[Check-In]

[kalloway]

Just a reminder - this is your community, too. Feel free to use it to ask for advice, vent, commiserate, celebrate, etc.


This is a weekly check-in! You do not have to check in, of course, but if you would like to comment on the last ~week, feel free!


If you have a deadline coming up, you can do it! If you need a deadline, feel free to ask!


The current Brainstorming Post is here!

Comments

[silverr]

I think so? I'm sort of old school in that I want the opening to set the stage, foreshadow the themes a bit, do a bit of "previously on..." (since the time between chapters tends to be weeks and sometimes months), and aim squarely for the unseen destination that is the chapter's end.

In this fic I've also started to look for ways to toss in* the most crucial backstory lore-nuggets, because some of the reviews have twigged me to the fact that I've made incorrect assumptions about how well versed in the Warcraft lore people coming into the fic might be.

Film analog: To me the opening is the long tracking/establishing shot.

I pretty much know what and why; it's more a matter of the "where," of how to sequence all the bits in a way that seems to me to flow as naturally as possible (until my beta comes in and points out everything that is crap :p).


------
* Aside from using footnotes, of course. Because that would be silly. *g*

[kalloway]

Just checking. I know sometimes if I can't nail an opening, after the third or fourth try I need to step back and see if I'm not just opening from the wrong spot. Usually I am and a different angle or something fixes all.

[silverr]

Yeah, I had that type of issue a few chapters back, and pretty much did what you advise.

I also find, if something's fighting me, that stepping back and asking myself why I'm trying to do the scene that way, what I'm trying to accomplish, can be constructive. (Usually a beta is great for expediting that type of analysis, but beta readers certainly aren't available 24/7.