Craft Workshop notes

Taking a craft workshop in preparation for the short story workshop. Just some notes and realisation on failings as a writer (or reminder). Good news is that this might increase the number of words too... :P.

Witness Syndrome 

Character see / feel different things. 

Not too bad here for me. But I do a lot of 1st person POV. Still, little ways to show it by having other characters react to things main POV don't. 

Fake Detail

- When you don’t describe something to the fullest which is important to the story

... I might be guilty of this one a little. Running through some older work, I see it there. *sighs*

Wilhelm Law

- Do not go with the first or second choice. The 4th/5th is best

This keeps the story 'fresh'. I think this is the biggest complaint I see about the System and character builds. That I go with the 'easy' build. Which... hmmm... I'll have to consider. Part of the issue is staying true to the character.

But... time to look it over. Ditto for other characters & situations.

Hidden Information

Sometimes you want the reader to be slightly ahead of the character. Build tension…

But never hide information from the reader.

I'm guilty of this one. I'll have to look at how I structure the writing. I see other writers do this (big name ones), so this is one of those laws that might need tweaking. Still worth considering how to handle that. Probably a matter of foreshadowing specific thoughts or instances rather than hiding them entirely.

Don’t forget the settings

Tying in to the above. I need to 'ground' my characters a little more. I'm realising I skip pass a lot of that, not really grounding people into the world. Chapter 1 of First Step is particularly bad for that.

Comment on Pacing 

When you make the characters move through a setting fast, it makes the book fast paced.