Desperately Seeking Conflict

[raefinlay]

*sigh* I have a problem.

I lurve to develop stuff. Building characters, creating setting, gradually revealing motivation and plot... I lurve it. I lurve it with passionate hotmonkey lurve.



Alas, no one wants to read such painstaking development. Readers want ACTION. They want to know what the story is about right up front, so they know whether to invest the time. This frolicking about with the reader, teasing him with veiled hints, sprinkling character insights... it's soooo last century.

This is the X-box society. We can drive a stick shift and talk on the cell phone and suck a mocha all at once. How does one write for such a culture? Well, not the way I've been writing, that's for sure.

I'm gonna have to think about this for a while.

On a somewhat related note, I finally got the dreaded anticipated EC review for Elisa 1. It was slightly less devastating than expected. As well as helpful, dead-on, and all that stuff. Funny, Ms. Smith-Gaynor said exactly the same thing everyonesakitty told me right after I posted it. Holly is Teh Smart.



And now, I must watch Angel. Because it's Friday night and Friday nights are Whedon nights.

Comments

[aaron-mag.livejournal.com]

Heh heh...

Dude. Holly is the conflict queen! That is the first thing she asks. Where is the conflict. Where is the tension.

I read the EC review. It was much like mine. Complimentary in some areas and then ripping you to shreds in others. Then you have all these people saying, "Congratulations" and you keep saying, "Yeah, but did you read the review! I got ripped apart!!!" But everyone ignores you and says, "Well congrats anyway."

Strangely enough our reviews were exactly reversed. I didn't have enough world-building.

Further thoughts...

I thought the EC review was a good one. It isn't because this is an Xbox society. First off...what is your goal? It is to sell this story. Do you know how many editors/agents get stories from 'would be' writers that ramble all over the place and go nowhere? I don't either, but I'm guessing it is a lot. We've all read stuff like that. You follow for chapters and chapters waiting for all the pieces to fall into place, and then they don't. Or they are just thrown together in a mish-mash of improbable events.

Editors and Agents don't have time to find out, in your junior effort, if you know how to hang a plot together. You've got to hit them over the head with it at the beginning.

EB is a good character. She is definetely not stereotypical. The setting and little dashes of flavor are awesome (all these things were pointed out by EC). But EC also hit upon a good point when she said, "I'd like to know more of what Elisa wants...but I would like to see some glimmer of what it is that will make her a heroine in the end..."

These elements are definetly there. Elisa, for example, stuffs her face in front of her sister's disapproval. She really, despite all her personal misgivings, doesn't give a shit. She doesn't want to be like her sister, even though she does have some respect for her. She wants to be herself. And that is something. That is certainly something.

So a massive rewrite on conflict is probably not needed. Just a strengthening of what is already there and more clues about the overall conflict.

My 2 cents, anyway...

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

Thx, Aaron. Yep, I totally agreed with the EC review. On every single point. I do need an extra layer of conflict in there exactly for the reasons you pointed out.

I remember your EC chapter well. Lots of action, motivation was very clear...I can see why a reader would get sucked in. (And it wasn't just action for action's sake.)

Speaking of which...how is chapter 2 coming along??? *waits, but not patiently*