06-28-2003, 12:45 AM
Just while we're on the subject, another piece of writing advice I liked was Orson Scott Card on writing short stories. When a cracking idea struck him, he made a note and did nothing until he had a second one. He said a one idea story would be too simplistic - it needed the second theme/layer to make a good one.<br>
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Dickens also said that a particular man was "still enough of an amateur to think a novel didn't have to be planned." I dare say I've misquoted, but that's the gist.<br>
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It did interest me to find that Stephen King hardly ever planned his books. He just rambled through them with no idea how they were going to turn out. At last I could understand how a novel like 'It' could go wrong in the last chapter,when he sticks a big deus ex machina monster in a sewer to explain it all. As a coincidence, the books he said he HAD planned, like The Dead Zone, were far and away my favourites, with great endings and a much tighter plot than most. I still think he's one of the best character writers in print.<br>
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Conn<br>
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<br>
Dickens also said that a particular man was "still enough of an amateur to think a novel didn't have to be planned." I dare say I've misquoted, but that's the gist.<br>
<br>
It did interest me to find that Stephen King hardly ever planned his books. He just rambled through them with no idea how they were going to turn out. At last I could understand how a novel like 'It' could go wrong in the last chapter,when he sticks a big deus ex machina monster in a sewer to explain it all. As a coincidence, the books he said he HAD planned, like The Dead Zone, were far and away my favourites, with great endings and a much tighter plot than most. I still think he's one of the best character writers in print.<br>
<br>
Conn<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>