[stylist] story questions

[Applebutter Hill]

Barbara,
I think this is a good approach. You'll be building up a collection of
scenes and portraits that will help you flesh out and organize the story,
and at the same time you'll be developing your point of view and the voice
or tone of the story. In the end, you may use a lot of what you've created,
and if there is something you end up discarding, just tuck it away for some
other day.

The question about the number of characters that would overwhelm the average
reader raises an important issue, though it doesn't have a fixed answer.
This is a highly variable issue. Some readers have great memories and are
highly motivated to remember what they've read regardless of whether they
like it or not. Some aren't even trying to keep things straight and end up
getting caught up in the story on their own terms. Some writers expect the
reader to do a lot of work; I don't care for that approach myself.

One reason readers get overwhelmed by characters is that the author is not
properly reintroducing the characters in ways that tweak the memory and
motivate the reader to remember. It often takes me a while to get characters
straight, and I welcome the occasional reminder, which can be tucked
efficiently in a dialog tag or even as part of the dialog itself. It can be
a quick mention of the person's job, some physical characteristic, quirky
habit or mention of some agnst they're dealing with that had been previously
mentioned. Sometimes, the writer uses the narrative portions to refresh the
reader's memory by connecting the character to some past action: if the last
time we saw John, he was at a meeting with his boss, for instance, you could
say something like, "John, who was still reeling from the bad news he
received from his boss ..." Or, another character can be thinking things
over and in their thoughts are reminders to the reader, such as, "Deb looked
at John and knew that John was troubled. Had something happened when he met
with his boss? Something that he wasn't telling her?"

What you don't want to do is to make these things cumbersome. You also don't
want to use the character's name, for instance, every time they speak. It's
best when they don't appear to be deliberate repetitions. Look over some of
your favorite books and ask yourself how the author is helping the reader
keep people straight. This will give you an idea of what has worked for you
personally, which is a pretty good piece of information to have.
HTH,
Donna
-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Barbara
HAMMEL via stylist
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2014 6:10 PM
To: stylist
Subject: [stylist] story questions



Okay, I've figured out a little blurb for the main plot of this story.
One question I can think of, because IDON'T get overwhelmed by numbers of
characters in a story -- how many characters  would overwhelm the average
story reader?
I think for me, the best way to approach this story is to plan much of it
out -- characters, the subplots, whose bad and whose good, who knew each
other before the story starts and how ... essentially writing mini stories
or summaries of what want to see happen.
Barbara
Sent from my iPhone
_______________________________________________
Writers Division web site
http://writers.nfb.org/
stylist mailing list
stylist at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
stylist:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/applebutterhill%40gmail
.com