I've been working over the outline for A Place of Safety and it's coming together. Everything in its proper place and knowing what is needed when and where. It's the how that keeps messing with me. How do I keep this from becoming a James Michener style of writing, where I cram the story with research because I've done so damn much of it? Same for Leon Uris. Dry, bland stories told about cardboard characters with no real meaning.
That's the fight I usually have with my writing -- how to make the characters real and alive and human and not boring. It takes a lot of digging and reworking on my part to do, and the only scripts or books I like that I wrote have characters in them who carry meaning beyond themselves. Even How To Rape A Straight Guy, probably the work that gets the most visceral reaction from people, is told by a man who's slowly coming to terms with the reality of his life and how he let it become that way...something he realizes too late to do him any good. I put all the sex in to keep people interested...or freaked out, depending on your bent. (Yeah, right.)
I tried to do that with Underground Guy, too, but don't know if I was successful, yet; I've received no feedback. Devlin is something of a monster who's built up a nice justification for his actions, lots of excuses, but it's not until he apologizes to one of his victims that he really opens himself up to becoming a different man.
I did have an interesting development, this evening, as I worked on APoS. Just as Brendan has given up hope, he saves someone. Not like getting in the way of a bullet or taking the blame in order to let another person get away. He just nudges them in a different direction that may...or may not...lead them to a better life. A life he wanted but now realizes was never meant to be, for him...because he refused to accept his world for what it was.
Hmm...that sounds rather pretentious. Oh, I dunno. Half of what I put into any sort of outline usually winds up not being used except in my head, so this may also go by the wayside. But you never really know till the job's done...and even then you can't be sure.
The art of writing may be learning to know when to stop.
That's the fight I usually have with my writing -- how to make the characters real and alive and human and not boring. It takes a lot of digging and reworking on my part to do, and the only scripts or books I like that I wrote have characters in them who carry meaning beyond themselves. Even How To Rape A Straight Guy, probably the work that gets the most visceral reaction from people, is told by a man who's slowly coming to terms with the reality of his life and how he let it become that way...something he realizes too late to do him any good. I put all the sex in to keep people interested...or freaked out, depending on your bent. (Yeah, right.)
I tried to do that with Underground Guy, too, but don't know if I was successful, yet; I've received no feedback. Devlin is something of a monster who's built up a nice justification for his actions, lots of excuses, but it's not until he apologizes to one of his victims that he really opens himself up to becoming a different man.
I did have an interesting development, this evening, as I worked on APoS. Just as Brendan has given up hope, he saves someone. Not like getting in the way of a bullet or taking the blame in order to let another person get away. He just nudges them in a different direction that may...or may not...lead them to a better life. A life he wanted but now realizes was never meant to be, for him...because he refused to accept his world for what it was.
Hmm...that sounds rather pretentious. Oh, I dunno. Half of what I put into any sort of outline usually winds up not being used except in my head, so this may also go by the wayside. But you never really know till the job's done...and even then you can't be sure.
The art of writing may be learning to know when to stop.
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