Rhino Wisdom Dispensary

I maintain a presence on Reddit (yeah I know), and sometimes try to pass along bits of writing advice culled from a few years of personal fumbling around/practice. These often involve a fictional title Rise of the Were-Chicken which is a genre-crossing piece of imagination, adjusting to the question at hand. It's the most adaptable book I'll never write. Social media is still awful, but for the moment it's still largely humans, and creators need to stick together.

For those who avoid that particular hive of villainy, I'll occasionally repost (and expand) on my opinions.

 Question: I finished writing my first draft about a couple months ago and I've started working again on it for about ten days now. [...] I've sketched a brief outline using Freytag's Pyramid. [...] Any tips are appreciated.

I'd treat it like building a house: make sure the layout and overall structure is correct first, then lay in details. Don't furnish the room until you're certain that you want the room. 

I like to go back and fill in sensory details: what did it smell like? Are there noises, music, atmospheric sounds? Any tastes? ("The sharp salt air bit her tongue...") Use all the senses. And use richer, more appropriate words. The sky wasn't blue, it was "azure," the dress wasn't just red, but "crimson." Don't overdo it, but start laying in slower language, if that makes sense. It's not an exercise in simply running a Thesaurus over it, but a matter of tuning the sounds of the piece. Reach for better verbs, too. He didn't run, he "galloped" or "scrambled" or "fumbled" or "chased." Find the words to match the mood. Some of the most evocative writing I've heard has come from authors who also have a history of poetry and who are practiced in selecting the most economical and effective word from their palette. Having a richer palette at creation-time is wonderful, but the rest of us need to backfill.

Also: look for the "turn." Ideally, a scene has an emotional turn of some kind: this scene started sad but ended happy! Their friendship was awkward and now it's strained. The character was hopeful but now anxious. The scene isn't just Point A to Point B, but it's got to serve some purpose. And as you get better, a turn can exist at the paragraph level as well as the chapter. The same basic triangle idea applies: small rises and dips along a path. I am still polishing that skill, but it's also a matter of rhythm and motion within the words. Freytag's shape can apply at a narrow level as well as a broad one, and it's a richer paragraph that takes the reader on a small step on a longer journey.

None of this comes for free, and the final piece of advice I'd put in here is practice. I think we're a culture obsessed with finishing, and rapidly. It takes time to create any art, but I don't know if it's our ape brains that want the sweet satisfaction of a ripened piece, or an inability to be comfortable seeing something in a undone state, but the drive to complete and move on is powerful and sets an unreasonable tempo. A first draft is the first draft, not the final, not even close to the final. There are many to come, with their tunings and shapings and cuttings-away and addings-on. The first draft is a first step, and in taking the time to rewrite and revise and enhance, we get the strength to look at the first draft as not "nearly done" but as "a starting point." Practice gives us confidence, and strength, and teaches us a sense of creative wayfinding. Spend the time, let it be unfinished for a while, and devote it to the craft. The finish will arrive, but it's not necessary to force it along. You're still holding the reigns of this work, and set the pace.

🧩🦏