9.23.8
Writing Techniques
I appreciate the chance to share writing techniques, but there is absolutely no one near me with whom I can share ideas about writing!
I have come up with a character development model: I write a fictional biography (even if I don’t intend to use it all); I plot how the characters will evolve through life; all the evolutions have tipping points; tipping points are hinged events that effect one or more story plots. Conversely, some plot events cause tipping points for more than one character. Also, tipping points often change a characters archetype— a threshold guardian might become an ally, a lover might become a shape-shifter, a mentor might become an adversary, etc.
Most tipping points are preceded by an epiphany, so I plot those. All those ideas (and more) get funneled into my detailed outline. I distill the outline into a detailed synopsis. The synopsis is where I can really see if the story elements are working together.
From the synopsis I can also isolate the through lines and test those for thoroughness. It is much easier to chop up the synopsis and outlines and move elements around than it is to do large edits in the narrative mode.
My pre-writing work flow is arduous, but I’m never stuck. From the synopsis, the narrative flows easily because I only need to concentrate on good description and not worry about planning or anything else.
I hope it all works! Anyway, I’m intrigued by how other writers think and work. The Swain model is a good example, it’s basic; in most scenes I was already employing it, but I hadn’t viewed scene planning in such simple conceptual terms. I have a feeling that I will discover the same about the LOCK model of character evolution.
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