Attention spans appear to be peaking…or is that guttering? Whatever, fact of the matter is we writers have to pay very close attention to what we’re writing and to creating white space.
Wait, you say, that may well apply to screenwriters, but surely not to novelists?!
Um, both.
Character names!
They’re more important than most people readers and viewers think, as pretty much every writer in every genre and type of writing knows. If you, as a writer, DON’T know that, then it’s time to step back and ponder.
Do you always say what you mean to say? No?
Neiither does maybe 90% of the rest of the human race. It’s kind of weird, this word play. Almost like we’re constantly playing games with each other’s emotions and thoughts.
It’s also the beauty of making interaction between humans fascinating. And if you’re not taking advantage of subtext in your writing as you do in your life, then you as a writer are missing out on a big chunk of how to make your script or novel worth reading.
Don’t run away – I’m not going to tell you to outline or not to outline. I just going to talk a bit about my writing process and you can take from it what you may.
Many writing ‘instructors,’ whether they be talking about novels or scripts, will tell you it’s a must to outline or to create a beatsheet or whatever. With writing, nothing is really a must. It’s how you do it and what works for you.
The outline process works great for many writers. A detailed sketch of where a story is going. And, admittedly, it is a good place to stash all sorts of notes regarding characters, plot and background.
Seriously, guys, writers write. I’ve said it before. Many of us have scripts or manuscripts or short stories or articles stashed on a hard drive that no one has ever seen.
So what?