Things I have trouble with when writing
Jul. 2nd, 2013 08:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ayngelcatAnd I'm just wondering if anyone else does too, and how they have dealt with it. Very happy to take advice/counsel from experienced writers or those who are good at the following, or discuss with others who also have found these hard:
1. Similes and metaphors. This is the biggest one. I know I don't put nearly enough of them in - and they're so wonderfully effective if you can do them well. I find it hard to think of good ones, and tend to repeat things like 'his temper simmered, a bomb waiting to explode,' which I think are probably quite yawnworthy at times. I also find s's and m's in the tf universe quite challenging because you can't use the organic natural world ones as you would in humanfic. Things like 'a nascent beginning, like a bud unfurling' simply do not work!
2. Resisting the temptation to describe people's feelings in too much detail instead of letting the the reader draw their own inferences. Describing body language as opposed to saying "he felt this ..." or "he shuddered, thinking of X..." I'm getting better but I still slip up and have not quite gotten the balance right.
3. Descriptions of places. Working out how much detail you need and slipping enough in to engage the senses without it dominating all else. Sometimes I struggle with where to put descriptions in, too.
There's others, but that will do to be going on with. All views gratefully received :DDD
1. Similes and metaphors. This is the biggest one. I know I don't put nearly enough of them in - and they're so wonderfully effective if you can do them well. I find it hard to think of good ones, and tend to repeat things like 'his temper simmered, a bomb waiting to explode,' which I think are probably quite yawnworthy at times. I also find s's and m's in the tf universe quite challenging because you can't use the organic natural world ones as you would in humanfic. Things like 'a nascent beginning, like a bud unfurling' simply do not work!
2. Resisting the temptation to describe people's feelings in too much detail instead of letting the the reader draw their own inferences. Describing body language as opposed to saying "he felt this ..." or "he shuddered, thinking of X..." I'm getting better but I still slip up and have not quite gotten the balance right.
3. Descriptions of places. Working out how much detail you need and slipping enough in to engage the senses without it dominating all else. Sometimes I struggle with where to put descriptions in, too.
There's others, but that will do to be going on with. All views gratefully received :DDD
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Date: 2013-07-03 07:35 am (UTC)2. I used to write a lot of IP, and it is easier in some ways. I have not written IP present tense - is that even easier? I must try, I keep meaning to.
When I first switched from 1P to third person or POV I did sometimes used to write the scene as IP and then 'convert' it. I still do that occasionally - it can help with getting 'in character.' Do you do that at all?
All these questions!
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Date: 2013-07-03 09:55 am (UTC)2: I have no idea. 1P Present is my default (because I'm strange like that). Past tense I can do but I have to go through and edit to catch the present tense stuff that slips in without me noticing.
3: I do that without trying :P I have to edit if I write 3P because there will be 1P stuff in there.