on Friday, the internet is full of things

[truepenny]

arcaedia on the first five pages. What she says is why, when I do novel-writing workshops, the first five pages--or fewer, even--are what we focus on.

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Scientists are giving Rubik's Cubes to octopuses.

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Ta-Nehisi Coates on "The Importance of Being Politically Correct."

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heresluck, this xkcd is so totally about you. <3

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Do Your Own Adventure w/ Sue Teller. Give her a chance to get going before you make up your mind.

Comments

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

I only have one problem with the idea of focusing on the first few pages; they invariably end up with the most critique and rewrite both, because everyone knows the beginning is so important.

And my weak spot seems to be the last chapters.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Yes, but it's almost impossible to deal with that issue in a one-off workshop.

(Not saying you're wrong. Just, there are things workshops can address and things they can't.)

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

Oh, very true: Those times I've had to crit a workshop piece that was made up of excerpts from the middle, my *first* complaint was the inability to really see the arc, and therefore the inability to judge the merits of the story as a whole. (I did it myself once, and discovered from the other side how useless it was, too. I blame the fact that I was 19.) I can't imagine handing in an ending usefully to a workshop.

I just find that it's so easy to get crits for the opening, and to keep rewriting them until they're dead on the page, scoured into nothing instead of polished.