Read Online Write Great Fiction--Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: James Scott Bell
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and destroy enemy troops. Directs gunfire from vehicle to provide covering or flanking fire against enemy attack. Prepares and employs night firing aids to assist in delivering accurate fire. Tests surrounding air to determine presence and identity of chemical agents, using chemical agent detecting equipment, radiac, or radiological monitoring device. Drives vehicle to bridle locations to mark routes and control traffic. Requests and adjusts mortar and artillery fire on targets and reports effectiveness of fire.
The above might suggest a number of stories. What if this character got lost? Drove through a time warp into 1850? Went crazy? What areas of further research are suggested?
20. Desperation
Maybe youâre sitting before a blank sheet or screen and there is nothing in your head. Zero. Youâve exhausted all your possibilities. You are a desperate writer.
Good. Many other great writers have shared your misfortune. And they have found a way out. The answer is
just write anyway
.
Before writing
Ragtime
, E. L. Doctorow was desperate. He explains, âI was so desperate to write something, I was facing the wall of my study in my house in New Rochelle and so I started to write about the wall. Thatâs the kind of day we sometimes have, as writers. Then I wrote about the house that was attached to the wall. It was built in 1906, you see, so I thought about the era and what Broadview Avenue looked like then: trolley cars ran along the avenue down at the bottom of the hill; people wore white clothes in the summer to stay cool. Teddy Roosevelt was President. One thing led to another and thatâs the way that book began, through desperation to those few images.â
Maupassant used to advise, âGet black on white.â James Thurber said, âDonât get it right, just get it written.â
Are you desperate?
Get black on white. Now!
How NOT to Get Ideas
You now have more than enough idea generators to last your writing lifetime. Here I inject a word of caution. There are certain methods writers have resorted to over the years that you should avoid:
Drugs. By now everyone knows the dangers of drug use. While it may provide the illusion of imagination expansion, there are just too many evils involved to make it worthwhile.
Alcohol. Alcohol and authorship are inextricably linked in literary lore. Many great writers have also been notorious boozers. Untold numbers of aspirants have mistakenly thought there is a logical connection there. There isnât.
Stress. The myth of the struggling writer is another image many young authors hold dear. But nothing suggests that self-inflicted stress creates anything more than anxiety. While that can sometimes lead to deadlines born of desperation, it may also lead to overconcern with economics. This in turn can result in not taking risks and playing it safe, in short, flat writing.
As Gabriel Garcia Marquez said, âIâm very much against the romantic concept of writing which maintains that the act of writing is a sacrifice and that the worse the economic conditions or the emotional state, the better the writing. I think you have to be in a very good emotional and physical state.â
Stay healthy, happy, and above all
produce
.
NURTURING YOUR IDEAS
Okay, youâve got a bunch of ideas there. (You donât? Get busy!) Now what? Choose your favorite idea and write a
hook
,
line
, and
sinker
.
The hook is the big idea, the reason a reader browsing in the bookstore would look at your cover copy and go, âWow!â The big idea in
Midnight
by Dean Koontz is the abuse of biotechnology, which affects an entire town. Whatâs the big idea behind your book?
Now comes the line. Write the grabber copy for your idea in one or two sentences. Another of Koontzâs novels,
Winter Moon
, was summed up this way: âIn Los Angeles, a city street turns into a fiery apocalypse. In a lonely corner of Montana, a mysterious presence invades a forest.
The above might suggest a number of stories. What if this character got lost? Drove through a time warp into 1850? Went crazy? What areas of further research are suggested?
20. Desperation
Maybe youâre sitting before a blank sheet or screen and there is nothing in your head. Zero. Youâve exhausted all your possibilities. You are a desperate writer.
Good. Many other great writers have shared your misfortune. And they have found a way out. The answer is
just write anyway
.
Before writing
Ragtime
, E. L. Doctorow was desperate. He explains, âI was so desperate to write something, I was facing the wall of my study in my house in New Rochelle and so I started to write about the wall. Thatâs the kind of day we sometimes have, as writers. Then I wrote about the house that was attached to the wall. It was built in 1906, you see, so I thought about the era and what Broadview Avenue looked like then: trolley cars ran along the avenue down at the bottom of the hill; people wore white clothes in the summer to stay cool. Teddy Roosevelt was President. One thing led to another and thatâs the way that book began, through desperation to those few images.â
Maupassant used to advise, âGet black on white.â James Thurber said, âDonât get it right, just get it written.â
Are you desperate?
Get black on white. Now!
How NOT to Get Ideas
You now have more than enough idea generators to last your writing lifetime. Here I inject a word of caution. There are certain methods writers have resorted to over the years that you should avoid:
Drugs. By now everyone knows the dangers of drug use. While it may provide the illusion of imagination expansion, there are just too many evils involved to make it worthwhile.
Alcohol. Alcohol and authorship are inextricably linked in literary lore. Many great writers have also been notorious boozers. Untold numbers of aspirants have mistakenly thought there is a logical connection there. There isnât.
Stress. The myth of the struggling writer is another image many young authors hold dear. But nothing suggests that self-inflicted stress creates anything more than anxiety. While that can sometimes lead to deadlines born of desperation, it may also lead to overconcern with economics. This in turn can result in not taking risks and playing it safe, in short, flat writing.
As Gabriel Garcia Marquez said, âIâm very much against the romantic concept of writing which maintains that the act of writing is a sacrifice and that the worse the economic conditions or the emotional state, the better the writing. I think you have to be in a very good emotional and physical state.â
Stay healthy, happy, and above all
produce
.
NURTURING YOUR IDEAS
Okay, youâve got a bunch of ideas there. (You donât? Get busy!) Now what? Choose your favorite idea and write a
hook
,
line
, and
sinker
.
The hook is the big idea, the reason a reader browsing in the bookstore would look at your cover copy and go, âWow!â The big idea in
Midnight
by Dean Koontz is the abuse of biotechnology, which affects an entire town. Whatâs the big idea behind your book?
Now comes the line. Write the grabber copy for your idea in one or two sentences. Another of Koontzâs novels,
Winter Moon
, was summed up this way: âIn Los Angeles, a city street turns into a fiery apocalypse. In a lonely corner of Montana, a mysterious presence invades a forest.
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