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Creative writing

Losing focus on chapter 3

4 replies

loopylou2 · 23/02/2010 18:30

As it says in the title, I'm up to halfway through chapter 3 and losing focus... I know that SOMETHING important should have happened by now but it turns out that I'm lapsing into a familiar habit of drivelling and going off into small irrelevant details.

I made a bullet list of what happens in the immediate future of my novel and it's not till point number 7 that something important and worth-reading happens! That'll be chapter 5 at this rate!

does anybody have any words of advice on how to cut out the crap? because I'm getting bogged down with it and my enjoyment of writing is waning. please, help!!

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Litchick · 24/02/2010 15:12

I am a big fan of Robert McKee, who writes aboit script writing,but no less useful for us novel writers for that.

Basically, he says that after the initial set up you need to be moving towards the inciting incident. This is the first major event that sets the story in motion. It is something that upsets the balance of your MC's life and forces him/her to take action or make a decision.
That action/decision is the basis of your story.

Where to put it? It is tempting to put it as soon as possible isn't it? And some stories do accomodate that. However, I think a great piece of advice is to place the inciting incident as soon as you can but 'not until the moment is ripe.'

Sometimes you need quite a bit of set up to make that moment juicy. Only you can judge that.
As long as every line is purposeful delay, then it will work. But if you're just putting it off with endless exposition then cut, cut, cut and get to your jumpoff event now.

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loopylou2 · 24/02/2010 20:12

Thank you Lit-chick.

I actually googled what to do and got a lot of asimilar advice- trust your intuition, and don't get stuck on re-writing. Basically keep moving forward!

One piece of advice I found really helpful was this:
Take a look at the last sentence you wrote. What emotion were you trying to convey in that sentence?

It really got me focused on the fact that every sentence has to work in order to be included. Ater that, I moved forward, finishing chapter 3 and then also completing chapter 4 (which practically wrote itself).

I guess another thing which I need to bear in mind is that if I don't enjoy writing a scene, how can I expect anybody else to enjoy reading it?

Thanks again xx

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Litchick · 25/02/2010 12:33

Keep on, keeping on is always the best thing to do. Forward motion etc

Whenever I feel a scene is crap I just leave myself a note in square brackets. Soething like [Mrs Litchick, this is shite. The setting is boring, the character is beahiving in a ludicrous manner and I'm falling asleep].

Then when the whole work is finished and I start the re-write, I know where the gaping problems are.

Often, though, things aren't as dire as they felt at the time.

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FlyingMonkey · 25/02/2010 20:32

Am not a writer but this may give you some inspiration:www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one

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