{"id":2794,"date":"2015-03-13T08:27:05","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T12:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skelleyverse.com\/?p=2794"},"modified":"2015-03-01T15:53:49","modified_gmt":"2015-03-01T20:53:49","slug":"knowing-which-wrench-to-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/knowing-which-wrench-to-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Knowing Which Wrench to Use"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"r-avatar\"<\/a>Last week we introduced you to the goose wrench<\/a>.\u00a0Now it’s time to mention the other handy wrench you should keep, er, handy: the monkey wrench. Although\u00a0the\u00a0term is often negative, it’s an indispensable implement for creative problem-solving.<\/p>\n

Here’s the TL;DR: if a\u00a0writer has too many problems, it’s usually because the characters don’t have enough.<\/p>\n

The monkey wrench is versatile.\u00a0It can be applied delicately, to unravel things just a little bit. Or it can be wielded like a club, or tossed into the gears. But remember to show moderation in all things, especially excess. Unlike the goose wrench, it’s not your own process that the monkey wrench should be swung at. It’s your characters’. You’re not trying to seize up the plot, so pay some attention to which sets of gears you’re aiming for. Story thrives on conflict. When things for your cast are going a little too smoothly, when your protagonist becomes complacent or\u00a0settles into a rut, that’s the time to break out the monkey wrench.<\/p>\n

Keep both wrenches available. Story structure is too loosey-goosey? Grab that goose wrench. When things\u00a0go flat, reach for the monkey wrench. Just make sure they’re clearly labeled, because using the wrong one will only make a writer’s problems worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week we introduced you to the goose wrench.\u00a0Now it’s time to mention the other handy wrench you should keep, er, handy: the monkey wrench. Although\u00a0the\u00a0term is often negative, it’s an indispensable implement for creative problem-solving. Here’s the TL;DR: if a\u00a0writer has too many problems, it’s usually because the characters don’t have enough. The monkey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[324,322],"tags":[392,122,391],"class_list":["post-2794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brainstorming-inspiration","category-editing-revision","tag-goose","tag-monkey","tag-wrenches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2794"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2802,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2794\/revisions\/2802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}