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That one guy at the writing retreat who changed my whole approach
I went to a small writing retreat up in the mountains near Asheville about 5 years ago. There was this older guy, maybe 70, who sat next to me at lunch on the second day. He asked what I was working on and I told him I was stuck on a fantasy novel with way too many characters. He just laughed and said 'you know, you don't have to introduce everyone in chapter one. I once wrote a whole story without naming the main character until page 30.' That hit me hard because I was always trying to frontload all this backstory. He said his trick was to write a single scene between two people and ignore the rest of the world. I ended up rewriting my whole first chapter that night and it actually worked. Has anyone else had one random conversation that totally flipped how you write?
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nelson.finley22d ago
Honestly that "page 30" trick is just god tier procrastination with extra steps.
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jesse_barnes3722d ago
Old guy probably just forgot to name his main character and spun it into life advice. Works either way, I guess.
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