Writing in a bubble is one of the things we writers are warned about. That's when you just have thought figures expressing actions and words. An outline sort of speaking. You, as a storyteller, have neither clearly formed nor received the images of the characters in your telling nor have you colored in the environment, the atmosphere. This is fine when you're first capturing the story. Even when you are planning the story. Because the first goal is to receive the story. You always know when you have bubble writing when the further you go the less detailed your story is. You know you have a bubble when all you have is a skeleton.
If you are emerged in your story, you'll know when you have reached joints that require flesh by allowing the story to organically unfold. By page 100 you should have clothes on your people. These clothes play a role in the story the way clothes play a role in our reality. How is her jacket and pants to play better than a dress? By page 100 you should have introduced the layout of the land so that the characters can move about unrestrained. What is the difference between the environment and the atmosphere, not for the reader but for the characters? By page 100 mannerisms should have been introduced for the main characters. In other words by page 100 you're no longer introducing, which can be a sketch, but are now moving beings around in order to express an opinion or truth. Here's a hint or piece of advice to organically deal with working out of a bubble. During the first draft be willing to work until you meet early block milestones. The first 5 pages- characters and situation is introduced- there isn't much detail required and as a matter of fact the more the worst. The first 5 should be a written pitch of what is going on to who. The first 20 pages- situation is placed in an setting- is when the jest of the setting is presented. The first 20 should be a written pitch which includes the where this going on is going on. The first 50 pages- packed with characters, situations, and reasonable out- shows the entire advertised product. The first 50 gets the reader invested in the story but it still is only snowflake details. Up until the first 100 pages, we, the reader, should be on a honeymoon with the story. And, it is on page 101 when we start to look for true substance. As a writer we've gone so far at a slow to medium pace and one of the ways to speed things up is to invite the environment (dressings) into the story. This is when the brainstorming and sketching comes back in. This is when you go back to those early ideas and see what can be savaged and what still needs to be in the file cabinet. After you have went through your scraps, time to sit down and become an open channel again. Now that you have an idea craved in stone you can start to ask what do the people, places, and things look like. Ask and you shall receive. Know that you are the ending point for the collective knowing that all stories come from. There is no need to try to force this. Let the creativity that brought you up to this point carry you through the next 200 pages. With the middle being action and action only, you will be surprised how much action can be taken up with the descriptions. Don't be surprised if you find yourself receiving ideas for the 200 pages as a by product. It works trust me. Thanks for Listening! Sabrina Louise Andielle
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AuthorOne of those writer folk telling stories, reviewing the writer's adventure, and presenting the hero's journey. All wrapped in Spirit, the Kingdom of God, the Sanatana Dharma, the Tao, the Way, or the Absolute. Archives
February 2020
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