It's a Start

[ithildin]

I've written about a 1000 words of a new 'Emily' story. So far it's pretty much all dialogue. I'll go back after and 'embroider', as I call it. That seems to be the way I tend to write -- conversation first, then the descriptive stuff. I get on a roll writing dialogue to the exclusion of pretty much everything else. Does anyone else do that, or am I just weird? (yeah, there's a question!) Though, I remember reading some thread somewhere a while back, where a lot of the participants said they didn't like descriptive stuff in their fanfic. I always worry I don't put enough in. But maybe I put too much. Do you like descriptions in your fanfic? I do, to a certain extent. I don't want Anne Rice style pages and pages of description, but I do like some.

Comments

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

You write the same way I do! the conversation flows, and then you have to add the filling. I even have an example... this bit (http://aeron-lanart.livejournal.com/15148.html) of conversation was eventually incorporated into this fic (http://aeron-lanart.livejournal.com/16491.html). As for descriptive stuff, I would have thought you've got to have *some* just to help you set the scene correctly.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

That's good to know! I've always wondered if anyone else did it :) I think one of my strengths, if I actually have any, as a writer, is my dialogue. I'm never sure I do description well.

[dracschick.livejournal.com]

I think that some descriptions are good but too much may be bad. It's like seasoning in cooking:)

good luck with your writing!

[jinxed-wood.livejournal.com]

If it's well crafted (and by that, I mean extremely well crafted, as in 'Is your name Joyce?' prose) I adore it, but otherwise it tends to bore me. It's like yeah, yeah, her hair was long and red and reminded me of that sunset I saw when I was seven and my grandma died, and have I mentioned the rosy fingered dawn? [grins]

I'm crap at prose, probably because I'm very visually orientated and, once I start, I find it very hard to stop! So, mainly dialogue and plainly written plot, although I tend to get a wee bit more sophisticated, when I use humour in my stories!

Also, I seem to have a tendency to sound like Emily Dickenson when I write 'fancy' prose, which is somewhat disconcerting...

,

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Her hair was long and red and reminded me of that sunset I saw when I was seven and my grandma died, and have I mentioned the rosy fingered dawn?

LOL!!! Oh god, I hope I don't do that! I don't, do I? [angsts]

I'm very visual as well. It's like a little movie unspooling in my head.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Good way to put it!

[sharpiesgal.livejournal.com]

I usually start with dialogue and then the descriptive stuff.

I like your stories. The descriptive stuff doesn't overpower the story.

And congrats on the story...

[jinxed-wood.livejournal.com]

LOL!!! Oh god, I hope I don't do that! I don't, do I? [angsts]

No need to angst, honeybun, you write the best sort of prose, to my mind, the kind you don't notice because it's part of the flow of the story.

I'm very visual as well. It's like a little movie unspooling in my head.

When I wrote my first fic, Hamlet's Ghost, I had a fabulous beta reader, who gently pointed out to me that I didn't have to describe every single action my characters made! I would verge on the ridiculous sometimes, even decribing the way someone holds a glass, which is okay if it's pertinent to the story, but if it's not...

Fine Art background, I'm totally doomed...

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Good to hear :)

I think I have the opposite problem. Because I see it so clearly, I tend not t describe enough of it, and have to remind myself that the reader can't see my movie! [g]

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Glad it isn't overpowering!

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

Can you change 'camera angles' in your head when you visualise something so you can see it from a different perspective? I've found that being able to that can get a scene moving along that might have been causing problems.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, that's no problem :)

[dejla.livejournal.com]

It depends on the scene (you knew I was going to say that, didn't you?). A lot of my scenes are people talking, so yes, I tend to get through the talk first and then go back and fill in action or description.

The scene in Ravens between Cassandra and Methos in the garden, with the rosemary and the pansies... that was all in the scene as I scribbled it down.

I believe the difference is whether I hear the scene or see it. If I see it, I see how the people are moving and where they are and what's around them. But if I hear it, then the movements and the background are a secondary thing that are frequently so vague I have to go back later and imagine what's happening.

[dejla.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, yes. Isn't that the most fun? You can wander all around the scene and watch it happen from all the possible angles as well as know perfectly well what everyone is thinking at the same time!

[blade-and-roses.livejournal.com]

Hmm, what I've written is almost all conversations -- because right now, I suck at descriptions. However, I like 'just the right amount' -- enough you can see the flow of the scene, not so much you spend all your time looking, and no time reacting and feeling the story. Which is why I love your stories.

Uh, did that make sense?

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

I loved the rosemary and the pansies :)

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Thank you, and yes, it made sense :)