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I am a reader of fanfiction that is easy to please. I don't cling to my ships or refuse to read something that doesn't fall in my personal canon. I'm all for trying new and different pairings and even fandoms! I'll put up with a fair amount spelling mistakes and errors in grammar. If you're on my favored author list, I will read anything you write.
But I have a problem with paragraphs. If I open up a document or click on a link to vote for drabbles, I will run away screaming from anything that is one sentence after another. Are they not teaching paragraphs in school these days?
It is possible to see why some people (I was going to say kids but it's not an age issue but a writing one so I will refrain from being agist) might be afraid of the paragraph. One of the rules of a paragraph is that it contain one idea. When that idea is over, move on to the next idea. But I see that for the fiction writer as being a block of movement so it should be more lumped together. For instance:
Neville wandered through the corridors of Hogwarts, calling for Trevor. He'd seen him earlier but his pet hadn't come out for his bedtime snack. It was worrying him. Trevor seldom missed out on his gnat wings.
Now I might start a new paragraph here as emphasis... a turning point, if you will. Or I might ramble on about how Neville loves his pet and can't bear the thought of having to get a new one. A paragraph keeps your attention focused and then swings you out in a new arc.
So what do you do with something like this?
"Hagrid, you have to stop crying," Harry said.
"But I loved Fang so much."
"Yes, he was a nice dog."
"The best." Hagrid wiped his eyes with a filthy rag that was the size of a tablecloth. "I'll miss him so much."
Harry tried to think of something he could say to comfort his friend but he was having trouble thinking of anything.
Ginny walked in the room. "What's wrong?"
"Fang died," Harry and Hagrid told her at the same time.
"That's so sad. I'm sorry, Hagrid."
"He'll be missed," Harry echoed.
"Yes, he will."
I don't know about you but this is the sort of thing that I RUN AWAY from. There is nothing to draw me in. While I've seen my share of good pieces of experimental fiction that use this technique, it's lazy. Or a screen play. Don't leave it up to the reader to put in the set dressing. That's the writers job! DETAIL, DETAIL, DETAIL! It is the details that make our writing strong and vibrant and beautiful.
Just because a drabble is only one hundred words doesn't mean that we should skimp on the details. THIS INFORMATION WILL HELP YOU IF YOU ARE A DRABBLE WRITER SO LISTEN UP. Five years of drabble writing under my belt has taught me these simple techniques...
1) 100 words is only a few seconds of time. Figure accordingly and pick the BEST few seconds of the scene in your head. Anything more than a few seconds and you are dangerously close to FICLET size. Anything over a minute is SHORT FICTION. If you're talking more than five or ten minutes, you have a STORY on your hands.
2) Pick and choose your describing words but STILL USE THEM. While you can bend grammar rules a bit more for the sake of word count, you should still draw a word picture for us.
3) Be concise. What are the best things about the scene that you want to convey? Who really needs to be there? What do you want your reader to notice? This can also be said of any size story. Don't waste your words. They're too precious!
4) Pick ONE emotion and stick to it. If you get to another emotion, you're moving up in the word count and should plan for a longer story.
So let's look at the above story with these thoughts added in:
Ginny walked through the door of Hagrid’s cottage, her hair still blowing against her pale cheeks. “I came as soon as I got your message? What’s wrong?"
Both Hagrid and Harry looked up at her, their eyes red from the tears they’d already shed. Hagrid was wiping at his eyes with a lime-green hankie the size of a tablecloth. As he wiped off one cheek, the other side flooded over once agan.
“It’s Fang,” Harry whispered, his voice rough with emotion. “He died this morning.”
“That’s horrible.” Ginny tried hugging Hagrid but he was too wide for her to get her arms around. “I’m so sorry.”
106 words but you get the idea. Same idea but I narrowed the focus and put it in a second of time. Act if out if you don't believe me! I've done that before if I was struggling with a word count and I can tell you that I've struggled with a lot of word counts in my life.
So why did I write this out? Because it's been bothering me lately. I don't like having to skip over stories just because they're a bunch of single sentences strung together. It feels cheap to me when I see a writer resorting to that tactic. A drabble should still take time and energy to create. It should have some of your heart in it, same as a longer fic.
I also wrote this out because I'm trying to pass along what I've learned in fandom. While five years (give or take as I can't really remember how long it's been) doesn't seem like a long time, I've seen fandoms come and go based on the strength of the writers in the fandom. Icons come and go. Headers change with the whim of the journal owner. A good story will linger in the consciousness of its reader for YEARS. Don't believe me? Go check out some of those "Help me find this fic" posts that pop up and you'll see that people are still asking about fics that they read three or four years ago. Do you want that to be your story people are remembering and recommending? Paragraphs, my friend. I'm telling you... improve your writing in this one area and you'll get results!
ETA: I found this great blog entry on this very same thing. Check it out!
But I have a problem with paragraphs. If I open up a document or click on a link to vote for drabbles, I will run away screaming from anything that is one sentence after another. Are they not teaching paragraphs in school these days?
It is possible to see why some people (I was going to say kids but it's not an age issue but a writing one so I will refrain from being agist) might be afraid of the paragraph. One of the rules of a paragraph is that it contain one idea. When that idea is over, move on to the next idea. But I see that for the fiction writer as being a block of movement so it should be more lumped together. For instance:
Neville wandered through the corridors of Hogwarts, calling for Trevor. He'd seen him earlier but his pet hadn't come out for his bedtime snack. It was worrying him. Trevor seldom missed out on his gnat wings.
Now I might start a new paragraph here as emphasis... a turning point, if you will. Or I might ramble on about how Neville loves his pet and can't bear the thought of having to get a new one. A paragraph keeps your attention focused and then swings you out in a new arc.
So what do you do with something like this?
"Hagrid, you have to stop crying," Harry said.
"But I loved Fang so much."
"Yes, he was a nice dog."
"The best." Hagrid wiped his eyes with a filthy rag that was the size of a tablecloth. "I'll miss him so much."
Harry tried to think of something he could say to comfort his friend but he was having trouble thinking of anything.
Ginny walked in the room. "What's wrong?"
"Fang died," Harry and Hagrid told her at the same time.
"That's so sad. I'm sorry, Hagrid."
"He'll be missed," Harry echoed.
"Yes, he will."
I don't know about you but this is the sort of thing that I RUN AWAY from. There is nothing to draw me in. While I've seen my share of good pieces of experimental fiction that use this technique, it's lazy. Or a screen play. Don't leave it up to the reader to put in the set dressing. That's the writers job! DETAIL, DETAIL, DETAIL! It is the details that make our writing strong and vibrant and beautiful.
Just because a drabble is only one hundred words doesn't mean that we should skimp on the details. THIS INFORMATION WILL HELP YOU IF YOU ARE A DRABBLE WRITER SO LISTEN UP. Five years of drabble writing under my belt has taught me these simple techniques...
1) 100 words is only a few seconds of time. Figure accordingly and pick the BEST few seconds of the scene in your head. Anything more than a few seconds and you are dangerously close to FICLET size. Anything over a minute is SHORT FICTION. If you're talking more than five or ten minutes, you have a STORY on your hands.
2) Pick and choose your describing words but STILL USE THEM. While you can bend grammar rules a bit more for the sake of word count, you should still draw a word picture for us.
3) Be concise. What are the best things about the scene that you want to convey? Who really needs to be there? What do you want your reader to notice? This can also be said of any size story. Don't waste your words. They're too precious!
4) Pick ONE emotion and stick to it. If you get to another emotion, you're moving up in the word count and should plan for a longer story.
So let's look at the above story with these thoughts added in:
Ginny walked through the door of Hagrid’s cottage, her hair still blowing against her pale cheeks. “I came as soon as I got your message? What’s wrong?"
Both Hagrid and Harry looked up at her, their eyes red from the tears they’d already shed. Hagrid was wiping at his eyes with a lime-green hankie the size of a tablecloth. As he wiped off one cheek, the other side flooded over once agan.
“It’s Fang,” Harry whispered, his voice rough with emotion. “He died this morning.”
“That’s horrible.” Ginny tried hugging Hagrid but he was too wide for her to get her arms around. “I’m so sorry.”
106 words but you get the idea. Same idea but I narrowed the focus and put it in a second of time. Act if out if you don't believe me! I've done that before if I was struggling with a word count and I can tell you that I've struggled with a lot of word counts in my life.
So why did I write this out? Because it's been bothering me lately. I don't like having to skip over stories just because they're a bunch of single sentences strung together. It feels cheap to me when I see a writer resorting to that tactic. A drabble should still take time and energy to create. It should have some of your heart in it, same as a longer fic.
I also wrote this out because I'm trying to pass along what I've learned in fandom. While five years (give or take as I can't really remember how long it's been) doesn't seem like a long time, I've seen fandoms come and go based on the strength of the writers in the fandom. Icons come and go. Headers change with the whim of the journal owner. A good story will linger in the consciousness of its reader for YEARS. Don't believe me? Go check out some of those "Help me find this fic" posts that pop up and you'll see that people are still asking about fics that they read three or four years ago. Do you want that to be your story people are remembering and recommending? Paragraphs, my friend. I'm telling you... improve your writing in this one area and you'll get results!
ETA: I found this great blog entry on this very same thing. Check it out!
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 02:20 pm (UTC)From:*SMOOSH*
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 02:46 pm (UTC)From:My horoscope this week said that I was supposed to help someone... and then tell them what they'd done wrong so they don't do it again. I thought this would count. Here's hoping so because I could never do something like this face to face with anyone!
*smooshes back*
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 03:30 pm (UTC)From:I had a lovely beta who taught me that very early on. I sent something for review and her immediate response was "WAH! Why do you hate me? Why are you trying to blind me with those HUGE paragrahs? SPACES! I need spaces!!".
Dramatic? Yes. But it proved the point.
Also, writers would be wise to open up a few of their favorite books and just look at the layout of the pages. How long are the paragraphs? How do the spaces help guide the eye and ease reading?
no subject
Date: 2009-08-27 03:32 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 03:34 pm (UTC)From:I used to write really long paragraphs, but then I saw that most of the stories I read had much shorter paragraphs, so I started to do the same thing.
I'm not a very experienced writer yet, and I'm not that good in writing drabbles or ficlets. But lately I have tried writing some, and my fics have a tendency to contain a lot of dialogue so they tend to end up like your first example.
I really don't like the look of it either, so thanks for opening my eyes to it :D
no subject
Date: 2009-08-27 03:24 am (UTC)From:And the best way, especially at first, is to emulate writers you like. Of course, you don't want to be exactly like them but you can utilize their style for awhile. It's the easiest way to learn. It's how I did it!
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 04:23 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-08-27 03:24 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-08-27 03:30 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-08-27 03:34 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-08-27 05:40 pm (UTC)From:I can't find the answer anywhere and it's irking me.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-27 07:54 pm (UTC)From:I'm trying to find the "rule" that you asked about and can't find anything about it. Personally, I hate this one because it looks like I've mistyped so I hardly ever do it. Instead, I'll break up the quotations with action so that I can get a clean break.
It would look like:
Ginny stared across the room, wishing this conversation didn't have to happen right now. It was painful for both of them. "Don't you understand, Harry? I have to move on. It's not that I don't love you. I always will.
"Besides, you have work to think about. There's so much for you to do right now. Kingsley needs you one hundred percent. If you give him anything less, you'll only get hurt."
no subject
Date: 2009-08-27 08:44 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-08-27 03:30 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-07 05:41 am (UTC)From:But that's just my personal rant. :P I'm overly sensitive of long paragraphs!