Writing Update: Dense - March 17 2023

Dialogue: I am still improving on my dialogue but I have found a few things to be helpful. One, trying to focus on what each character wants out of each conversation. Maybe they want to brag, or to make the other feel better, or to share an experience, etc. Also, if I don't know how to start dialogue I've been skipping it and including a placeholder which has helped with my rhythm. It looks like this:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Dialogue must include:

-A -B -C -D -E -F

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Outlines: Outline strategy remains one of my top priorities. I want to experiment with more styles but this involves writing more stories and therefore patience. I plan on writing a story without an outline as well to see if that's something I can incorporate. I liked using Dan Harmon's story circle and will probably continue to moving forward.

Comic Books: I haven't been reading frequently lately. This is in part because the book I'm reading doesn't have chapters, which I find infuriating, and also because I have been absorbed in Comic Books. I have been watching Comics Explained on YouTube and reading some less ambitious events on my phone through Marvel Unlimited. Comic Books are absolutely not my favourite medium for stories, but I believe there's something you can learn from any form of storytelling and I want to ride out my current fascination while I can.

Deadlines: Until someone wants to pay me to meet a deadline I'm going to treat them as suggestions. It would be amazing if I could outline & write a short story in 2 weeks, it's almost just as great to finish one in 3 weeks. These next few months are going to be extremely busy for me in my personal life, I will try my best to maintain some level of consistency.

The Job: I have every chapter written except the denouement, I'm missing 3 segments of dialogue but I have a clear idea of what they should be achieving thanks to my dialogue strategy above. I will try to have it ready by Sunday night, March 19th. Failing that, I'll post it whenever it's finished during the week. My issue was that my story raises a question and I didn't know the answer before I started. So instead of spending my time thinking about how the characters reach their conclusions I had to have an internal battle about who was right and why. Maybe it will turn out to be a good thing but for now I'm only certain that it slows down my process.

Thank you for your patience,

-Scott