Timeline for Why does all scene writing advice insist on the scene lead having a clear goal when this is often not practiced in bestsellers?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 17, 2022 at 11:27 | comment | added | Erk | @aaaaaa, how many years in are you? It takes on average 5 years to reteach a freshly baked university graduate ;) | |
| Oct 16, 2022 at 10:35 | comment | added | aaaaaa | regarding absolutes when teaching beginners, which is a point that makes sense to me - one downside to this I've noticed in programming is that people hold onto those absolutes well into their career when ideally they should have learned otherwise. For example we were taught very opinionated ways to write and read code which conflict with much of the internet. These opinions then leak into the workplace and make for more difficult collaboration. Granted, this could just as easily happen without the aid of absolute teachings back in college, but it didn't help. | |
| Oct 14, 2022 at 10:11 | comment | added | Erk | @SteveL, you've got the right idea with reading books, if not to get all the info, at least to add nuance to writing advice. After all, writing is a craft and as such requires the study of other writers to be mastered. And as xLeitix says, most writing books assume you know little or nothing about writing. Because that's what most people want. That's where most beginning writers are stuck... somewhere between the initial idea and the first draft of the book. This also makes the requirements of the text different... Think crawling-walking-running... | |
| Oct 13, 2022 at 8:53 | comment | added | xLeitix | @SteveL On a more serious note, as a teacher I often find it more effective when teaching beginners to talk in fairly absolute terms about general concepts, even though there are in practice exceptions to everything. Advanced learners discover the exceptions on their own, and actual beginners often get confused or misled by too much emphasis on the (rare) times when a general principle does not hold. | |
| Oct 13, 2022 at 8:51 | comment | added | xLeitix | @SteveL That's because there are also rules how to write a text book that sells ;) and writing a lot of "it depends" style advise is not one of them. | |
| Oct 13, 2022 at 4:18 | vote | accept | Steve L | ||
| Oct 13, 2022 at 4:18 | comment | added | Steve L | Your article Rethinking the Sequel is excellent. It addressed many of my own confusions and nails down a definition more completely than other sources. | |
| Oct 13, 2022 at 3:46 | comment | added | Steve L | Your take makes sense to me and is more balanced than most all of the writing craft books on scenes. They really do all say that every scene should have a goal, no exceptions. I find it frustrating that I haven't yet found one that is more nuanced (with the exception of Swain). | |
| Oct 13, 2022 at 1:42 | history | edited | Erk | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
deleted 25 characters in body
|
| Oct 13, 2022 at 1:35 | history | edited | Erk | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 30 characters in body
|
| Oct 13, 2022 at 1:28 | history | answered | Erk | CC BY-SA 4.0 |