Helpful (or just fun) Guides

[ElectricBlue]

I lament that the title bars on Lit are too short to permit a story about "The Beautiful, Tall, Thin, Dirty, Antique, Purple, Thai, Silver, Riding Thing."
Seriously, though, it's funny how wrong it can sound, getting some of those out of sequence.

Yeah, I'm constantly flipping my multiple descriptors during edit. My first brain to page dump often reads wrong, later on.

 

[MelissaBaby]

 

[TarnishedPenny]

For those at my level…

 

[Priscilla_June]

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Interesting advice! Never thought of it this way.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Interesting advice! Never thought of it this way.

Everything that I write revolves around this concept. It's flow. Good flow is essential. Not only do I vary sentence length, but I also vary sentence structure.

I went to the store. It was raining. I didn't have an umbrella. I got wet. I bought a loaf of bread. I paid with a five dollar bill. The cashier made change.

I weent to the store and it was raining. I didn't have an umbrella so I got wet. I bought a loaf of bread. I paid with a five dollar bill and the chasier made change.

It was raining when I went to the store. Since I didn't have an umbrella, I got wet. I bought a loaf of bread and paid with a five dollar bill. The cashier made change.

Everything must flow.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Everything that I write revolves around this concept. It's flow. Good flow is essential. Not only do I vary sentence length, but I also vary sentence structure.

I went to the store. It was raining. I didn't have an umbrella. I got wet. I bought a loaf of bread. I paid with a five dollar bill. The cashier made change.

I weent to the store and it was raining. I didn't have an umbrella so I got wet. I bought a loaf of bread. I paid with a five dollar bill and the chasier made change.

It was raining when I went to the store. Since I didn't have an umbrella, I got wet. I bought a loaf of bread and paid with a five dollar bill. The cashier made change.

Everything must flow.

This is why I think one of the most important steps in the process is reading your work aloud.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Everything that I write revolves around this concept. It's flow. Good flow is essential. Not only do I vary sentence length, but I also vary sentence structure.

This! It's what I call the cadence and cascade, the beat of the prose. I pay more attention to this than just about anything else during my edit, and readers often comment - "almost poetic", "flows like a river", "like a song".

 

[ElectricBlue]

This is why I think one of the most important steps in the process is reading your work aloud.

I don't read mine aloud, because I already hear the words in my head, with a rhythm. It's okay, though, they're not voices telling me what to do!

I often wonder what goes on in other minds when people read - it's pretty clear from AH's neuro-diverse folk that their experience can be quite different to mine. I never assume people think like I do.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

This is why I think one of the most important steps in the process is reading your work aloud.

Absolutely. Although personally I don't read it actually aloud, but I read in my head as if aloud, several times, always re-reading back what I wrote, many many times, editing and re-reading and editing and rereading etc.

I may refer you to the movie 'Amateur' (mid 90s I think?) where one of the main characters is writing erotica on her laptop in a coffee shop and reading what she wrote aloud to herself and the rest of the patrons and staff all want her to get the fuck out, especially since she's not a customer, she just writes. So she buys a muffin, but doesn't eat it, just to make herself a customer so that she can stay and keep writing.

This! It's what I call the cadence and cascade, the beat of the prose. I pay more attention to this than just about anything else during my edit, and readers often comment - "almost poetic", "flows like a river", "like a song".

Yes. I suppose that we all have our own name for it but we know what it is.

 

[Cuckwannabe111]

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I am going to refer to a verbal dispute/argument as an Argy Bargy from here on out lol

 

[Bramblethorn]

This! It's what I call the cadence and cascade, the beat of the prose. I pay more attention to this than just about anything else during my edit, and readers often comment - "almost poetic", "flows like a river", "like a song".

Same. I spend a lot of time fussing with it, and reader feedback suggests that people notice the flow even if they don't notice what creates it.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I don't expect anyone is going to use any of these words, but it's interesting to know that they exist.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I am seriously considering writing a Popeye story next year.

 

[Britva415]

I lament that the title bars on Lit are too short to permit a story about "The Beautiful, Tall, Thin, Dirty, Antique, Purple, Thai, Silver, Riding Thing."
Seriously, though, it's funny how wrong it can sound, getting some of those out of sequence.

I wonder if there's an infographic explaining the correct sequence. I know there is a correct sequence, it was mind blowing to realize I knew it but had never seen it articulated.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I wonder if there's an infographic explaining the correct sequence. I know there is a correct sequence, it was mind blowing to realize I knew it but had never seen it articulated.

See Post #74

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/helpful-or-just-fun-guides.1612884/page-3#post-99077468

 

[Bramblethorn]

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But sometimes overridden by other considerations, e.g. "big bad wolf".

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Posting this with a certain restraint. To me, it’s almost a recipe for formalistic stodginess. Thoughts?

 

[MelissaBaby]

But sometimes overridden by other considerations, e.g. "big bad wolf".

Assuming "bad" is a reference to opinion and not condition.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Posting this with a certain restraint. To me, it’s almost a recipe for formalistic stodginess. Thoughts?

It's a fine guideline, but shouldn't be taken as inviolable. I have, for example, developed setting before character. I am sure it's common for writers, particularly in fantasy and sci-fi, to build worlds before populating them with characters.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Assuming "bad" is a reference to opinion and not condition.

The explanation I saw for "big bad wolf" is a thing called the I-A-O rule: when English is repeating single syllables that are the same/almost the same except for the vowel sounds, it likes to put them in that order. Frere Jacques goes "ding dang dong", the Billy Goats Gruff go "trip-trap". "Tic-tac-toe", "zig-zag", "clip-clop", and so on. In the case of "Big Bad Wolf" the I-A-O rule overrides the usual adjective order.

...English, why are you like this.

It's a fine guideline, but shouldn't be taken as inviolable. I have, for example, developed setting before character. I am sure it's common for writers, particularly in fantasy and sci-fi, to build worlds before populating them with characters.

And sometimes "instead of".

 

[TheLobster]

Posting this with a certain restraint. To me, it’s almost a recipe for formalistic stodginess. Thoughts?

I find it amusing that all those "develop X" bubbles come before choosing the narrative types, so presumably also before sitting down writing the narrative. But then we advance immediately to editing and proofreading.

So there is either no space for the actual act of writing, or it is so insignificant it doesn't even bear mentioning. Pantsers' worst nightmare!

 

[TarnishedPenny]

From Randall Monroe's brilliant xkcd.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Advice to a young writer from C.S. Lewis

 

[yowser]

C.S. Lewis: Thoughtful advice from an accomplished writer. Fascinating look at his take on technology and writing at a vastly different time period (no radio, no typewriter.)

I'm going out on a limb here and asserting that today he would say: Ditch the phone!

The emphasis on the sound of words (cadence, choice, sonority) I think is spot on and so easy to neglect when wrapped up in the telling of your own story.

 

[Dearelliot]

I'm an old man, turned 90 Friday, and, I've been writing for years as a hobby, but never had a class in writing, and I've had no idea of passive/ active, as well as so much more about writing. I'd love to find a book about writing, very basic of course. any advice.