{"id":43654,"date":"2026-03-02T06:30:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T17:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=43654"},"modified":"2026-03-01T17:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T04:17:13","slug":"zoom-in-zoom-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2026\/03\/02\/zoom-in-zoom-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Zoom In; Zoom Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

On February 16, I posted on Bandersnatch meters and Vorpal Blades,<\/a> fulfilling a promise made on December 1<\/a>. In that same post, I also promised a “little more on zooming out and in” — so here goes!<\/p>\n

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Plenty of Korra ‘zoom’ happening here!<\/p><\/div>\n

The premise is fairly simple, but it can be quite a powerful too, especially when one has been close to the authorial coalface for a long time. So if something in not working, in terms of either the narrative or a character’s arc, it can be really helpful to “zoom out” or even right<\/em> out, and refocus on the big-picture plan for the story. Although not an infallible remedy, it very often provides sufficient realignment, along with a refreshed perspective, that allows the problems of detail to resolve.<\/p>\n

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You gotta take that big, blue sky view<\/p><\/div>\n

When and if it doesn’t work, I then have to consider whether the problem is one of even finer detail: some problem so subtle that only the muse-subconscious fathoms it, but which is effectively acting as a spanner in the whole works. So if zooming out has drawn a blank, it’s definitely time to zoom even farther in to find the problem.<\/p>\n

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Dig into that detail; take no prisoners…<\/p><\/div>\n

In both cases, once the issue is identified and resolved, the writing always flows again. So as author, I have to be willing to do the work to ensure it does, however frustrating that may feel at times.<\/p>\n

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Doing that thar work<\/p><\/div>\n

And if neither zooming in nor out works, and bandersnatch meters are going off all over the show? Well, one option is definitely “Panic” (ha-ha—but which has been known. #Just Saying \ud83d\ude09 ) Another is to reach for the vorpal blade—but there may be one or two other tools in the kit first. Rest assured, I shall come back to you on those. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

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It may take a writer’s cottage, in a wildy-wood<\/p><\/div>\n

Previous Post<\/h4>\n

February 16:\u00a0 Bandersnatch meters and Vorpal Blades<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On February 16, I posted on Bandersnatch meters and Vorpal Blades, fulfilling a promise made on December 1. In that same post, I also promised a “little more on zooming out and in” — so here goes! The premise is fairly simple, but it can be quite a powerful too, especially when one has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43654"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43660,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43654\/revisions\/43660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}