Tag Archive for ‘form & technique’
The Famous Thirteen
The very first paragraph of George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four tells attentive readers quite a lot about the setting without explaining anything.
Foreboding, Part I
To raise suspense early on before readers can identify with the characters, some use foreboding techniques in form of digressions. This has some drawbacks.
Hall of Hacks, Pt.I: Harold Robbins
Watch Harold Robbins not being aware of (or not giving a shit about) even the most basic writing techniques with respect to exposition and voice.
The Little Boat of Horrors
The exposition of Stephen King’s It is a great example how to switch from summarizing to real-time action and back again to create suspense by superior pacing.
Look Into My I
Aspiring writers often adopt tje first-person perspective for their narrative voice because it looks more simple & natural than the alternatives. They’re wrong.
Resistance is NOT Futile
For the exposition, it is extra hard to resist the Urge to Explain. But try! The greatest story idea is worthless if you hack it to death right at the start.
Tell, Don’t Tell
Writers never show, they tell—but often fall for the cinematography metaphor of fiction writing. Good pacing consists of both narration and summarization.
At the Story’s Business End
Suspension of disbelief: from the viewpoint of the observer, everything that had to happen indeed happened—in order to secure the observer’s existence.