Welcome to my brain. Recently I…
- Read through my raven verse novel in an attempt to learn how to finish it. I’m a firm believer in finding answers to later parts of a manuscript in a story’s earlier sections, and I’ve learned some helpful things:
- The initial encounter with the antagonist “lacks bite,” as my editor would say. (Four books in with Stacey, and I can anticipate some of her direction, which is helpful.) I realized it was because of this ho-hum first encounter that I was having a hard time approaching the key moments to come. Now that first meetup is stronger. I also have put my main character in a more difficult situation based on a poor choice she made in light of that encounter— something that will play into her character growth— nice!
- I also could see the places I lost the story’s poetry. They were often connected to spots that followed dialogue. Good to know and helpful to be aware of as I move ahead.
- After seeing Hamilton, I’m convinced musicals and verse novels are one and the same (or at least the way I experience musicals and verse novels).
- I’ve also been thinking about storytelling techniques I especially enjoy as a reader and writer — ideas and themes that build and change and sometimes are entirely reversed, like Hamilton’s “I’m not giving up my shot” and pretty much every part of a Flannery O’Connor short story. This was a technique I played a lot with while writing Miraculous, by the way.
Thinking about story— how storytelling works, admiring what floats my boat, and discovering how I can make my own work better is pretty much my happy place.
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