Re: Introducing bit-part characters
- From: "Dan Goodman" <dsgood@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 31 Aug 2007 23:55:26 GMT
Patricia C. Wrede wrote:
"Nicky" <nicky.matthews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1188573839.503677.215180@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >On
Aug 31, 2:18 pm, "Patricia C. Wrede" <PWrede6...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
">
For anyone who's writing for an audience greater than one (i.e.,
besides themselves), the prose pretty much has to work on
multiple levels, for multiple types of readers. I think most
writers do this kind of stylistic stuff subconsciously -- at
least, it's not something that gets a lot of air time during
discussions of writing. It can also be just the sort of "high
literary" consideration that sets some genre writers' teeth on
edge. {I had quite the argument with one of them, a few years
back, who was inordinately proud of his tin ear because all that
stylistic stuff was for sissy literary snobs. It's a shame, in
a way, because he could have had a much larger audience (which he
claimed to want, but apparently only on his own terms).}
I don't think style is only a concern of 'high literature': all
decisions on writing are style
decisions whether you think about them or not.
Yes, but some writers get all twitchy when you start actually talking
about style as a conscious component of writing, especially if
they're of the "transparent/invisible" school of style. I wasn't
trying to say that everybody thinks of it as 'high literary,' just
that there's a segement of the writerly population that does. Hence
the scare quotes, which seemed like enough to get across what I meant
when I wrote it, but obviously wasn't.
You have to find the
right voice for each new book or story that you are working on and
no two books are ever quite the same.
I dunno about that, quite -- it seems to me that a lot of my sequels
and prequels are close enough in style to their predecessors that I
don't think I could tell the difference. Variation between the
various series, I'll certainly grant you; also variation when the
viewpoint character cum narrator is significantly different.
I'm also not at all sure that some writers go looking for the right
voice for a book. It seems to me that there are folks out there who
just ignore the whole issue, on a conscious level -- it's one of
those things that slots into place so easily that they don't have to
think about it, and don't even notice it happening. It's like the
whole discussion about how characters work -- for some writers,
people "walk into their head," whole and complete, while others
actually construct their characters bit by bit, consciously and
deliberately.
Add at least one other method: building up in the writer's head,
either unconsciously or a combination of consciously and unconsciously.
I think some writers get the voice like that -- it
just shows up naturally, along with the story, and there's no finding
about it, nor any particular consciousness of style.
Patricia C. Wrede
--
Dan Goodman
"You, each of you, have some special wild cards. Play with them.
Find out what makes you different and better. Because it is there,
if only you can find it." Vernor Vinge, _Rainbows End_
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