Taking my time and focusing down are big ones for me. I tend to speed through the story (when I'm actually writing) and think I'll come back later and add the details. Sometimes that works but I think it's better to learn to slow down and get as much as possible from the characters the first time.
I think part of the reason I do that is that my brain (critical mind) comes up with multiple scenarios and can crowd out the characters' voices so I try to hurry along with the characters trying to stay ahead of it.
Your last few posts have captured for me the essence of WITD--making sure you're telling the characters' story AND telling that story to the best of your ability.
If you can stay in that space, then cycling really is done in creative mind.
Yep, as long as you stay in creative mind, it all works. The trick is trusting and remaining in creative mind.
It also helps to "test" now and then whether you can "edit" in creative mind, changing a word or sentence or sequence here and there to make the characters' story read more smoothly for the reader while NOT allowing yourself to intrude on the characters' story.
Even DWS said one time, "If you're fortunate enough to be able to edit in creative mind" you're ahead of the game. He stopped short of trying to teach that skill. But you CAN learn it. Of course, as long as you're in creative mind, anything you do is still part of cycling, only more "in-depth." You'll know when you're ready.
Check today's example again. All of that was the characters' story as they presented it to me. But I fine-tuned it (in creative mind) to smooth out the presentation to the reader.
For just one tiny example, the sentence "A chill trembled through her" started as "An inner chill ran through her," which became "A chill ran through her," which became "A chill trembled through her."
"Trembled" is a more specific, sensory-evoking word, whereas "ran" is too vague and too bland. "Ran" is low-hanging fruit.
The passage presents exactly what happened according to the character, but I (the writer) present it in a particular way to the reader so the reader can experience it more specifically and less vaguely.
Taking my time and focusing down are big ones for me. I tend to speed through the story (when I'm actually writing) and think I'll come back later and add the details. Sometimes that works but I think it's better to learn to slow down and get as much as possible from the characters the first time.
I think part of the reason I do that is that my brain (critical mind) comes up with multiple scenarios and can crowd out the characters' voices so I try to hurry along with the characters trying to stay ahead of it.
Your last few posts have captured for me the essence of WITD--making sure you're telling the characters' story AND telling that story to the best of your ability.
If you can stay in that space, then cycling really is done in creative mind.
Yep, as long as you stay in creative mind, it all works. The trick is trusting and remaining in creative mind.
It also helps to "test" now and then whether you can "edit" in creative mind, changing a word or sentence or sequence here and there to make the characters' story read more smoothly for the reader while NOT allowing yourself to intrude on the characters' story.
Even DWS said one time, "If you're fortunate enough to be able to edit in creative mind" you're ahead of the game. He stopped short of trying to teach that skill. But you CAN learn it. Of course, as long as you're in creative mind, anything you do is still part of cycling, only more "in-depth." You'll know when you're ready.
Check today's example again. All of that was the characters' story as they presented it to me. But I fine-tuned it (in creative mind) to smooth out the presentation to the reader.
For just one tiny example, the sentence "A chill trembled through her" started as "An inner chill ran through her," which became "A chill ran through her," which became "A chill trembled through her."
"Trembled" is a more specific, sensory-evoking word, whereas "ran" is too vague and too bland. "Ran" is low-hanging fruit.
The passage presents exactly what happened according to the character, but I (the writer) present it in a particular way to the reader so the reader can experience it more specifically and less vaguely.