If you're looking to while away more time on the internet, I had great fun on this random crime-fighting-buddies generator: They Fight Crime!
There's also a random sentence generator, and Chuck Wendig has a flash fiction challenge using it. You still have time: his deadline is Friday March 15 at noon. Quick, go get a random sentence and write a story using it!
If you've done that and you still have time to kill, Chuck Wendig's latest is a great post about tantric sex--No! It's actually about writing, and how good writing is like tantric sex, not that he would know (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). He makes a great point, and it's something I've noticed about Diana Wynne Jones and Megan Whalen Turner in particular, which is why I so obsessively reread them: writing is all about withholding. Not telling everything.
DWJ and MWT use the fewest words possible to tell their story, so you know that every word is absolutely crucial. There is no skimming through description when reading their books, never any "yada, yada, get to the good part" feelings. Every scene is dramatic and full of conflict; if it doesn't seem like anything important is happening, you reread the scene to see what you missed, because you definitely missed something. And so you read the books in a constant state of frustrated tension: "must find out what's going on." Half the time when I get to the end of one of their books, I have to go back and reread most of it just to figure out what just happened. And I love it.
Sigh. Must go cut out half the words in my WIP.
I saw your DWJ guest post, and had sent a tweet to @WeBeReading just to say "YAY, DERK!" before I even looked at the bottom and realized you'd written it. And then I said "Of COURSE! We've already discussed the awesomeness here!"
ReplyDeleteYay, Derk, indeed!
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