![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Not too bad considering I'm a little burnt from writing those shorts.
Elf Sternberg over on rascf has been thinking abuout what he wants to accomplish in the first 1000 words. I think he's asking a lot from three pages. If I tried to do all the things in his list -- too lengthy to remember and quote here -- I don't think I'd do them well enough. I'm satisfied if I can establish a voice that I can keep consistently, if I've established the setting and at least one of the important characters, and given the reader to stick around for the rest of the chapter and learn what the big questions of the books are going to be. I think that's a lot, actually.
I'm always worried that the openings aren't compelling enough or are too eccentric. But then I'm always worried that the endings are too abrupt, or too pat, or too vague. And I'm always worried that the middles are too rambly, or not deep enough, or that the pacing is just off.
Pacing matters a lot, doesn't it?
Elf Sternberg over on rascf has been thinking abuout what he wants to accomplish in the first 1000 words. I think he's asking a lot from three pages. If I tried to do all the things in his list -- too lengthy to remember and quote here -- I don't think I'd do them well enough. I'm satisfied if I can establish a voice that I can keep consistently, if I've established the setting and at least one of the important characters, and given the reader to stick around for the rest of the chapter and learn what the big questions of the books are going to be. I think that's a lot, actually.
I'm always worried that the openings aren't compelling enough or are too eccentric. But then I'm always worried that the endings are too abrupt, or too pat, or too vague. And I'm always worried that the middles are too rambly, or not deep enough, or that the pacing is just off.
Pacing matters a lot, doesn't it?