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Writerly Advice?!?!

Rollo Kim, on location

18:35 / 01.11.01

"Hello my name is Rollo and I'm an aspiring writer..."

Erm... so... erm... I have all of these fragments, see, where I've said what I needed to say in maybe one or two paragraphs. Lots of them. And a couple of ideas for 'novels' that I've kind of sketched out losely.

But I can't work out if I'm better off pooling everything together into one novel-sized chunk, which is possible if I sit and edit them all, or to just have a collection of these little fragments [which really appeals but maybe that's too arty and I haven't found anything similar anywhere really?]

Any advice gratefully received thankyou thankyou!!!

"OK now you cry..."

Perfect Tommy

19:42 / 01.11.01

If it's for NaNoWriMo, I'd make them all into one novel-sized chunk. My plan is to have a pretty straightforward human interest plot, then I will give my main character dream sequences until I have 50,000 words.

Pin

06:45 / 02.11.01

Actually, I'm fairly sure a good-sized chunk of Kafka's Collected Short Stoies is little fragments. That said, I've never read it cos Ottakers sold it before I aroused my funds and refuse to stock the bastard now, so just ignore me.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

07:20 / 02.11.01

Impossible question. What's the story about? If the fragments work in the story, use 'em. If they don't, don't mess with the story to get them in, 'cos you'll just have to cut 'em.

Story is god. Everything else is just window dressing. The greatest subtext in the world is just so much drivel if the story isn't up to snuff. Let the work carry the meaning, not the other way around.

Rollo Kim, on location

08:00 / 02.11.01

It's not the word-count that concerns me really. These little bits and pieces are mostly about the same characters - the characters are important, there are developing situations around a central narrative but this isn't really a plot dependant story.

I like the idea of presenting a piece of work that is just fragments - but what are the chances of getting something like that in print? People look at my work and they say 'we don't publish poetry or short stories'. Parp!

We're The Great Old Ones Now

11:26 / 02.11.01

Bite your tongue.

The plot/character distinction is tenuous, to say the least. If this is going to be interesting (unless it's going to be a frozen instant, a snapshot of descriptive writing) your characters will move through events and progress in some way or other.

If that's a very subtle plot arc, you need to be all the more clear about it in your head.

Rollo Kim, on location

12:25 / 02.11.01

I'm sure there is movement - the characters are interacting and developing. The thing isn't just disconnected chunks - I just don't like to have anything there just for the sake of it.

I think what I'm working on is something where the plot isn't really in-your-face. The plot is very, very losely based around the Wizard of Oz [nobody that's read it has noticed] - the 'Dorothy' character disappears and things get unstable for the characters left behind. The plot just seems to take care of itself. But I'm not trying to force or overstate the theme or the plot.

My God I'm really not good at explaining this. But I've figured I'm going to go through the whole lot and be ruthless. Anything that doesn't fit I'll not use. I've been pretty good at weeding out anything that isn't up to scratch or useful anyway.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

13:27 / 02.11.01

There you go. Sounds ideal. Good luck!

Rollo Kim, on location

14:49 / 02.11.01

Cheers! I need it!!

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