Adding To The Toolbox – The Climb #943

Wednesday 22nd September 2021

I think this week is going to be very light on writing. I’ve been busy sorting out my kitchen today and haven’t found the time to write. That’s OK. The plan for this week was always to prioritise other things.

I worked out how to get my smart speakers to multicast to different rooms so that as I work, or as I take a break to do a bit of Minecraft, I’ve had an audiobook going. So I guess I am reading as I work.

I’m also learning.

I’m fascinated by craft. I don’t think of it as a rulebook you have to work with, but rather a toolbox I can pick and choose from depending on what the story needs. I’m also interested in why certain things often work and other things don’t. There are rules in writing, but they are there to be broken, and sometimes I think the real craft is in how you break those rules.

This past year, I’ve tried to expand my range as a writer. I’ve given myself experience in writing scripts, in writing for games, in different genres. Ultimately, I’m not sure I want to write in all those areas, but the experience, as well as learning some of the tricks those areas use, I feel is worthwhile.

I’m doing a course on writing for comics. It’s lead by Scott Snyder, and he seems a person also fascinated by craft. Like myself, he sees rules, but sees the need to break them.

He did a course on voice toinight and despite being very late, I stayed up for it.

Voice is always something very nebulous for me. I know when I have it for a certain project, but in defining it I always struggle. For me, I often see it in the language, the style of writing, but even then I can’t pin it down. And so seeing someone dedicate an entire lesson on it really interested me.

Scott sees it as something less aesthetic and instead the perfect marriage of form and content. The stylistic flourishes are what comes as a result. He’s very much about understanding what your story is about before you write, which is a direction I’ve been heading in with the idea of theme.

I was really interested in this and another idea that the entire story is encapsulated in the first few pages (or chapter, or ten minutes). He gave various comic examples. For me, this fits in with the idea of making a promise to your reader, or putting the gun on the mantelpiece.

I can sometimes struggle with starts. I like the slow burn, building the anticipation but that can often be a hard sell. This has given me lots to think about, and I’m interested in going over some of the starts to my own projects and looking at them for not only how they start (and whether implementing this can make some of those starts stronger) but also exploring his definition of voice.

I feel I came away with a couple of new tools for the toolbox. They may not suit all projects (sometimes you need a screwdriver rather than a spanner) but I’m interested in playing with them.