Jun. 16th, 2021

telophase: (Default)
1. [personal profile] dewline posted this thing on art from Tumblr and, oof, that one cuts deep.

2. While drinking tea and attempting to wake up this morning, I watched a video from Lessons from the Screenplay on scene construction: Gone Girl - Don't Underestimate the Screenwriter (YouTube, 7:06, spoilers if you haven't read the book or seen the movie). He talks about how John Truby, in his The Anatomy of Story (which focuses on constructing stories for screenplays but which I've found useful) says that scenes should be constructed in a manner in which the beginning of the scene frames what the scene is about, then it funnels down to a point, with the most important word or line of dialogue stated last.

Naturally I started to scoff at the "should be," because I am somewhat contrary by nature and "shoulds" always get my dander up, but then...I realized I sort of do this naturally, and this is why: First, as I've known for a long time, I tend to talk in stories, not conversation. I got this from my mother, and we can spend a long time on the phone because we'll just be trading off stories instead of talking talking. This also means I get frustrated in conversations with normal people who talk normally because they don't realize I'm building to a punchline/climax and naturally return dialogue to something I'm saying, which gets frustrating for me because in my mind they're interrupting and screwing up my pacing and in their mind they're carrying on a dialogue. Secondly, as I've always been interested in humor and humor-like structure, I tend to structure my stories so there's a setup, a middle, and a punchline.

And that's, er, framing the scene, funneling it to a point, and stating the most important word or line (or thought, not necessarily dialogue, since I don't do screenplays) last. Er. Um. OKAY THEN.

(NOTE THAT I JUST DID THAT EXACT THING WITH THIS #2 BLOG POST ITEM. UNCONSCIOUSLY, WITHOUT REALIZING IT UNTIL JUST NOW. "Er. Um. OKAY THEN." IMPARTING MY EMOTION AT THIS REALIZATION, WHICH WAS THE POINT OF THE STORY. AAAAARGGGHHHHHH. AND THIS CAPSLOCKING AT YOU COULD BE CONSIDERED A SECONDARY PUNCHLINE. AAARRGGGGH)

(IT'S PUNCHLINES ALL THE WAY DOWN.)

(THAT WAS #3)

3. And another writing thing: I expect there's plenty of narrative tics I have that I don't notice, but I cannot bring myself to write that a character opens their hand for any reason, because Lois McMaster Bujold's characters open their hands CONSTANTLY to show emotion or emphasis and now I'm, like, if I have it happen even one time then I will never be able to unsee it.

And now you will never unsee it then next time you read any Bujold.

4. I have chosen a reward for myself for finishing the Deadwater draft, and it is this: Warriors for a Living: The Experience of the Spanish Infantry during the Italian Wars, 1494-1559. It is an academic small-press book and as such costs $144+shipping (because why would they ship free for a $144 book?!) and it is EXACTLY WHAT I NEED for the early-modern world of soldiers and mercenaries I have created. It explains lots of things about daily life in the Spanish army (which, frankly, is similar to daily life in most European armies at the time, especially since the army is fighting in Italy), and has lots of detail I'd never think of. Such as: captains would embezzle from the Crown by hiring random men to basically say "Here!" when the names of dead soldiers or deserters were called at the roster for pay (when the pay actually caught up to them, which was rare enough). The captain would keep most of that man's pay and pay off the random guy. So you see, useful for details and flavor and backstory, but too expensive to just buy, so REWARD.*



* The library I work at has an ebook version but you can only download a certain number of pages, and they have enough safeguards on it otherwise to make copying it other ways more hassle then it's worth. And I'd rather get the book legitimately anyway, so please don't bother telling me all the ways I can pirate the book.

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