Re: A bit of writing theory
- From: boots <no@xxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 07:27:03 -0600
"Dan Goodman" <dsgood@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Gustave Flaubert's rule: In every scene, describe with at least three
senses.
There's at least one alternative: what Alexei Panshin calls definition
by demonstration. "Since his continuing interest is in process -- how
things both physical and social work -- [Robert A.] Heinlein doesn't
tell what things look like, he tells what they _do_."
http://www.panshin.com/critics/Dimension/hd06-1.html
I think I prefer stories which have both sensory description and "here
is how it works" description. Besides appealing to three senses, there
should be ___ amount of description by function in each scene.
Next: emotion. There are writers whose prose (fiction or nonfiction)
has only one emotion. (For example, political articles which contain
only outrage.) I find that boring; and if there's more than one
emotion but each passage has only one, I also find it boring.
So: there should be ___ number of emotions in each scene.
Formulation leads to mechanization, which leads to rote garbage, which
some believe to be best avoided. Every scene is unique, make it so.
--
If I get rid of the sig a commercial will magically appear in its place, ain't that special?
.
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- A bit of writing theory
- From: Dan Goodman
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