Thursday from The Cottage of Blog--coffee's on and procrastination's rampid
Annie peering out of the living room onto the porch in the Cottage of Blog.
Welcome to our morning talk session. Funny. I've learned that our blogs are not the private things we might hope they'd be.
We can get into anyone's blog and say almost anything we want, whether it's warranted or not. Whether it's polite or not. People, people people. Be nice!
Just to let the world out there know that--if you come into my blog home, please be nice, polite, discrete, all those things you'd (hopefully) be if you were a guest in anyone's home. So far, I love you all.
We were discussing point of view and omniscient point of view. That is where the author plays God and everyone (including the furniture in some cases) has one. (point of view that is)
Yesterday, I delved into a time period where great authors told great stories. They didn't particularly bother to "show" the stories. that's right. They told them. I read Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hallow" and Edgar Alan Poe's "The Cat." (among other classic legend ghost stories)
I think it was Washington Irving who had the ducks having a momentary pov. He wrote in the omniscient point of view. It took some getting used to. But it took me back to the time where all the great literature was written that way. It took me a while to get used to the style--I think I need some catching up. The tales--told or otherwise--were classic and beautifully written.
I'm stuck on Legacy. I'm doing everything I can to procrastinate the actual writing of the thing. I (in my infinite wisdom) decided to break down all my chapters into scenes. I did. Then I put them back into scenes . Had I changed anything significantly? No. Not really. So, the other night, when I was having a hissy fit, I decided that had been a great idea, so I took it apart again. Fortunately, I didn't change much. The only thing I accomplished was having read some of the story again. Have I gotten much further? No. A plot hole is a plot hole is a plot hole. Or--The yellow brick road goes left, right or straight ahead. Which way should we go Dorothy?
I started Romeo vs Juliette. Not a bad little Harlequin Intrigue I think. I've been doing preliminary work on this. Of course, when I went back into my files, I found all the prelims had been tackled LAST year and 7 chapters had already been written. Duh.
So, what's wrong with me? Is it my confidence? I'm working. Obviously. But it's busy work. It's showing myself what a great writer I am. Yeah. I can stay at my computer and "select all-copy-past-save." Yeah me. Will that get me to a publisher? I think not.
I might do what I did with Arms of the enemy. I took it from the end and worked backward. At least I know what I want to have happen. Maybe that might help. So project for the day--start with the last--the "hospital" scene and work my way backwards to the "monastery" scene, until hopefully, i'll end up where I'm struggling now. Pray it won't be like the building of the railroads. One end running from the east, one end running from the west and both ending up miles apart in the middle. Oh the agony.
I've ordered the Dwight Swain book. Amazon promised me yesterday via email they'd sent it out. I also ordered Joanna Wayne's new Gentlemen's Club (you go Joanna) and the DVD Phantom of the Opera.
Take care all.
Happy reading, writing and revising.
Pat who will try to stay off her blog and get to work on her novel.
posted by Unknown at 10:37 AM
2 Comments:
You'll enjoy Swain. He's an excellent teacher.
Thanks everyone.
Pat
Post a Comment
<< Home