Coding going slow...

I'm still trying to figure out net4spice's recursive node finding function. I can't believe it's so hard to code what the diagram says on paper / my iPad's Freeform drawing pad. I must be slow of mind.

But today, I woke up early, managed to get cleaned well, and showered. Disinfected my room and am ventilating it.

Liew forces are attacking, shoved onto me by the west. We don't really want to kill anyone and that's taking a toll on our bodies. Maybe we are too longsuffering. 

... 

In analyzing some people's writing style, it came down to how I generate fiction prose. At any one time, I am thinking about 4 things (as I write to a stretchable outline).

1. Every scene or conversation / dialog has to hook the reader. It has to be concise and sweetly worded, with consequences for the rest of the book.
2. Every character has to have links to the other characters, and they affect one another (as they would in real life). How they affect must be choreographed so it appears also sweet.
3. The language used for descriptions, even dialog has to leave holes to fill in later. You can divulge a lot but always reserve what you plausibly can, for later.
4. Think of the reader and give them plenty of variety, make your book lively as possible, with quotes, songs, poetry, dream sequences, monologues, metaphors etc. coming in every chapter at the very least.

I should explain 'sweet'. It simply means pleasant to read, not jarring, not impossible, nor unlikely, but smooth, going down.

Sometimes, it's hard to begin a book or find a continuation. You may have a story to tell but how? There are some who get into character, who write about people of certain character. For myself, I use anchors. For my novella, iS, I started off with a bow (archery lesson) because it has always been a favorite of mine. From there, I branched out into knife fighting, psych warfare, weapons of mass destruction.

Along the way, I needed help from subplots to sweeten the story with, so (and I may be wrong) I introduced twists (mild surprises essentially) and extra characters who were interesting, to add and carry on a level or layer of believability. This is not padding but pacing.

Padding is when nobody is saying anything that drives the plot, or the author is going off on something (we sense) leads nowhere interesting.

Pacing is like channel switching on your TV or YouTube. Sometimes, a different character or concept they bear in, has to be the channel your reader watches.

...

Catching your own mistakes while writing can be difficult depending on the kind of writer you are, whether you do draft to draft editing or just unspool, whether you outline or just wing it.

There are 4 types of mistakes you can spot easily and that will make your book much better,

1. Breaking lines / flow where it shouldn't be broken
2. Out of sequence reveals (big or small alike)
3. Indecision and poor reasoning (I will explain)
4. Putting out your concepts before loving your reader

Decisions and reason are two very important parts of writing. Make the critical decisions before starting a book. Like in my novella, iS -I had the big picture sorted out: east vs west, man vs machine, that it would top off at circa 20k words. Then, as I outlined and discovered, I was able to make good decisions with the right reasons attached.