In The Case of the Fuzzy Thing, I dig into the five crashes that make what should be a scary story opener fall flat. Episode Three includes:
- A Vague Noun Crash
- A Weak Verb Crash
- A Sensory Deprivation Crash,
- And Action Crash, and
- A Visualization Crash
CREDITS:
Writer Crash Test Series Music:
“Mysterious Stranger,” © Jack Waldenmaier
Music Bakery Publishing BMI
WARNING: Unauthorized use of the music contained in this production is subject to criminal prosecution.
All copyrights, licensing, duplication, and distribution rights are held exclusively by The Music Bakery (BMI).
800-229-0313 or 972-578-7863 musicbakery.com
The image “Decay Zombie” was purchased from BigStockPhoto.com, and is copyright © Chris Harvey.
The image “After Fire” was purchased from BigStockPhoto.com, and is copyright © Olga Fesko.
This movie was made with a MacBook, Apple Keynote, Photobooth (the author photos), Screenflow, a Logitech webcam for Mac, and a Blue Snowball mic.
This production is Copyright 2009 by Holly Lisle. All Rights Reserved.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh! Really liked this one Holly, great crash test. And not a moment too soon, I have a scene that has some of the problems that you point out in Kate’s.
Thanks for always putting your time and effort into helping other writers!
I love these and always look forward to the next one. It’s helpful to see the list of crashes for future reference.
Love these.
I believe I’ve spotted a running theme in the tests you’ve done so far. They don’t seem to have any dialogue. Can you make that a subject of a future Crash Test, how to use dialogue to characterize? That’s one of my favorite ways of doing so, and it also breaks up the endless parade of thick paragraphs I’ve been seeing.
thanks Holly for fleshing out the “show not tell” mantra with vivid insight, vigorous elan and vital humour.
so enjoyable, and i learnt heaps – marvellous stuff.
i was enthralled and let the player roll on with your other pieces.
please keep ‘em coming.
Hi Holly,
I enjoyed your first crasttest so very much and would like to view the others. While the first video I could download with Amazon and itunes on the left, the others are not available there.
I would like to download/view each one as I am still on slow speed internet.
Thanks for any help and keep up the great work! I sure appreciate you!
Janet Kerr
I’m glad you’re enjoying these. And I’ll see if I can find a sample from those in waiting in the file that has some dialogue. I’m just working with what folks have sent in.
As for the podcast, the second one was too long for the service I’m using, which means I have to figure out how to convert it myself—and at the moment, I don’t have time.
The third one should be available in a day or two, if it isn’t up now. My service gets them there, but it does work at its own speed.
This is great info Holly!
Ditto with Ellton Bruce. (We Bruces apparently stick together.) This was the best exposition of the show-don’t-tell mantra I’ve ever seen. Others who have written about writing sound a lot like the Jon Lovitz skit on SNL: “How to make a million dollars. First — get a million dollars.” Holly’s crash test makes that usual skeleton’s worth of advice look like a new contestant on “The Biggest Loser.” Thanks, Holly.
I’m loving this series!
I have been working on my first novel since the beginning of the month prepping for NanoWriMo this fall. Your advice had been invaluable. Thanks for inspiring me.
This is teh first one of these I have listened to and it has helped me so much. I will be going through my story and doing a lot of fixing. Thank you.
Hi Holly,
You make it such fun to learn. Each crash test is better than the previous one.
Thanks a million.
I’m looking forward to the next one.
Hi Holly.
I’m really enjoying the crashtests, and learning a lot from them. Thank you!
Hi Holly – Love the crash tests.
I’ve been thinking about your comments concerning learning to edit your own work and work out the flaws versus having someone help you. My experience has been that having someone else point out the problem exceeds the benefit you would get from (eventually) figuring it out on your own. It just takes too long to learn how to improve your writing by sloggin through it alone.
Hearing you read the pieces is very effective. When I’m editing one of my own pieces, I find it very helpful to read it aloud. You find mistakes, are able to hear the rhythms of the dialog, etc. so much better when the words are outside your head.
It might be interesting to have the listeners stop after you’ve read through the piece and write down what they think the main problem is – in this case the lack of description and failing to place the reader into the immediacy of the scene – and possibly write a paragraph or two as a exercise in working out the problem. Then, the listener can compare what they found with your expert opinion.
I assume you will be organizing these clips in some fashion in the future and I would like to be able to pick out a crash test based on a specific problem I’m working on in my own writing.
I really like the “crashes” at the end and the detective format is fun. You should be wearing a pork pie hat in your photo.
Thanks for inviting me to see these.
I’ve been loving these, but I do have a comment on the format when text is presented (or maybe it’s just me). I have a hard time with the high contrast white on black. Sometimes I find it hard to read and then when the highlights for teaching are added, they get washed out. I can tell what is being taught from the audio track, but not always from the text. I couldn’t tell you if fixing the font, or size or contrast level would change these things. Is anyone else having this trouble?
Thanks!
These videos look like an excellent resource for writers. Thank you for sharing! I’m going to recommend them on my blog “Hypatia’s Hoard of Reviews.” (Yes, it’s mostly book reviews, but I include some author and industry news, writing resources, etc.)
Dear Holly,
As usual you are vividly entertaining while being incredibly informative. I enjoy all the help I glean from you. I have a question when checking for these errors in my own work how is the best way to be sure I haven’t overlooked something a potential agent or publisher will instantly notice. I’m referring to the whole problem of blindness, at least for me, you one pass revision works well for plot and substance but these sort of errors I think perhaps are easier to miss for a newbie such as myself. Your insight is, as always, greatly appreciated.
Sincerely Yours,
Joy Locke
Good question Joy. I agree. I didn’t even realize I was stepping into writing land mines until Holly came along with these great crash tests, I just knew things weren’t quite working. How do I start to spot these on my own?
Holly, Holly, Holly. . .
You never cease to amaze me and for that I am grateful!
I have been having issues with the Fuzzy Thing for a while. Now that you’ve shown me ways to clear my habit I am overfilled with glee! I swear, if it wasn’t for these crash tests, I’d still find myself complaining over stories I’ve written and I wouldn’t be on the writing splurge I am on now.
Thank you so much!
I will try to enroll in your Think Sideways classes whenever I find a job.
Holly,
I’ve been a silent site lurker for over a year now and I have gained so much from your writer’s workshops and stories. I really must thank you so much for what you are doing with these crash tests. I never really considered writing a novel with a first-person narrative, but this summer said to heck with it and am giving it a shot. The entire project is now very dear to me, and I’ve made it my goal to finish the first draft before my 20th birthday. These crash tests and your advice have been such an aid with that. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Keep on writing strong, and helping others to do the same