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imbecominggayer · 6 months ago

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How To Put Your Imagination On The Page

Thank you to @melda0m3 for asking for this on my post :3 you are an absolute dear(gender-neutral)

The topic I will be covering is "how in the world do you translate the perfect picture you have in your mind of a place or the epic one of a fight scene with words??" -melda0m3

Of course, because of the nature of this question and the nature of writing in general, this is more of a generalization since there are an infinite amount of scenes that could possibly exist!

FIRST QUESTION: Why Is This Actually So Hard?

The reason why translating your imaginary scene to the paper is hard is due to the fact that your brain naturally fills in the "gaps" of your scenery.

It's the reason why you implicitly understand everything that is happening in a dream and what settings look like despite not being able to recollect the actual physical details.

So when you take this abstract vision of scenery and try to apply it to the page, now you have to consciously examine your scenery from an observor's gaze. Since you are critically studying the imaginary scene, now your brain is forced to put actual detail into the image.

Combined with the a struggle for an apt metaphor and you will inevitably struggle to contextualize visual fog into actual physical detail.

So let's get working on fixing this issue.

Detail Is Influenced By Emotion

Let's be honest with ourselves, no one walks into a room and starts obsessively counting the number of windows, all the occupants of the room, and mentions literally every single detail in their "private" monologue.

No one, during a fight, keeps perfect track of all the punches that are happening.

Which means you shouldn't either.

Look at your imaginary place, epic fight scene, and any other fantastical viewing and say to yourself "this is a foundation. inspiration. it's not the final image or even a good image"

Utilize cinematography and learn how to encorperate that into diction and sentence structuring.

In general with some exceptions, shorter and choppier sentences invite feelings of anxiety, desperation, and a higher emotional state while longer and passive sentences invite feelings of calmness, curiousity, and a more static sense of "contentment".

Use more visual language that excites a reaction out of you. Fighting/disgusting scenes are the perfect time to use all of your "disgusting" words such as flesh, moist, sloughs, engourge, and other words

I literally looked up "disgusting words list" in order to get that list.

Detail And Emotion Influenced By Perspective

Of course, what decides what detail makes the "final cut", if you will, is your camera. Your perspective character.

For example, if your character is the type to be paranoid then the "camera" will be constantly fixing itself at everything. Violently snapping their eyes to everything as hysterical thoughts ooze out of the minute cracks between every single moment. Very intense, I would say.

This would contrast against a character who is completely zeroed in on something, someone?, with such an unrelenting gaze that their camera is permanently marked on their target.

The paranoid character would bring in a hod-podge of various incomplete details while the stubborn character couldn't even tell you if it was day or night.

Of course, the emotions that a character has associated with this scene will also bring to mind different details.

For example, in a fight, the perspective character might be someone who is swarming with desperation. In this case their thoughts are going to be centered less on the specific timing of things or what exactly is happening but instead on their emotions and possible consequences.

However, the perspective character might be someone who isn't scared at all of losing or winning. They're fighting with a more observant gaze. The kind expected of someone in a chess match. In this case their thoughts are probably directed on the timing their opponents with consistently precise questioning and observations. What is their opponent thinking? They're slowing down which means they're losing stamina. They're staring at my leg. A bold mistake.

Again, the desperate character isn't focusing at all on their opponent and couldn't tell you at all about what is objectively happening. Their mind is racing across thoughts of doubt, pride, existential fear. They're wondering what's going to happen if they lose. If they win? What about their loved ones?

The observant character is entirely focused on the setting and opponent from an "objective" perspective and so their personal feelings paint the world in a rather sterile perspective.

Motivation: What Is This Scene Trying To Do?

The scenes I have illustrated of a paranoid character sporadically crawling their eyes across the place, a stubborn character hunting for something, a desperate character fighting the battle of their life, and a professional observor passively observing the fighting they're currently engaging in all serve various different necessities.

Paranoid character's perspective allows the audience to understand what the paranoid character is feeling, emotionally invests the audience, provides possible backstory for the setting if it's emotionally relevant to the character, and raises the tension for a surely delightful climax and subsequent release of that tension.

Stubborn character's perspective allows the audience to understand what the stubborn character is feeling and forces the audience to either cheer for the bloodshed or look upon with despair at the fallen character. It also kickstarts conflict.

Desperate character's scene is more affilated with conflict itself and the result of tension. It invites the audience to participate in this unrelenting fear as the desperate character's own internal narration about the stakes serve the character's motivation and the reader's emotional involvement. It's heavily effective!

Observant character's scene could serve to establish a status quo for this character of a stoic professional which could be broken later on. This is also a well-written example of "show, don't tell" as the audience can easily guess that the observant character is a professional fighter.

I'm sorry @melda0m3 if I have failed to properly cover this topic. It's incredibly hard to help someone on a case-by-case basis so all I can do is provide some general guidelines and hope this assists you in your writing journey :)

Feel free to ask for any more specific advice posts if this attempt didn't scare you off!

#writing #on writing #writeblr #creative writing #writing life #writer #writing advice #writing community #writing ideas #writing prompt #writer life #check out melda0m3 #they seem cool :)#writers on tumblr

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imbecominggayer · 3 months ago

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Writing Advice: How To Condense Your Story Down

From @melda0m3 we have: I'm wondering, how do you fit everything important in fours episodes of 5 minutes? (Yeah... Maybe I'll change it to more if I can't find my answer). I plan on making it really like a series, but without the visual aspect, so no narrator describing anything, just dialogues

Personally, I have no experience with podcasts or recording whatsoever but I do know a little bit about formatting and scripting so that's what I'm going to do!

A) Script Out What Needs To Happen

Grab a computer or a piece of paper and write down everything that needs to happen in this chapter.

In general:

In the first few chapter, it's all about establishing the status quo. What are the relationships like? What are their beliefs?

Then the next middle chapters are about the status quo changing. New lines in the sand are forming. People are going new places. New. New New.

The final chapters are about the conclusion and reflection. Thinking about what happened. How it happened and giving the reader a taste of what the future may bring.

It's incredibly important to have an idea of what the purpose of the chapter is because otherwise the plot tends to either be too slow or too quick. Scripting can serve as a check-in to see if all the actions are flowing in a logical and straight-forward way. The scripting can also create a chronological schedule for not only what needs to happen but also when it happens!

It doesn't have to be detailed. For an example of a cursory guide:

Chapter 9:

Haun reveals how they aren't the chosen one to the King

This causes his adoptive father to banish Haun from the castle for the time being until this mess can be sorted.

Haun's banishment incentivizes Niko to use this opportunity to sneak into the previously hidden room while the King is distracted

There! Short, sweet, and with a logical flow!

B) Write It Out And Chop It Down

The first draft is the indulgence draft. it's the draft where you plop your consciousness out onto the page and see what gets created.

Then you can use the subsequent drafts to cut it all down.

Example A: The house was utterly decadent and large with cracks running up and down everything since it used to be abandoned a couple of years ago. Every single step inside the house rings out a creak and every single glass from the window lost it's sheen. It's just so strange that a house as rich as this one as built in the woods though. I can't believe I used to live here when I was a child.

Example B: The forgotten mansion stood proudly in the forest like an aging warrior holding onto the glory days. Vines caressed each column with a motherly touch. It's almost like it's judging me for having dared left such a beautiful place to wither away.

The problem with the first paragraph, in my opinion, is the obnoxious repitition of how abandoned and decadent the house looks. It doesn't provide additional detail. It just reiterates the fact that there are creaks in the house and thing are dirty. I also dislike the non-sequiter revealing how this used to be the narrator's house when the description doesn't fit a nostalgic or childhood vibe at all!

The first sentence of Example B paints the fact that the mansion is forgotten and large in one simple sentence while Example A takes two uninteresting sentences to do it. Example B uses (or tries to use) nostalgic language to talk about the home so that the reveal the narrator used to live here doesn't come as a shock

C) Dialogue

Dialogue is the most important thing in this project so we have to get it right!

Every single piece of dialogue needs to communicate:

Knowledge (what a character knows)

Personality (how a character acts)

Emotion (how they feel about what they are saying)

Intention (what they are trying to say)

There almost always tends to be a secret 5th element

Secrecy (what they're trying to hide)

This is the case during jokes, love confessions, exposition, and everything!

That scripting thing I was mentioning? Pull that out now! You need to establish the setting? Have a character do it through some dialogue!

"All I can do now is pray Mrs. Jackson forgot about the test!"

This little sentence reveals:

Setting: At or about to go to school

Character A knows there is a test today and they haven't studied

Character A is definitely not studious and probably a bit careless

Character A is nervous about the test

Character A is trying to communicate how they forgot the test

You can also use another character's dialogue to do all of this while still communicating something about another type of character!

For example, Character A could have said:

"I just fucking hope little pet Micheal doesn't remind Mrs. Jackson we have a test today."

This not only establishes the dread and personality of A, it also establishes how Micheal is a teacher's pet and how Mrs. Jackson has a bit of a forgetful streak if this is a reoccuring event.

The dialogue also serves to establish relationships and motivations for why those relationships happen! A is a careless student who resents Micheal for his dedication to school and being a moral little stickler for rules while Micheal has respect for the teacher since they share similar values about education.

D) Inspiration

Since I have no expertise with this subject, I recommend doing the tried and true method.

Find people who use idolize that do this, analyze their structure, and apply it to your own work.

#writeblr #writing #creative writing #writing advice #on writing #narration #writers block #writers #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writers and poets #writer #writing inspo #writing inspiration #inspiration #advice

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