Are You Writing Serious Fantasy? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Nar · 05-11-2002, 08:21 AM

The thing with descriptions, origins, cosmic histories, and overviews of the world, is that the story is initially ordered by the way the writer needed to invent it. That often means 'top-down' or chronologically from the origin. So it starts with an overview or history or the birth of the hero's great-grandfather because that's how the writer developed the story. Then, often in the rewrite the writer decides it would be better to throw the reader into the middle of the good part, and the first couple of scene-setting sections are moved down to flashbacks later in the story.

So, if you find yourself needing to reorder your story, that's good, that means you're really working it, doing sophisticated editing. (It's also good to write it perfectly the first time, so if you never need editing, don't feel bad! [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] )

[ May 11, 2002: Message edited by: Nar ]

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05-11-2002, 08:21 AM	#11
Nar Wight Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 228	The thing with descriptions, origins, cosmic histories, and overviews of the world, is that the story is initially ordered by the way the writer needed to invent it. That often means 'top-down' or chronologically from the origin. So it starts with an overview or history or the birth of the hero's great-grandfather because that's how the writer developed the story. Then, often in the rewrite the writer decides it would be better to throw the reader into the middle of the good part, and the first couple of scene-setting sections are moved down to flashbacks later in the story. So, if you find yourself needing to reorder your story, that's good, that means you're really working it, doing sophisticated editing. (It's also good to write it perfectly the first time, so if you never need editing, don't feel bad! [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] ) [ May 11, 2002: Message edited by: Nar ]