Saturday, December 13, 2014

Adding Flair

Photo by evanrudemi .  licensed without change under
Creative Commons Attribution No Derivs 2.0 Generic
I've been slowly writing my way through the fourth Hemlock novel, and approaching it in a methodical fashion.  I think there's a point when an author completes the outline of a plot for a novel and the exercise of writing the manuscript can become monotonous.  There's an acute risk of this happening if the writer doesn't allow for the plot and characters to morph and evolve around the planned outline and events.  This is why I always try to allow for these changes to emerge while I'm writing.  Sometimes this causes delays, but I think these detours are very important to the overall motivation of the author and the success of the writing process.

Another aspect of embracing this variability is making sure what gets written has the necessary detail and individuality in terms of setting and characterization.  Every scene needs to stand alone in the sense that it should be interesting, advance the plot and/or advance the character development.  It's easy to settle for executing a scene competently, but I always shoot for trying to write the scene with a certain "flair".

The word flair makes me think of the period in the history of chain restaurants where the wait staff was encouraged to wear innumerable buttons and other personal items.  This practice was later satirized in popular comedy.  There is such a thing as too much flair.  An example of this might be something like having dragons being ridden by dwarves in purple power armor.  Interesting?  Maybe... OK, probably...  But "spirited" to the point where it could negatively impact the atmosphere that's been established in your fantasy setting?  Yes, I'd say that would be a risk--unless your setting is a humorous, flamboyant fantasy/sci-fi hybrid.

Part of the work that goes into achieving this flair is trying to come up with a vivid visualization of a scene and then boiling the description down to an optimal level of detail that fires the imagination but doesn't become excessive and bog down the flow of the writing.  This is an area I've been trying to improve in my writing.

Here's an update on my work in progress!  The manuscript for Hemlock Book Four stands at around 45,000 words.  I am in the midst of writing an exciting quest/action sequence and the overall narrative is approaching what appears to be a climactic encounter.  Note the word "appears" in the preceding sentence.  I still envision this novel being at least 100,000 words before all is said and done.  The thought has crossed my mind that I could go the way of popular movie franchises and release the novel in two parts.  I always despair that my slow writing might cause people to forget about me between releases!  But I'm still reluctant to split this novel into parts because this tale does not divide cleanly.  I think the reader would be left unsatisfied.  But I always welcome your feedback!

Thanks for reading!