Lately, I've been focusing on my novel (which is why there haven't been as many posts of artwork as there used to be). Most of my spare time goes to trying to make what I have work better, in the hopes that I can hook a literary agent and get my book published.
One of my biggest concentrations right now is purpose - giving everything a purpose, from minor characters to the setting to the scenes themselves. I've been giving minor characters "double duty" - as in, instead of just pushing the plot along, they also contribute something else to the story, like conflict (by irritating the main character) or by paralleling or adding to a major theme.
I've been doing the same thing with the setting for each scene. I'm trying to avoid cliches (kitchens, cars, etc.) as much as possible and put the characters into more interesting venues. I'm also trying to have the settings work "double duty"... In going through and looking at word choice in an earlier round of edits, I realized there were a lot of references to height. Some of the characters are building a treehouse, and so there are references to climbing up and down, or calling up/down to other characters. In another part of the story, there are also hills, which create the same situations. This wasn't really intentional, but maybe on some subconscious level it was - the differences in height often reflect the character's state of mind, and how they see themselves/the people around them. (Looking down/up at other people, putting others on pedestals, thinking they're better than others, etc.) So in places where I can change the setting, I've also been looking at how I can add height into the mix, like having conversations on rooftops and in basements.
As for the scenes themselves, I'm trying to make them more engaging by increasing the tension or conflict. There isn't a whole lot of action (instead, there's a lot of existential rumination), but I have found ways (often through the minor characters that I wasn't utilizing in the best way I could) to irritate the main character more.
I have also been trying to turn exposition into dialogue whenever possible (while making sure that the dialogue remains the sort of thing someone would actually say and isn't an obvious "info dump"). I've found that this also increases the tension - when the characters revisit memories together (instead of just thinking about them silently and ruminating), arguments often follow. At the very least, it's easier to get an instant sense of the characters - when they talk to each other more, their personalities and how they relate to other people come out much more clearly.
It's been a lot of work - there are scenes that I'm basically rewriting entirely - but I really do think it's making my manuscript better. It's hard to tell until the whole thing has been worked through, but I think it's getting there.
All of these ideas came (at least initially) from a great book I've been reading - "Revision and Self-Editing: Techniques for Transforming Your First Draft into a Finished Novel" by James Scott Bell. If you're looking for ideas for fixing plots, scenes, and characters, definitely check it out.
One of my biggest concentrations right now is purpose - giving everything a purpose, from minor characters to the setting to the scenes themselves. I've been giving minor characters "double duty" - as in, instead of just pushing the plot along, they also contribute something else to the story, like conflict (by irritating the main character) or by paralleling or adding to a major theme.
I've been doing the same thing with the setting for each scene. I'm trying to avoid cliches (kitchens, cars, etc.) as much as possible and put the characters into more interesting venues. I'm also trying to have the settings work "double duty"... In going through and looking at word choice in an earlier round of edits, I realized there were a lot of references to height. Some of the characters are building a treehouse, and so there are references to climbing up and down, or calling up/down to other characters. In another part of the story, there are also hills, which create the same situations. This wasn't really intentional, but maybe on some subconscious level it was - the differences in height often reflect the character's state of mind, and how they see themselves/the people around them. (Looking down/up at other people, putting others on pedestals, thinking they're better than others, etc.) So in places where I can change the setting, I've also been looking at how I can add height into the mix, like having conversations on rooftops and in basements.
As for the scenes themselves, I'm trying to make them more engaging by increasing the tension or conflict. There isn't a whole lot of action (instead, there's a lot of existential rumination), but I have found ways (often through the minor characters that I wasn't utilizing in the best way I could) to irritate the main character more.
I have also been trying to turn exposition into dialogue whenever possible (while making sure that the dialogue remains the sort of thing someone would actually say and isn't an obvious "info dump"). I've found that this also increases the tension - when the characters revisit memories together (instead of just thinking about them silently and ruminating), arguments often follow. At the very least, it's easier to get an instant sense of the characters - when they talk to each other more, their personalities and how they relate to other people come out much more clearly.
It's been a lot of work - there are scenes that I'm basically rewriting entirely - but I really do think it's making my manuscript better. It's hard to tell until the whole thing has been worked through, but I think it's getting there.
All of these ideas came (at least initially) from a great book I've been reading - "Revision and Self-Editing: Techniques for Transforming Your First Draft into a Finished Novel" by James Scott Bell. If you're looking for ideas for fixing plots, scenes, and characters, definitely check it out.
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