Pimping Gabe

[marguerite_26]

I don’t usually talk about writing and style – frankly, my flist is filled with far better writers than I will ever be – but I wanted to point you to a bigger brain than mine because gabe_speaks has these incredible ‘tutorial’ posts that make me understand writing and flow better than anything I’ve seen.

The first is Blending Action and Dialog Dynamically.
I adore the flow of the writing when this style is used.

Example:
"Look—" Marlene tugged her long fringe, pulling them behind her ears, "—she didn't mean what she said to you."

"Listen"—Gabe grabbed Marco by the shoulders, flung him around—"to me! I'm talking to you!"

Isn’t that pretty? I’ve been trying to incorporate Gabe’s hints in my writing for a couple months now and I’m very pleased with the result. It gives much better pacing to the fic than having an explanation before or after the dialogue to say ‘btw-while he was talking this is what happened’.

Personally, spelling, grammar and sentence structure rules don’t stick in my head. If it weren’t for Spell Check and glorious beta readers my work would look like it was written by a twelve yr old. And rather under-educated, kinky twelve year old.

The last thing I do before posting or submitting a fic is do a search for quotation marks, pull up this lesson and make sure I followed the rules. It sounds neurotic, maybe but it’s the only way I know I managed to get it right.

Recently Gabe posted another little gem about avoiding over-writing and providing clarity with punctuation: Letting Punctuation Do Its Job: The Dash, The Ellipse, and a Bit on the Semi-Colon

Take a look (if you haven’t found and worshipped this already). I think, as reader, it’s these little things that make a fic have a polished feel. And as a writer, it takes a little of the mystery away from how to take your writing to the next level.

Comments

[potteresque_ire]

Ooooh. That's AWESOME... I've never seen these writing techniques being explained before; I just have a gut feeling of how it works *pats gut* :D. I can't believe I am actually learning how to write!! *beams*

Thanks Rita *blows kisses*

[marguerite-26.livejournal.com]

pir8fancier pointed to that first link after the World Cup stating that this is what she followed for On One's Knees. (gabe's her beta) And I was all (!!!) there are rules that we can follow? We don't have to read and re-read On One's Knees to try to figure out how she got the flow just right... Cool!!! (not that I minded the re-reads but the tears always made the sentence structure all blurry).

I'm so glad these interest you. Learning with p0rn is FuN!! :D