Friday, August 28, 2009

Active Writing

Today's post is brought to you by the letters R and U.

Go to Romance University and read about two types of active writing. :)

Theresa

7 comments:

Riley Murphy said...

Read your post, Theresa. It was awesome! Symbolic activity within the scene? I like that. Em, this post over at RU just might be one you need to read. Think chapter three of your WIP. I'm just saying...:)

Murphy

Anonymous said...

Great advice in your post, Theresa. Math and writing? Who would've thought? Totally useful for any genre, too. I'm off to count action scenes ...

Leona said...

Wow, I just got a rejection based on too much exposition regarding the backstory. Worst part is, my laptop, where the only copy of the story is, is not accessible right now.

My question is, what do they mean by this? Is it too passive, or too blase, too much explanation, or what?

Edittorrent said...

Leona, it means that there is too much "showing" and not enough "telling," and too much focus on what happens before the story starts. Without having seen the story, my guess is that you've got too much set-up regarding what happened in the past. Focus on dynamic present scenes that keep the story moving forward.

Theresa

Julie Harrington said...

Well there's a good topic -- where to start your story, how to find that starting point, and why. Hmm. I wonder if there are back articles here on that topic.

JT
~ off to look ~

Catherine Bybee said...

Very good points!

Leona said...

Theresa you were exactly right. I had gone back to explain why a woman of means in the 1850's would be ostracized by the other women in town and why she would befriend the town's madam.

I believe the information is important. Maybe I will write the story from the point just before she leaves on the wagon to move to the northwest rather than summarize it.

I could make it a full length novel. After all I'm only working on three others and none of them are an historical. LOL

Alas, it will have to get in line as I've gotten my hands on some ressearch that will help me move my thriller along.