News from the Cave: musings about the writing life returns!
Alida ponders whether life experience if really necessary to be a writer, and comes to a conclusion she wasn’t expecting.
Read it here.
This week at the Story Works Round Table, we cover one of Kathryn’s current pain points: when description doesn’t happen while drafting and how to get it done in revision. The role of description is much richer in your story than you may think.
Robert resists adding description while he fast drafts, knowing he’ll have to face it in later drafts. Kathryn struggles to get down in words what she knows has to be there. This leads to lots of placeholders in her draft, notes to fill in the details later…but all those To Do notes can get depressing!
Kathryn’s flow state writing has gone missing due to life’s time constraints. Alida gives her a tip to turn stolen minutes into productive writing time—one we can all benefit from! We expand the conversation about using your “throat clearing” time for descriptive writing, something I’m adding to my writing practice today.
Reconnecting with your story’s voice will help you nail your descriptions. You’re going to love the argument for the richness of detail while working with Robert’s notion of the “artfully vague.”
At the end, Robert wonders if all this is any help to Kathryn. (I’m pretty sure it is!)
VIDEO
AUDIO
SHOW NOTES
Why is description so important? And why should we focus on it, both in our first draft, and the subsequent ones? How does writing in a flow state change your ability to describe as you draft? How can you revise in description? And when should you step away from your draft in order to craft it? In the end, don’t let lack of description stop forward momentum. You can, and should, fix it later!
What we talked about:
How does Robert handle description in first draft? (0:50)
How description can help bridge the logical leaps we make as a writer. (3:10)
Why lack of description is a problem. (3:52)
Where are Kathryn’s description issues? (4:53)
Should you use placeholders? How do you catch places where you need more description? (5:46)
How flow state changes your description ability. (8:27)
Make your placeholders your writing prompts! (9:26)
Description is a part of your narrative voice. (11:15)
How do you weave description into your revision drafts? (12:04)
Is what’s on my head on the page? (15:50)
The concept of “artfully vague”. (16:32)
How should you balance details in your description? (19:19)
Is there an advantage to doing your description in revision? (20:32)
What should you do when you just can’t see the picture you’re trying to portray? (24:25)
LINKS
Want more about these topics? Check out:
SWRT 037 Revision
SWRT 079 Approaches to Revision
SWRT 112 The Devil is in the Details: Revision
