summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/2020/subtitles/emacsconf-2020--03-idea-to-novel-superstructure-emacs-for-writing--bala-ramadurai.vtt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to '')
-rw-r--r--2020/subtitles/emacsconf-2020--03-idea-to-novel-superstructure-emacs-for-writing--bala-ramadurai.vtt124
1 files changed, 124 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/2020/subtitles/emacsconf-2020--03-idea-to-novel-superstructure-emacs-for-writing--bala-ramadurai.vtt b/2020/subtitles/emacsconf-2020--03-idea-to-novel-superstructure-emacs-for-writing--bala-ramadurai.vtt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d3c34a79
--- /dev/null
+++ b/2020/subtitles/emacsconf-2020--03-idea-to-novel-superstructure-emacs-for-writing--bala-ramadurai.vtt
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+WEBVTT
+
+00:00:03.559 --> 00:00:09.200
+No, there is nothing wrong with your mobile 
+device or your computer. This was how my world  
+
+00:00:09.200 --> 00:00:15.040
+was when my kid was born 11 years ago.
+
+00:00:15.040 --> 00:00:29.280
+Hello, I am Bala Ramadurai, author, professor 
+and consultant. 11 years ago in Bangalore,  
+
+00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:41.120
+my son was born. My wife and I had hardly slept 
+through those days. That's when my grandma  
+
+00:00:41.120 --> 00:00:48.560
+visited us to take a look at her great grandson. 
+As joyous as that sounded, it came with a peril.  
+
+00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:55.840
+My grandma was a Scrabble addict. She hardly 
+spent any time at all with her great grandson,  
+
+00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:02.720
+but she spent most of her time playing Scrabble. 
+She insisted that my wife and I join her.  
+
+00:01:02.720 --> 00:01:07.840
+That's when an idea dawned on me to write about 
+my Scrabble obsessed grandma. What if I could  
+
+00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:13.760
+make it into a novel. Not many people have 
+Scrabble obsessed grandmothers, after all.
+
+00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:19.280
+I wanted to expand this to a novel, but did 
+not know how. I bumped into Dan Wells' video  
+
+00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:28.960
+on 7-point story structure. I was now convinced 
+that a seed idea could indeed be converted into  
+
+00:01:28.960 --> 00:01:34.480
+a novel, so I tried out many tools at the 
+time - million dollar tools like MS Word,  
+
+00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:37.991
+Excel, Scrivener and the lot. In my research of 
+tools, I found that George RR Martin famously  
+
+00:01:37.991 --> 00:01:40.320
+had used Wordstar for typing out Game of 
+Thrones. At that point, I remembered about  
+
+00:01:40.320 --> 00:01:43.840
+an old editor - Emacs. I knew about Emacs from 
+my undergrad days and my earlier software days.  
+
+00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:49.040
+Thanks to the emacs community and particularly 
+the orgmode community, I had what I wanted.
+
+00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:55.680
+Now, it was time to put the idea into action. 
+I used another method called snowflake and also  
+
+00:01:55.680 --> 00:02:05.360
+Tony Ballantyne's emacs writing template. The main 
+features from org-mode that I used - fold, unfold,  
+
+00:02:05.360 --> 00:02:17.920
+columnview, tags, distraction-free writing 
+experience, clocking, project tracking and export.
+
+00:02:17.920 --> 00:02:33.317
+Now, the demo. We start with the plotline (a one 
+line summary of the story). Then we write out the  
+
+00:02:33.317 --> 00:02:34.160
+characters, describing them in detail. Write 
+the main story arc, followed by the secondary  
+
+00:02:34.160 --> 00:02:35.920
+character story arcs. Here is where org-mode 
+really scores. Move the points in the story  
+
+00:02:35.920 --> 00:02:43.920
+structure to form a coherent story. We 
+get into location research. Write them  
+
+00:02:43.920 --> 00:02:56.800
+all out in the columns. Once you are satisfied, 
+now scene design. Each point in the story  
+
+00:02:56.800 --> 00:04:09.040
+requires at least one scene. In columnview, 
+you can see many things - Act, scene,  
+
+00:04:09.040 --> 00:05:09.680
+story point, location, POV or point of 
+view. Make sure you finish this and read  
+
+00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:10.896
+the whole story if it makes sense. Now, create 
+a project file to track your project and clock  
+
+00:05:10.896 --> 00:05:18.880
+your project to see how long it takes. I used 
+a similar structure for my non-fiction book,  
+
+00:05:18.880 --> 00:05:25.520
+which I published recently, all 
+written and edited in emacs-org-mode.
+
+00:05:25.520 --> 00:05:30.480
+Thanks to you guys at the community, I 
+am now a published author and I plan to  
+
+00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:36.560
+publish and help other authors publish using this 
+wonderful tool called emacs-org-mode. Thank You.