Well, DUH.

[agilebrit]

Head, meet keyboard.

Okay, class. What's the first rule of genre writing?

Read the genre you want to write in.

It's been literally years since I've dipped my toe into written horror. I've seen a couple of movies ("Slither" and "Shaun of the Dead" are the two most recent, and are possibly not the best examples), but reading it isn't really my thing.

So, when I set out to write the CatFeet fic, I really had no idea what I was doing. And I knew it was missing something, but I couldn't really put my finger on it.

And then Dark Recesses put out a call for flashfic subs, and I decided to toddle over and check out their magazine. You can read the current issue for free, and this is research for me, right?

So I read a couple of the stories and was blown away by one, especially. Not so much the story itself, but the atmosphere it evoked. And that, my friends, is what the CatFeet fic is missing.

Part of this gets back to "I suck at description." And part of it gets back to "I write a story like I'm watching it through a camera lens." And yet another part of it is "I picked up some bad habits when I was writing fanfiction," which brings us back full circle to "I suck at description."

So it's a matter of going back and adding atmosphere to those scenes that need them. Shadows, trees, scents, that crawly feeling on the back of your neck -- I need them all, especially in a story like this. Hell, we don't even know what the protagonist looks like. All I really need are two features, and I couldn't be arsed to find them. The cat is described better than he is. Which means, yes, it's one of mine. *rolls eyes at self*

This is why, I think, kenrand's "Ten Percent Solution" doesn't work for me. I already write tight. Sometimes, I think I write too tight. So, my own Ten Percent Solution would be going back in and adding ten percent rather than whacking it out.

*cracks knuckles and dives back into the fray*

Comments

[zilly14.livejournal.com]

Part of this gets back to "I suck at description." And part of it gets back to "I write a story like I'm watching it through a camera lens."

I have that same problem. Maybe that's why I got into screenwriting? You don't need to do detailed descriptions since the director, if your script is made into a movie, ultimately makes those decisions. And you ARE writing it like you're watching it on the screen.

Good luck with your story!

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

I picked up some bad habits when I was writing fanfiction

Like, what? Stephen King writes camerically, as though through a camera eye; so do I. It's a matter of physical description over internal monologue, Keith Laumer rather than Barry Malzberg (whose stuff was brilliant, but very definitely a style that allowed him, for example, to tell an entire story through the depositions taken by investigators afterward; no character was physically described, nor was there any need, while Laumer excelled at physical description; his first paragraph of A Plague of Demons is a masterpiece and a joy to read).

From what I've seen, the only problem you have may well be the “bad habit” you mention: You don't bother to describe what the reader, presumed to be familiar with the show, would already know. (I, who didn't know, asked at one point if Illyria spoke with a thick Yiddish accent...) Is that what you mean?

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

You don't bother to describe what the reader, presumed to be familiar with the show, would already know.

Yup. And that's bled over into my origific writing. Fortunately, I know it's a weakness, and thus that it's something I need to watch out for. Which is (probably) half the battle.

In fanfiction, depending on the genre, you don't really have to create an atmosphere or mood. It's already supplied by the original source; people make assumptions based on the fandom. In original fiction, you have to create the mood from scratch. And that's another weak spot of mine, and something I have to push myself to remember.

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

The only reason I went into that ego-boo was to give an example of the tossed-off descriptive phrase, which can be useful. (Describing Buffy as a "drippy, annoying California blonde," for example...snerk)

[crayonbreakygal.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's any bad habits you've picked up in fanfiction. Description writing sucks the big one for me too. I read some people where it's all about the description but there's no plot or good dialogue. That'll turn me off faster than you know what.

There's gotta be an exercise out there to figure out the key to writing description. When you find it, please tell me!