Don't Feed the Bunnies!
Mar 17, 2021 22:24:23 GMT -6
Post by ScienceGirl on Mar 17, 2021 22:24:23 GMT -6
Don't feed the bunnies! Or, maybe you should. Just don't expect to sell them.
Plot bunnies are ideas, usually those nagging, annoying ones that you can't get out of your head until you get them down on paper. They aren't always good, but they do get the creative juices flowing, so it's good to reserve them for those days when you're suffering from writer's block.
EXCEPT...
At the beginning of the story! When you first come up with an idea, indulge those plot bunnies. You might write 12,000 words of nonsense, but it's the perfect brainstorm, and more than that, a great resource for ideas when you write yourself into a corner.
That babbling rough draft might be full of comma splices and dangling participles, but you can analyze the characters a bit and get a picture of who they truly are. You can play around with different settings and points of view and not worry about it being technically accurate.
Indulging the plot bunnies helps to define WHEN the story should start. Writers can glean from their brainstorm writing a sequence of events that can turn into an outline.
So yes, feed the bunnies as much as you want to. Just don't expect a Plot Bunny indulgence to lead to a polished draft of a story.
One of the great frustrations of a critiquing forum is when people keep posting their indulgent writing and get their feelings hurt because someone tells them it's not New York Times Bestseller material. You can't expect to write a single draft of a story in a few days and come up with something brilliant and ready to publish. Don't do that to your readers, and don't do that to yourself.
Most published authors spend at least a decade writing, rewriting, editing, re-editing, and polishing their debut novels. They often have pages and pages of draft writing that never makes the actual story. Use your plot bunnies wisely. Let your freewrite brainstorming flow and then slowly hone your story into a masterpiece. Like the old Kung Fu master said, "Have patience, young grasshopper. These things take time!"
Plot bunnies are ideas, usually those nagging, annoying ones that you can't get out of your head until you get them down on paper. They aren't always good, but they do get the creative juices flowing, so it's good to reserve them for those days when you're suffering from writer's block.
EXCEPT...
At the beginning of the story! When you first come up with an idea, indulge those plot bunnies. You might write 12,000 words of nonsense, but it's the perfect brainstorm, and more than that, a great resource for ideas when you write yourself into a corner.
That babbling rough draft might be full of comma splices and dangling participles, but you can analyze the characters a bit and get a picture of who they truly are. You can play around with different settings and points of view and not worry about it being technically accurate.
Indulging the plot bunnies helps to define WHEN the story should start. Writers can glean from their brainstorm writing a sequence of events that can turn into an outline.
So yes, feed the bunnies as much as you want to. Just don't expect a Plot Bunny indulgence to lead to a polished draft of a story.
One of the great frustrations of a critiquing forum is when people keep posting their indulgent writing and get their feelings hurt because someone tells them it's not New York Times Bestseller material. You can't expect to write a single draft of a story in a few days and come up with something brilliant and ready to publish. Don't do that to your readers, and don't do that to yourself.
Most published authors spend at least a decade writing, rewriting, editing, re-editing, and polishing their debut novels. They often have pages and pages of draft writing that never makes the actual story. Use your plot bunnies wisely. Let your freewrite brainstorming flow and then slowly hone your story into a masterpiece. Like the old Kung Fu master said, "Have patience, young grasshopper. These things take time!"
You add them to your profile as you do them around the forum.
