New #WritingWithMirrors video!

This one is about when you're *trying* to find a mirroring — some interesting aspect of a character that you can home in on, something you can reflect in other characters — but you're just coming up empty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUAMoXBIL-Q

#writing #editing #storycraft

New video on #WritingWithMirrors!

There's a scene in GLASS ONION that explains the entire movie—and it's not one of Benoit Blanc's big reveals.

I do a deep dive into GLASS ONION's opening sequence,
which uses mirrors in four different ways at once.
(Because if it didn't,
the movie just wouldn't work.)

https://youtu.be/UmhgpDV_U8Q

#writing #editing #storycraft #GlassOnion

New #WritingWithMirrors video!

Some mirrors you build from the ground up.
But work you've already done, plans you've already made, drafts you've already got, are just as full of mirrors ready to be used.

https://youtu.be/bJdFlarKklA

#writing #editing #storycraft

New #WritingWithMirrors video 😁

A quick example, showing how to bounce off one character and come up with great mirror characters for them — or, figure out new mirrors between characters you've already got.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddp7wiie7k0

#storycraft #writing #editing

New storycraft video: WRITING WITH MIRRORS!

This one is about the power of similarity and contrast.
It's how different parts of a story can reflect each other, echo each other, connect to each other.

For writers, readers, and anyone who loves thinking about how stories work.

https://youtu.be/Bsqs9eukUok

#storycraft #writing #editing #reading #WritingCommunity
#WritingWithMirrors

I've got to the end of the story I want to tell in this (my first) #novella, but I have more questions than answers about how to deliver the payoffs at the end. It's very much a first draft to throw away.

I've finished it feeling pleased with having written 30,000 words, and dismayed to discover how little I know about #storycraft. I have lots of notes for things I want to improve, and somewhat fewer ideas for how to achieve it.

Still! A finished draft! Sort of!

#writing

Fellow aspiring/emerging writers who are still learning the nuts and bolts of craft, or grappling with where to start or how to establish a consistent practice...

I'm using the hashtag DIYMFA on any writing craft/writing tips posts. Mostly so that my poor old brain can easily find them in the future - but it might be a useful resource/reference list for you too.

#DIYMFA #WritingCommunity #Writing #Craft #StoryCraft #NovelWriting

Kat Lewis on three things she learned while writing video games that made her a better novelist:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1566738681464889345.html

#Writing #Craft #StoryCraft #NovelWriting #DIYMFA

I am finally, finally reading Stephen King's "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption." It's a masterclass.

The story opens with a three-page intro from the narrator, the guy in prison "who can get stuff".
And in those three pages, tells SO MANY tiny, snippet-y stories. Which tell us all about what we're in for.

Seriously. Read those three pages.
Count how many separate, individual stories you're being told.
It's glorious.

Example:

#writing #editing #storycraft #StephenKing @bookstodon

Lincoln Michel, on extraneous actions and stage directions—why authors use them, and why not to.

"I have a not-terribly-intellectual principle for my own fiction writing, which is that sentences should strive to do “double duty.” That is, they should function on at least two narrative levels."

https://countercraft.substack.com/p/clearing-up-the-clutter-on-removing

#writing #storycraft

Hello, Mastodon!
I'm Ziv Wities—programmer, reader, and Assistant Editor at @diabolicalplots .

I love talking about stories, and I love talking about storycraft. By way of #introduction, here's some talks I'm working on:

- Understanding Story Structure (with the many, many Discworld subseries)
- Mirroring (on how stories use similarity and contrast)
- Worldbuilding Games

also, I will join/found short story discussion clubs on sight, fyi

#sff #editing #shortfiction #storycraft