dhampyresa: (A most terrible case of the Star Wars)
dhampyresa ([personal profile] dhampyresa) wrote2016-04-13 11:54 pm

Writings

I've been writing a lot of Star Wars fic lately and have come to the conclusion that I structure them slightly differently than I do the rest of my writing. It's not anything obvious or that anyone but me would notice, but it is there.

It's a bit more circular, a bit more mirrored and relies a lot on tripled patterns.

It's also more visual, but I think that's a consequence of me having fallen back into the tried-and-true (for me) habit of visualising things like comic pages. It's a thought pattern I occasionally fall back into, not least because I do a lot of drawings of whatever I'm writing at any given time (one sketch a day is hard to come up with ideas for, just saying) so the combination of words and ideas lends itself logically to switching to comics mode.

I like comics mode, don't get me wrong. It allows me to see things from a different angle and that can be very useful.

It's just that comics and plain text are not the same medium, and sometimes I run into problems like trying to translate "this scene is a double-page spread" into prose.

I think I have something that might work, though. It's a difference of emphasis.

The difference between a single panel in the right uppermost corner of the right-hand page (right-up-right and left-down-left tend to be the most overlooked areas of a double page spread when reading left-to-right) and a double-page spread is not the difference between:
His lightsaber flew into the girl's hand.
and
The Force sang like it had not sang in years; it was a deep, resounding note that dug into your bones and echoed there.

It reminded Anakin of Mustafar, the perfect clarity of it.

Out there in the forest, out there in the snow, his ancient lightsaber, the accursed, bloodied thing, had flown through the air into the girl's hand and the Force sang.
but it's pretty similar.

The actual, physical ACTION is exactly the same (and it's also exactly the same as what happens in the movie, starting at 00:56). What's different is the emphasis put on this moment.

In movie form, that emphasis takes the form of a wide-shot and a swelling soundtrack. In comics form, it's a one-panel double-page spread. In written form, it's -- more words, basically.

Not just any words either, but extended metaphor. Here it's the-Force-as-music, which is how I tend to write the-Force-as-perceived-by-Anakin but it doesn't have to be. A bit of repetition on occasions doesn't hurt and it's no coincidence it both starts and ends with "the Force sang". (I'm also really fond of "the accursed, bloodied thing" for reasons.)

Watch me have to cut this because it doesn't fit the tone of the rest of the fic, lmao.

endeni: (Default)

[personal profile] endeni 2016-04-14 09:58 am (UTC)(link)
/In written form, it's -- more words, basically./ - Eheh, more words getting us inside the character's head rather than focusing on describing action. *nods*
/the-Force-as-music, which is how I tend to write the-Force-as-perceived-by-Anakin/ - Oh, that's a lovely metaphor indeed! *_*
endeni: (Default)

[personal profile] endeni 2016-04-14 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, now I'm curious about other characters'. *g*
endeni: (Default)

[personal profile] endeni 2016-04-26 09:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I love Rey's! <3 And I'm curious about Obi-Wan too. *nods*
ljwrites: Question mark over head. (confused)

[personal profile] ljwrites 2016-04-17 03:31 pm (UTC)(link)
To clarify, do you mean that you structure your SW fics differently because you're more visual about it than with other projects and put more emphasis on individual dramatic scenes?