'Not all those who wander are lost.' - J. R. R. Tolkien
How do you shift tone in the middle of a book to keep pace with what is going on or shift tone between projects you are writing? How can you manipulate the tone to show emotional and intellectual development of a character, or to display without stating it flat out that said character is becoming more politically aware? I have read several novels which do this but cannot figure out how they do it.
This is one of the hardest questions I’ve ever gotten, because it’s also something I’ve struggled with in my own writing. So I took it as a challenge to see what I could learn, to benefit both lacommunarde and myself. And, of course, all of you!
First and foremost, what does tone really even mean? I thought about it as I read (tone is apparent in all writing, not just fiction/prose), and tooled around the internet a bit, and it’s a pretty elevated and complicated concept. This is the hybrid definition that I came up with, as it applies to fiction:
dreams-rhapsody asked:
Hello. I love writing a lot but I always feel inferior and small compared to other people who can write better than me. I feel that I lack the excellent vocabulary to convey my thoughts into perfect sentences that are interesting and exciting to the reader. Currently, I’m trying to write on a topic I have never written before and seeing others who can attempt at it much better than me, I feel like quitting soon enough. Any advice on this?
I do have lots of advice on this! I feel this way a lot too (EVERY writer does!) but these are the things that I think about that help me when I get in a rut of self-doubt:
Sorry! I don’t really like showing my writing. A lot of them are silly and nonsensical.
Oh, all of the usual, i.e. Harry Potter, Sherlock, Doctor Who, Mortal Instruments, etc. Pretty much anything you can think of, I’ve experimented with in fanfiction. I find fanfiction really relaxing, however it’s getting harder to find well-written/interesting ones.
Yes, I am writing one novel, editing another, and am in the middle of about four fanfictions for various TV shows/Books.
