Donald Davis compares story-making to quilt-making. The first step, he says, is scrap-gathering. Scraps are, as you might suspect, just little evocative bits of experience: an overheard conversation, a scent, the way the landscape looked out the window of a car you rode in as a kid.
When you have enough scraps, you can think about stitching them together. But you can’t do that until you have a Place, some People, a Problem, and an ending that results in some kind of Progress.
What do y’all think of this model?
kiplet Says:
Friday, November 11, 2005 at 9:26 am. |
Define progress, he said, from the peanut gallery.
wildiris Says:
Friday, November 11, 2005 at 10:20 am. |
Dia Calhoun referred to her ideas as a bag of scraps - I think her essay on this topic was published in VOYA a few years ago.
bridgeweaver Says:
Friday, November 11, 2005 at 12:57 pm. |
Doesn’t that partake of the same philosophy as Hemmingway saying to write what you know? I mean, if you’re attempting to write something that lives in a world with which you are unfamiliar, how does that model apply? I suppose even in a story set in the far-flung future, you ight still stitch in bits of your experience, but isn’t that limiting?
I suppose Empress of the World might fit that model; at least I can say there were a lot of bits that were recognizable by people who knew you. I suppose I’m sitting on the fence.
indulgent_el Says:
Friday, November 11, 2005 at 10:17 pm. |
I don’t write fiction, but this certainly works for me for essays . . . before computers I’d hand write, then cut the paper up and spread it out on the floor, moving pieces around and filling in blanks with notes.
blackholly Says:
Sunday, November 13, 2005 at 12:35 am. |
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
thisisnotanlj Says:
Monday, November 14, 2005 at 3:21 pm. |
thanks holly! and a belated happy one right back atcha. :)
capn_jil Says:
Tuesday, November 15, 2005 at 3:06 am. |
regardless of what outfit they’re wearing you’re probably still writing what you know.