i don't miss much
a simple practical that I (and others, i think sometimes as well, miss)
that first beat of dialogue is like the post title -- you're registering context and the existence of the things
it's that second beat--hopefully, the final beat of this terse dialogue or whatever--that lands as information to hold
i long ago learned not to f*ck this up by adding a different "second" beat before the second beat I needed or
even more obviously
adding a third fourth and fifth beat, after my "second" beat
[i should add: this is, indeed, obvious; i have, indeed, 'known' it for years; in drafts one through...five, i still regularly screw it up in some way]
the subtler mistake i make that is harder is that i make beat one too long
it is hard to gauge the exact moment in which the text and the reader, together, inflect from the point of
okay i am establishing this thing; i get it; it's a thing
to
okay here is some information. one piece, maybe two. hold onto it. THE PURPLE STONE EXPLODES WHEN IT GETS TOO COLD. or whatever the fuck. remember that, okay, reader? okay let's move on.
and scuffling a first beat that gets to long into the "second" beat f*cks you up as squarely as adding extraneous beats before/after; it basically is a variant of adding extraneous beats before. so you wind up too long, and unclear, with information buried rather than there in the way that you want it:
glinting and obvious on the ground, one lone gem, evident to the reader's eye and attention even if all she sees on first pass is, "oh: glinting."
a simple practical that I (and others, i think sometimes as well, miss)
that first beat of dialogue is like the post title -- you're registering context and the existence of the things
it's that second beat--hopefully, the final beat of this terse dialogue or whatever--that lands as information to hold
i long ago learned not to f*ck this up by adding a different "second" beat before the second beat I needed or
even more obviously
adding a third fourth and fifth beat, after my "second" beat
[i should add: this is, indeed, obvious; i have, indeed, 'known' it for years; in drafts one through...five, i still regularly screw it up in some way]
the subtler mistake i make that is harder is that i make beat one too long
it is hard to gauge the exact moment in which the text and the reader, together, inflect from the point of
okay i am establishing this thing; i get it; it's a thing
to
okay here is some information. one piece, maybe two. hold onto it. THE PURPLE STONE EXPLODES WHEN IT GETS TOO COLD. or whatever the fuck. remember that, okay, reader? okay let's move on.
and scuffling a first beat that gets to long into the "second" beat f*cks you up as squarely as adding extraneous beats before/after; it basically is a variant of adding extraneous beats before. so you wind up too long, and unclear, with information buried rather than there in the way that you want it:
glinting and obvious on the ground, one lone gem, evident to the reader's eye and attention even if all she sees on first pass is, "oh: glinting."