Writing experiments

scarletpeaches said:

So. What have you ever done to challenge your own writing? Have you ever written something, or written according to a certain method, just to see if you could? A change of genre, schedule, hell, even where you write?

Click to expand...

Hey, whatever works, you know?

I'm always pushing my own writing boundaries, trying new genres just to see if I can, trying new PsOV, absorbing everything I can about the craft in the process. I think it's healthy and normal to want to stretch, just to know: can I do this?

Even my dismal failures have taught me valuable lessons I've been able to apply elsewhere.

None of us having anything to lose by experimenting.

I decided that a fully fledged writer should be able to write a decent sex scene

The resulting novella comes out in September and I'm currently mid-edit (and if anyone can give me an alternative to the word clitoris that a) is right for c1700 and b) doesn't make me giggle, I will be eternally grateful )

Helped tremendously with the next book what I done wrote and the sexual tension (although that one is waaaaaaaaaay less graphic)

I also decided to give it a go writing something like serious wiv a serious theme etc. It's shaping up all right.

I read something of Jeff VanderMeer's and was inspired to write a short story with as many adverbs and adjectives I could cram into a sentence. (I usually write very sparse description.) Didn't turn out half bad, I think.

Nicole

scarletpeaches said:

Better to try than wonder if you should, I reckon. (Whoa, philosophical).

Click to expand...

Well, yeah. We see it enough around here, folks who ask hesitantly: can I do this? Should I do this?

Honestly, try it. Worst case you'll learn something; knowledge is never a waste.

Curiosity about my own abilities (and everything else) pushes me beyond my own boundaries every day.

SP knows my answer.

A few months back Thinker42 posted a challenge in Erotica SYW. We had to post a piece that was written from the completely opposite POV than you normally write with.

I usually write third person close POV, from the female MCs perspective. For the challenge I wrote in first person from a male MCs POV. The scene ended up turning into a novel, the first draft of which I finished in four weeks.

I love to push myself. It's the only way I'll ever progress as a writer, by challenging myself. It's too easy to decide something works and settle into a rut.

SP, I love the experiment you and Lori are working on. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out.

I have found that the Sekrit Santa story exchanges we do in the SFF subforum challenge me as a writer. The prompts (basically writing a story to another AWers request) push me to write stuff I never would otherwise. It is helping me get in touch with my 'dark side' (Muahahaha), since I typically like to write about happy fluffy bunnies doing festive dances, and the like.

I really want to find someone who writes nothing like me, and do one of those collaborative novels, where each author makes a character, and then take turns writing a chapter, and see how the characters collide. Like Nick & Norah; Naomi & Ely; will grayson, will grayson etc. That looks like maximum fun.

aadams73 said:

Well, yeah. We see it enough around here, folks who ask hesitantly: can I do this? Should I do this?

Honestly, try it. Worst case you'll learn something; knowledge is never a waste.

Click to expand...

This. This. A million times THIS.

I've been experimenting with backstory. You know -- the stuff that's usually crammed into first pages, only to be cut, so the reader isn't overwhelmed with backstory, because backstory infodumps are bad.

What I've been doing is writing a series of short stories to explore the novel protagonist's backstory. This stuff won't go in the novel, at least not directly, but is more for my own understanding of the protagonist. The challenge, though, is to investigate the backstory within story structure, so it's showing instead of telling, and has conflict and character growth. The idea is that the short stories will both help me understand the protagonist better, and be useful in the future as a website "extra" or some such thing when I sell the novel.

Just as an example, if the protagonist had a scar, I'd want to know how she got that scar, so I'd write a story about when she got that scar. The novel's genre is mystery, so the short stories are too. They each have a different murder, one that happens at the relevant time of the backstory, and that makes me figure out what she knows about murder/sleuthing before the main story, since her knowledge of sleuthing in the past will affect her thoughts and actions in the novel.

I just started doing this a few weeks ago, so I haven't decided yet whether a) it's truly useful for getting deeper into the character for characterization purposes, or b) it's actually an excuse to start shiny new projects that will languish, incomplete, on my hard drive for a decade or more.

scarletpeaches said:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5002056&postcount=4We've just held what we called a 'hothouse weekend[SUP]tm[/SUP]' - 48 hours or thereabouts spent forcing nebulous ideas to grow. Thus far I've come up with three outlines and just last night another idea popped into my twisted little head. tt42, on the other hand, has produced eleventy billion new outlines for epic novels, novellas, short stories, cures for cancer, turning water into wine and a smashing new recipe for bacon pie.

Click to expand...

You forgot about the two screenplays and the haiku.

Next up we've decided to steal NeuroFizz's idea and decide on an identical premise, then write two separate books, not communicating a word about said books while we're writing them.

Click to expand...

This will be...interesting. The most challenging part will probably be the "not communicating a word about said books while we're writing them", since we do that on a regular basis with all our other books.

What I've been doing lately--inspired by David Gerrold--is to remove the word 'was' just from the narrative as much as possible. It's really forced me to look at sentences and think about how to say things differently. I'm hitting the thesaurus more to find different words. (Gerrold, by the way, eliminated about seven 'to be' words entirely from two of his books).

I'm sort of looking at meter (also from Gerrold) for use with my style. That may be beyond my skills, though, given I don't have a natural sense of rhythm.

And I've done an entire book in omniscient viewpoint. Story needed it, but I had to learn how to do it to make the story work.

It sounds pretty basic but I've decided to forget about theme and intentions. Well, maybe not completely forget about them. The problem was as I wrote the first drafts of my last couple of books, all I had in mind was what am I trying to say?

The results blew. Since then, I've gone much more for story. That doesn't mean I have to ignore any themes. It's just now I'll let them come naturally.

scarletpeaches said:

This post from He of the Neurons What Fizz inspired much brainthinkery in my...uh...brains.

Last year thethinker42 and I decided to swap writing methods, just to see if we could. I would outline a book, she would pants it, we'd see what we each came up with. The results weren't bad at all. Her novel The Best Man is out in a few days and mine? Plus One is...with an editor. So fingers crossed.

We've just held what we called a 'hothouse weekend[SUP]tm[/SUP]' - 48 hours or thereabouts spent forcing nebulous ideas to grow. Thus far I've come up with three outlines and just last night another idea popped into my twisted little head. tt42, on the other hand, has produced eleventy billion new outlines for epic novels, novellas, short stories, cures for cancer, turning water into wine and a smashing new recipe for bacon pie.

Next up we've decided to steal NeuroFizz's idea and decide on an identical premise, then write two separate books, not communicating a word about said books while we're writing them.

Mad? Possibly. Always coming up with (or stealing) new ideas to challenge each other and keep our writing fresh? Again, possibly.

ADD and easily bored? For sure.

So. What have you ever done to challenge your own writing? Have you ever written something, or written according to a certain method, just to see if you could? A change of genre, schedule, hell, even where you write?

And before anyone says it, this is a thread to play around with various ideas to push our own writing boundaries. Yes, yes, story trumps all, blah, blah, etc. That doesn’t mean those who play around with various methods are flippant about or disrespectful of writing and/or other writers. If I wrote the same book according to the same method and had the same schedule for every single project, I'd get bored. So no, we’re not interested in ragging on those of us who experiment and still get the damn thing writ. Thank you.

Click to expand...

so, glossing over your post, i have come to understand that if you put two chimpanzees into separate rooms and ask them to pound away at identical premises, they'll write two totally different novels?

Or something like that.

I challenge myself every time I sit down. I want to do everything at least once. My challenging myself is not to do something in a different way, but to do something completely different. I will NEVER outline a novel. I have tried it and concluded that, for me, it does not work AT ALL. What I do to challenge myself is try to publish in a field I have previously not attempted. In 2003 I had nothing published. I'm trying to dip my feet in everything, just to see if I can pull it off. I THINK I have done everything now except get a novel published. You can't say I'm not trying, though!

I wanted to be a playwright, so without any previous experience I signed up for a play writing festival in which the plays would be performed 16 hours after they were written. I had 8 hours to write a play...and I had to do it on the cement floor of the basement of an 18th century castle. When I began to write the play, I knew there were actors and directors waiting to enter the castle and rehearse the play and perform it later the next night. Challenge? Yes. And this is how I approach everything. I write in different genres, I tackle poetry, radio commercials, articles, jokes, song lyrics, etc, etc, etc. To me a challenge isn't really finding a new way to do something...it's doing something new. That's what works for me and helps me to push the boundaries.

scarletpeaches said:

Themes tend to sneak up on you. I often get to the end of the first draft and then realise, "Ah, that's what I was saying." And it's pretty easy to play up said theme/s during the edits.

Click to expand...

That's what I used to do. The last two books I sort of had it mind that I was a strokey beard kind of writer and so everything had to be about theme. Since then I've had a shave and just got on with telling stories.

scarletpeaches said:

Baboons, not chimpanzees.

Click to expand...

duly noted.

KTC said:

so, glossing over your post, i have come to understand that if you put two chimpanzees into separate rooms and ask them to pound away at identical premises, they'll write two totally different novels?

Click to expand...

HEY. Who are you calling a chimpanzee?



scarletpeaches, so help me, if you don't stop throwing scarletfeces at me, I'm going to...okay, that's it, I'm going to kick your ass...

scarletpeaches said:

Oh look. Lori's here, and the thread disappears down the toilet.

Like your face.

Click to expand...

He started it.

I'm insidious that way.

*sings*

BLAME CANADA!

scarletpeaches said:

Baboons, not chimpanzees.

Click to expand...

Right turn, Clyde.

Oh, wait. He was an orangutan, wasn't he?

I love the idea of writing the same idea with someone. In fact, I've got a friend of mine that I've toyed around with the idea with, and we're considering giving it a try one of these days. I'd love to do it as an exercise just to see how different they turn out.

My last book was the biggest experiment I've ever done. Basically everything about it was completely the opposite of my normal style. I outlined, for one (used to wing it, though I've decided I like this outlining thing), and it was third person, supposed to be rather light and humorous, and had a lot of dialogue and a more complicated plot than I was used to (dialogue and plot are my two big weaknesses).

Was it a success? I don't know. I learned a ton, so in that regard yes. I have no idea if it's good enough to be published, but I'm hoping so. It's the closest I've ever come in any case. My dialogue improved a thousand-fold, though, and I even got into the humor thing. The one I'm working on now is more my comfort zone, but lots more humor