that they understand the rules of writing so that they know when and how to break them. I'm perfectly willing to overlook the occasional spelling or grammar error, because I know all too well the horror of having pressed 'Submit' only to read through the version once published and realize I missed something terribly obvious.

But much like @yowser wrote, if your attention to the bare basics is sloppy, that tells me you don't understand the rules of writing. If you don't understand the rules, then at best your writing will be average, and I've got no time for average.