His heart slammed against his ribcage, feeling he'd not felt for years. Thirty-two. Today he turned thirty-two years old, and the last time he'd felt his heart trying to remove itself was when he had been sixteen. His first kill. The first time he'd had a gun in his hands. The first time he'd even faced down with someone bigger, scarier, and tougher than him.
The first time he'd won.
His eyes darted around the place. It was fit to be a theater, but it hadn't seen a show in a long time. He doubted it ever would again. Not after today. He landed on a man across the stage, a brief flicker in his own eyes exchanged with the other was signal enough. His gaze returned to the man bound to the chair, flickered towards the don, then back to the man again.
Vincenzo di Angelo didn't like to be cornered.
Anyone who had ever had some sort of run-in would know that much. Cornering him was the last thing you'd ever do. Those who had survived were only survivors out of sheer luck. Vinnie wasn't merciful. He'd never been and he never would be.
The Don had cornered him.
A choice. Vinnie kills Sal or the Don kills them both. He was given a choice. The sharpshooter didn't like either. There were always third options.
One door closes, you force it right back open.
@orionion07
Taking a brief moment from diving into more incredible writing on this app to just vent my frustrations that there are some styles of writing I just... wish I could do. I wish I could sum up as much in so few words as other people can. My fiancee, for one, is amazing at this and while I'm compelled to go on at what feels like extreme detail, there are moments where I just wish I could make these seeming seamless time-jumps and still leave people feeling satisfied.
Someone can cover a month's worth of things in a few shorts pages and leave me feeling like I've missed nothing; like it's all there, like it all just... flows. I write a bathtub conversation for three full chapters.
I know it's fine, but I just wholly empathize with the people out there who have amazing art that I stare at in wonder and awe who will voice to my face 'god I wish I could do what <another artist> does'.
We are the same. I am holding your hand in solidarity. I wish I could do what you all do.
ALSO
In hopefully just a matter of hours, our long national nightmare my terrible fucking insanity of moving should finally be entering the "IT'S FUCKING OVER" stage, leaving me the unpacking stages before the "Great American Roadtrip" stage and then more unpacking stages and then "That Marriage Thing" stage and then--
What I'm saying is chapters are coming. I'm actually really excited about it. It's been half a fucking year since The Stranding updated but I HAVE made a little bit of progress through all of this and I can't wait for y'all to see it.
blahblahblah, thank you for reading <3 Love you all and Happy Easter
I’ve been thinking about that bingo card I filled out. Recently, I’ve been in a process of trying to look at the things I struggle with and, rather than give in to all the unhelpful, shaming “It shouldn’t be that hard” and “just DO it” that gets tossed around in my head, actually go:
Okay, so. It IS hard. What can I try that might make it EASIER?
And I’ve been thinking about that bingo card I filled out, and how... hopeless? helpless? it feels to stare down all those checkmarks on all the things that trip me up. That didn’t feel too great, so, I thought I would sit down and really examine those things and see what the barriers are and what kinds of things I could experiment with to get over/around/under/through them.
This is going to be kind of a rambly self-meditation, so, cut goes here.
With thanks to @ao3commentoftheday for putting the bingo card together and @ffxiv-writers for putting it on my dash.
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It’s an emotion not a plot
I didn’t write it YET
Couldn’t think of a beginning
Got distracted by a new WIP
Too much happening IRL
Fell asleep
The stars haven’t aligned
Fell into a research hole
Couldn’t think of an ending
Hit too close to home
Lost the idea because I didn’t write it down
Got stuck and can’t get past it
Forgot I was writing it
The first thing I’m noticing as I look at this list is that some of them have to do with the content of the writing itself, and some have to do with external factors. There may be other ways to divide this list up, but that’s what I’m seeing first, so let’s see where that gets me.
Content Problems
(aka, I actually started writing the fucking thing but it’s fighting me)
It’s an emotion not a plot
Couldn’t think of a beginning
Couldn’t think of an ending
Got stuck and can’t get past it
So, in descending order of troublesomeness/frequency, these are all things where I have an idea of something I want to write, but I’m snagging on something around developing the idea. I’ll sit down to write, but when I try starting, what comes out is boring as hell -- I tend to get “explainy” (related to “telling rather than showing”). Or, there’s a clear start, but where is it going? what am I trying to say? Or, some inconsistency in the middle makes getting from A to B difficult.
How have I managed to get around these content-related things in the past? What could I try if I get stuck again?
Complain about it until I rubberduck myself into a solution
Outline-brainstorming (ideally with someone else)
Skip past the boring stuff and start with the fun stuff
Do I have enough characters in the thing for this to be an interaction?
If this is a “character by themselves” scene -- can I insert some apostrophe? an imaginary dialogue?
What’s the conflict/problem/point of tension? (even in fluffy scenes there is one -- that’s the payoff)
Start in the middle of the dialogue
Where do I want to end up? (positive/negative mood? location? circumstance?)
Where did I start (emotionally, circumstantially) -- what’s the “opposite” of that? (ensures movement over the scene)
Letting it be (but coming back to it)
Scrapping the whole thing (but saving it to be cannibalized later)
...but sometimes I need to just let it go and take the EXP consolation prize rather than getting stuck on it. Not everything will “jell,” but it’s all grist for the mill.
But what gets in my way more often than not is...
External Factors
...which can further be divided into problems starting...
Too much happening IRL
Fell asleep
Lost the idea because I didn’t write it down
The stars haven’t aligned
Hit too close to home
I didn’t write it YET
...and problems finishing.
Fell into a research hole
Got distracted by a new WIP
Forgot I was writing it
Now that I look at them, most of these have to do (for me) with either attention/motivation or energy.
The biggest barrier for me is energy -- I call it “writing brain,” and it’s like a meter that is depleted by all kinds of things, including how much I’ve had to use my ability to focus on a given day, whether I’ve gotten enough sleep, if I’m in physical discomfort, how much stress I’m under, etc.
...speaking of energy. I just ran flat out of ability to focus on this post, so I’m going to post what I’ve got on top of my head so far.
Here’s the vague toss-out on the energy/attention/motivation thing:
BE GENTLE WITH MYSELF.
Give myself structure and opportunities to succeed (I’ve had great luck with a sticker chart)
Give myself credit for EVERYTHING I do, including partial credit.
Write ANYTHING. It counts!
Figure out what “the stars aligning” looks like (for me: music, a deadline, several prompts to constrain possibilities)
...all fit for my own practice of writing, which is just to write at all -- I’m not working on a larger project or to a deadline.
And sometimes it still doesn’t work. But shame takes up writing brain. So... maybe that’s not the best way for me to spend my energy?
Life hack: if you break up with a writer, don't read what they post, ever again. We can be pretty harsh, and you'll never even know if we are actually talking about you.
Recently, a scourge that occasionally plagues the writing community is flaring up again. It’s seductive, and infectious, and once it worms its way into a writer’s prose, it lames it, leaving it to lurch around on the page. For awhile, we thought it eradicated. But a few poorly researched articles popped up online, which got picked up by some seriously misguided souls, and together, they’re sowing confusion. Now, an outbreak of epidemic proportions looms.
The scourge’s name? “Said is Dead.”
Never heard of it? Good. Clearly you’re making solid life choices.
Every once in awhile, people decide they want to tear down one of the simplest and best practices of good writing: To use “said” when attributing dialogue, unless there is a pressing need for something stronger.
(We call these dialogue tags, and if you need a review of how they work, Gotham has a good article on that for you, here.)
Usually, I’d quote these folks directly, let them explain their hostility to a perfectly good verb in their own words. (This is about dialogue, after all.) But I’m not giving madness a platform. And besides, their reasons all boil down to, “Using ‘said’ almost all the time is boring.”
And you know what? They’re right. It can sometimes be boring to type “he said/she said” over and over. It can feel less like creativity and more like a chore when, instead of picking out fun verbs like “trilled” or “bellowed,” you’re deciding whether you need a “he said” after a quote, or whether you can leave the tag out entirely.
But as entertaining as it can be to type Back off! Beverly bleated, it is not as much fun to read. Because writing brain and reading brain are different.
As it cruises through a good story, your reading brain hits dialogue and registers “said,” but doesn’t actually read it. It’s a little like how when you’re driving, you register the white lines at the edge of the road but don’t stare at them, lest you drive into a ditch. Your reading brain looks at the words spoken, and who spoke them. “Said” is just there to guide it.
But swap in another verb and your reading brain realizes, “Something’s different!” and hits the brakes. A few lines of that, of characters “blubbering” and “blurting” their dialogue, and your reading brain is reaching for the Dramamine.
The “said is dead” folks can campaign all they want, they’re not changing the way our brains read. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. You don’t need to mess with dialogue tags to amuse yourself while writing — you just need to get creative.
Kelly Caldwell
Dean of Faculty
