Cause and Effect

Drop a quarter into a mixing bowl full of water from a good height. What happens? Most would answer the water ripples out until it runs into the edge. Okay...that's a basic understanding of cause and effect. But, what happens to the quarter? It falls flat until it hits the water, swivels, spins, and then glides unevenly the bottom of the bowl.

There are two cause and effects happening. Like the quarter and the water, there are always going to be multiple causes and effects because there's multiple components, in this case with the quarter and the water.

Most can get the most obvious effect...just like in writing. A lot of writers flesh out scene after scene after scene based on obvious effects and completely overlook any other potential effects.

Are the resulting actions addressing all the effects of the causes? How are the compounding scenes altering the various effects?

I hope I'm not going round and round and making everyone dizzy. Just my thought for today. Take a look at your manuscript and make sure you've covered all your bases.

Check:

• Character cause to environment effect
• Environment cause to character effect
• Character cause to character effect
• Environment cause to environment effect
• Character cause to moral/ethical/value effect
• And the farther into the story you go, check how the effects are compounded and diversified by the stacking causes

Okay, good writing all!

98.6 Factor

As a child and well into my teens, my love for sci-fi was dominated by the need to know where technology and science advancement was going. For the more humanistic elements I turned to mystery, romance, and thrillers.

It's no mystery that sci-fi has always been driven by the hard facts. So much so, that for several years, in my more emotional phase of life (turning in to a mother, marrying, starting my adult life)...I turned away from sci-fi and my reading leaned towards other genres.

Coming back to sci-fi several years ago, I immediately recognized the evolution of its framework. What had been infused to a deeper extent was the 98.6 Factor.

What's the 98.6 Factor? Well, we use the term a lot in healthcare. Even some automotive marketing use it now. It's the human element. The person behind the technology and science.

Sci-fi has matured with the onset of this new Speculative Era. The relationship between the two have melded into a beautiful balance. As we all know science and technology is at the core, an extension of ourselves. The achievement and gratification we can receive from it. By infusing the emotional, spiritual, and philosophical aspects back into the story, we've re-emerged the human experience back into the future.

No longer will robots be able to take over, because we recognize our place in the future. More importantly, we recognize our need for the 98.6 Factor in the future...something robots can never achieve.

Think about your story and ensure that its not starving of human experience. Don't let the science drive the human...let the human drive the science.

So...that's my philosophical posting for today.

Good writing all!

Diamonds into Suns

I love the building of a story and not just the initial pouring of ideas onto paper. That's all good and great, but anyone can get a brainstormed idea and write it on paper. The real mastery and love of a writer's work comes after.

The ability to look at the initial draft and instead of seeing a great story...can only spot the flaws and bad bits. Then, in true writer's fashion takes the story and molds it like clay: moving, tweaking, and reshaping until the flaws sparkle and the bad bits are gone.

Even then, it's not enough. They look at the revised work and see the implausible and unforeseen gaps in these character's story. At this point, only the most dedicated of writers will roll up their already wrinkled sleeves, wipe their brow of sweat, and dive back in.

They'll remove whole sections of unbelievability (even if some is of the most loved word usage) , delve further into the intricate of needed research to get the details just right, and turn that shiny diamond into a burning sun of perfection.

They'll know the manuscript is complete and that a part of them is in the story so completely they'll never get it back, even if it never gets published or seen by anyone but them and their beta readers.

Good writing all!