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I am currently making my way through "The Fantasy Fiction Formula" by Deborah Chester. It's my first stab at this kind of thing, so it has been really eye openi

I am currently making my way through "The Fantasy Fiction Formula" by Deborah Chester. It's my first stab at this kind of thing, so it has been really eye opening. When I read any kind of fiction now, I can't help but map out all the elements of plot and scene described by Chester. (This has had the unpleasant side effect of making reading fiction less pleasurable. ah well) So, I can see this kind of tool being very useful in structuring plots, sub-plots and scenes. I still haven't written that book though, so I am wondering if any seasoned writers here have a take on it.

prionassembly 6y ago
I bought "Save the cat!" (I'd read some parts of Vogler's "Writer's journey" in film school) hoping to adapt the formula to writing a bad novel. Then I never did. The weird thing about hobby projects is that they don't have an actual audience. So I write a lot about philosophy and social theory and such, but it's ultimately a lot of self-dialog. This doesn't work for fiction, even short stories. (I did write a handful of poems in the 2010s)
- Balgair 6y ago
  Michael Tucker of the YT channel Lessons From the Screenplay has a very very good list of writing books here: https://www.lessonsfromthescreenplay.com/reading-list https://www.lessonsfromthescreenplay.com/reading-list The list is geared towards film media, but is a great guide on writing in general. I've read and annotated my way through all of them with gusto. I can very much recommend Into the Woods and Anatomy of Story as superb guides that really dig in deep into why we humans fall for the same stories time and time again. They are brass-tacks books and pretty philosophical at the same time, a rare combo. Michael's list is a great place to continue studying film specifically, but writing in general.
vidarh 6y ago
> This has had the unpleasant side effect of making reading fiction less pleasurable. ah well If it helps, I think this side-effect is likely to fade for good fiction. Bad-but-tolerable fiction gets ruined forever when you get better at spotting what they do and what it gets wrong... I haven't read the book you mention, but when I've read similar type of books before it's definitively been annoying for a while, but then it goes to the background and it seems to usually just pop into my mind when I either spot particularly good or bad examples. When I notice particularly good uses of techniques now, it tends to make me appreciate the work more, if anything.

prionassembly 6y ago

I bought "Save the cat!" (I'd read some parts of Vogler's "Writer's journey" in film school) hoping to adapt the formula to writing a bad novel. Then I never did. The weird thing about hobby projects is that they don't have an actual audience. So I write a lot about philosophy and social theory and such, but it's ultimately a lot of self-dialog. This doesn't work for fiction, even short stories. (I did write a handful of poems in the 2010s)

Balgair 6y ago
Michael Tucker of the YT channel Lessons From the Screenplay has a very very good list of writing books here: https://www.lessonsfromthescreenplay.com/reading-list https://www.lessonsfromthescreenplay.com/reading-list The list is geared towards film media, but is a great guide on writing in general. I've read and annotated my way through all of them with gusto. I can very much recommend Into the Woods and Anatomy of Story as superb guides that really dig in deep into why we humans fall for the same stories time and time again. They are brass-tacks books and pretty philosophical at the same time, a rare combo. Michael's list is a great place to continue studying film specifically, but writing in general.

vidarh 6y ago

> This has had the unpleasant side effect of making reading fiction less pleasurable. ah well If it helps, I think this side-effect is likely to fade for good fiction. Bad-but-tolerable fiction gets ruined forever when you get better at spotting what they do and what it gets wrong... I haven't read the book you mention, but when I've read similar type of books before it's definitively been annoying for a while, but then it goes to the background and it seems to usually just pop into my mind when I either spot particularly good or bad examples. When I notice particularly good uses of techniques now, it tends to make me appreciate the work more, if anything.