Here's a writing topic I'd love to hear people's opinion on: incident. I know a couple of published writers, and they've both said that they find incident the hardest part of a story to write. By incident, I mean the things that actually happen in the story, the events that take place.
Is it universal to find this hard to come up with? Or are there ways of dealing with it?
How do you turn an idea into a storyline?
Simon Painter
Shropshire, UK
My sticking point is usually segues -- I'm really bad at them, as my recent attempts on
Podcrapular indicate. (FYI, I'm Josh, NOT Andy.)
I don't think I have so much difficulty with coming up with incidents. If anything, my biggest problem is not giving away the farm too soon. I really love basically telling people what's going to happen -- not directly, but in such a way that when it does happen you can't miss it, or making it obvious up front that Character 1 is going to fight Character 2 at the end but making you want to know how the hell we get there.
I also dislike writing dialogue. I think I plan it pretty well, but actually putting it on paper is a little difficult for me.
I'll have to get back to you on idea-to-storyline; I have a meeting to go to.