TQ: Discuss your favourite writing techniques. What makes them so effective and why do you love to use them? Do some stories make better use of them than others?
Okay, I'm using this answer legitimately (i.e. not as a cop-out), but I think that it all depends on the author.
I never used to like AU fics until I found a site with really good WATFF ones that were absolutely amazing, and well worth reading, well-written, clever, intricate, witty and in character.
I don't really like song-fics, but some of the ones I've read are fantastic, if the lyrics are incorporated well, relevant and not a really, really bad song (which makes it hard to take anything seriously).
Stories without speech can be incredibly dull, or incredibly effective, depending entirely on whether the author's done a good job.
I tend not to like stories with only speech, either, but I've rea d a few that have made me giggle.
Drabbles are kind of the same: really bad or really good. If an author can write something worthwhile in a couple hundred words, then sure.
I read a really good story a while ago that had speech, but it wasn't spoken, as such. As in, there were no speech marks. There would be a paragraph of insight into the character's head, then just a single line in italics which was the dialogue.
And the whole story went that way: paragraph, line, paragraph, line.
And it was really very effective because it portrayed exactly what the story was presenting, which was a weird melancholy calm.
There's another author I know of who can write anything from totally plotless smut to totally innocent fluff in the most intelligent and hysterically funny way. And it works, because they're genuinely good at it.
As for what I like to use, that's a totally different story.
I think that the writing techniques I use tend to basically set themselves up. I don't sit at the computer and think, "Okay, so which writing style will best put across the mood I want?", mostly because I'm too lazy, but hey.
But I think (hope, really) that a good story almost writes itself.
I've written one or two stories with absolutely no speech, and that wasn't really deliberate at all. I just didn't have anything for the characters to say, because there was too much else going on and I didn't want to 'break the moment'.
I've written stories will painfully little description (though I tend much more toward the opposite).
Though, all that said, I do prefer more descriptive writing. I either like writing something that is in a very sarcastic, flippant manner (because it's just fun to be flip sometimes), or I write something that is more... poetic?
I think that you can get across different parts of different genres depending on how you do this. I mean, it's really, really hard to write good angst when you're writing like everything is absolutely hilarious.
Amounts of dialogue usually just kind of follow. Usually, if I'm writing angsty stuff, I don't use as much speech beuase it usually a little more about emotion and inner turmoil. Whereas if I'm writing something more sarcastically, dialogue adds another dimension.
Any style can work, as long as it doesn't read as forced. If I have to sit down and think about what type of sentences and what kind of words and what style of language to use, then I usually just leave the story/idea and get back to it later, or alter it so it feels natural. Otherwise it's no fun to write, and too hard for others to read.
That all said, for all I know, my writing style may be absolutely horrid, so. Hehe.
Critique:
This was a great story. I still don't watch CSI: Miami (and am probably going to continuously point this out for every story I read for it) but I'm liking this pairing more and more each time you guys feature one.
She took the long sigh he exhaled to be his agreement, and wondered briefly if the case had brought back memories of his own shooting... and then scolded herself for even thinking it; he needed her support, not her doubt, and certainly not her -
This sentence, though not really wrong, has a lot of...
stuff in it. Comma, semicolon, ellipses and hyphen. Though it reads well it a bit awkward, grammatically.
Blood; fingerprints; blood; a 45.; blood; GSR; blood...
This was interesting. It was like the sort of quick, flashing montages the CSI's have and it linked the story back to the reality of the show. I could literally see them flashing through my head (in my head they were black-and-white, for some reason, too) with the
whoosh sort of sound that usually accompanies them.
Don't know why that struck me so much; just liked the imagery, there.
I know it's not really pertinent, but I liked your page-breaks. Hehe. I use actual HTML page-breaks, and it can often get a bit
too separated. And some people use, like, on dot, and you just miss it entirely, which drives me nuts, because then something's quadruple-spaced and half way down the page without some kind of symbol that implies it should be. And I should stop talking about this like it's some kind of mania, shouldn't I?
Are page-breaks a normal thing to talk about? Hm.
Oh, the scene in the break room was superb. I was aching for a kiss, there. I don't know anything about Calleigh's mother, but I write enough characters with parental issues to know something of it, and the little understanding that they have there is great.
It never usually bothered her, though, but now it only seemed to serve as a distraction; the tall, dark and handsome figure in the lab adjacent to hers was proving far too entertaining to look at for her liking.
Hehe, loved this sentence.
He was waiting for her when she got home, body leaning against the brick of her house, the fading sunlight reflecting against the buttons on his jacket, and instantly she felt her breath hitch.
I love the little detail about the buttons, here. All of your imagery is wonderful, by the way. It says so much and shows so much without trawling paragraphs of wordiness. (An I know I just invented, like, a whole sentence, but hey).
I just about danced when they finally kissed. Seriously, Kaz, less than 2500 words and you've got me
waiting for a kiss. Genius. Mean, but genius. I might, here, also mention that I have a thing for walls in kisses. Or kisses-and-walls.
Goes well with everything, too; having described him as "The Passion" just a few paragraphes earlier.
Saying nothing more, she led him down her hallway and up the stairs to her bedroom, where he closed the door behind them.
I think it's the finality of this, or something, but the fact that Eric closes the door just stood out to me. In a good way. I mean, they're totally alone - it's her own house, yeah? - and it's not like they're tearing each other's clothes off, but it's like they're blocking the world out totally.
Everything and everyone is
out there, and we're
in here. Which is interesting, because you've earlier mentioned that it's no longer the outside influences that keep them apart, but themselves. Which makes it appropriate that they are the ones to block everything out, but lock themselves in, and I'm much too tired to be getting ironic or philosophic right now.
Loved the ending, too. *Sigh* Wish I had an Eric. Hehe.
Finally, and aptly so, I loved the title. It definitely shows the story for what it is.
The tension and the spark?
Oh, yes.
Mon Apr 20, 2009 2:44 am 
I've changed it now, though.
) You actually used the semicolon correctly every other time, but not in this particular instance. A semicolon is supposed to separate two clauses that could stand on their own as full sentences.
