Shit, what is it today, Wednesday? Tuesday? Anyways, yesterday morning and the night before that I wrote a whole bunch of stream of consciousness notes in my notebook that I need to edit out and cut and past and collage into a version of the main character's thoughts in the most recent story. So, I have that to do, typing, and then grueling editing to do.
Also, I rewrote a portion of the ending from the story before that, taking into account the criticisms from Anne and Boyle and the ideas about changing it that Anne and I hammered out. I got stuck though, as I think that the remaining edits will be some combination of the old material cut and pasted and collaged, and some new material, including a mention of certain integral character who shows up at the beginning, leaves and then is never mentioned again.
So, basically it seems what I have to do next is a bunch of grunt work, which I have been putting off, on account of being a lazy bastard, and this post is a way for me to expunge all that grumpy layaboutism and get off my ass. So.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Weekend Update
Today I have written, quickly, the last two sections of the story that I am working on. They are far from finished, but they give me a good idea of the direction I need to move in with the story, and a cursory idea of the structural direction of the last two sections. I think that more fleshing out is necessary, so I think my next step is to print up a copy of the story to read, and see what I feel is lacking from the conclusion, what I need to do to punch it up, and what I need to do to fit the story more strongly into the narrative pattern of the story so far.
Also, yesterday I talked with Anne extensively about the ending of the last story, and the changes I need to make to that one's ending to give it a more fitting conclusion. I basically have to rewrite that section, expanding it, and changing the main character's response to his situation to make the ending less heavy handed than it could be. the basic idea is that, in stead of a shocking realization that isn't that shocking, I need to go for a sense of creeping unease, which will be more effective at making the point of the story, and will also work better to maintain the reader's sympathy. I think. I don't know if I want to make those changes now, or in the future. I think I should finish the present story before going back to make revisions, just so I'm not flitting around too much, but I should doo the revisions before moving on to the next story.
Also, yesterday I talked with Anne extensively about the ending of the last story, and the changes I need to make to that one's ending to give it a more fitting conclusion. I basically have to rewrite that section, expanding it, and changing the main character's response to his situation to make the ending less heavy handed than it could be. the basic idea is that, in stead of a shocking realization that isn't that shocking, I need to go for a sense of creeping unease, which will be more effective at making the point of the story, and will also work better to maintain the reader's sympathy. I think. I don't know if I want to make those changes now, or in the future. I think I should finish the present story before going back to make revisions, just so I'm not flitting around too much, but I should doo the revisions before moving on to the next story.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Literary vs. Genre
One of the things I spend a lot of my time thinking about/wanting to read about is the topic of genre fiction vs. literary fiction, what the terms means, their artistic worth, and so on. Most of this relates to the perception of the artistic merits of fiction, and whether fiction needs to have pretty words to count as great art or not. This eventually turns into a debate about what qualifies as literary fiction and what qualifies as genre fiction, and it lierary fiction is just another genre or not.
The way I see it, the difference between genre fiction and literary fiction is this. Genre fiction—it's various genres, sci-fi, fantasy, western, mystery, crime, thriller, horror, romance, etc.—is interested in the tropes of it's particular genre, and literary fiction is more interested in the use of literary devices—foreshadowing, symbolism, character, imagery, structure, etc. Its basically two different approaches to relating themes, which is what all fiction is ultimately about.
Hence the difference in the readers interest. Readers of literary fiction want to read something that is, let's say, well-written. Readers of science fiction want something that involves science fiction. This does not mean that a science fiction book can't be well-written, or literary fiction piece involve genre element. Both occur. It's a question of emphasis.
For example, lots of Thomas Pynchon novels include genre tropes, like robotic men, ninjas, walking dead people. But the emphasis is more on the prose style and postmodern plotting and structure techniques. Hence, literary fiction. Also, most of those tropes are pretty derivative. Then there is someone like Philip K. Dick, who apparently, writes like crap, but has visionary, genius science fiction concepts. Hence, he's considered a major science fiction writer. In fact, it's often the case that some genre writers who are not really good "writers" are still considered very good writers because of the content of their ideas. Most of the pulp writers whose names we still know, like Lovecraft and Howard are known because of their ideas, the Cthulu mythos and the Hyperborian Age, respectively. Meanwhile, literary writers usually become well known for their innovation of technique, like Faulkner or Hemingway or Joyce. (Although I often feel like Joyce is his own form in an of itself, as he seems to be more a writer of ideas than form, and thus became the master of form as he was the master of ideas. Or something.)
In brief, genre fiction is about ideas, literary fiction is about technique. And both forms have both ideas and technique.
The way I see it, the difference between genre fiction and literary fiction is this. Genre fiction—it's various genres, sci-fi, fantasy, western, mystery, crime, thriller, horror, romance, etc.—is interested in the tropes of it's particular genre, and literary fiction is more interested in the use of literary devices—foreshadowing, symbolism, character, imagery, structure, etc. Its basically two different approaches to relating themes, which is what all fiction is ultimately about.
Hence the difference in the readers interest. Readers of literary fiction want to read something that is, let's say, well-written. Readers of science fiction want something that involves science fiction. This does not mean that a science fiction book can't be well-written, or literary fiction piece involve genre element. Both occur. It's a question of emphasis.
For example, lots of Thomas Pynchon novels include genre tropes, like robotic men, ninjas, walking dead people. But the emphasis is more on the prose style and postmodern plotting and structure techniques. Hence, literary fiction. Also, most of those tropes are pretty derivative. Then there is someone like Philip K. Dick, who apparently, writes like crap, but has visionary, genius science fiction concepts. Hence, he's considered a major science fiction writer. In fact, it's often the case that some genre writers who are not really good "writers" are still considered very good writers because of the content of their ideas. Most of the pulp writers whose names we still know, like Lovecraft and Howard are known because of their ideas, the Cthulu mythos and the Hyperborian Age, respectively. Meanwhile, literary writers usually become well known for their innovation of technique, like Faulkner or Hemingway or Joyce. (Although I often feel like Joyce is his own form in an of itself, as he seems to be more a writer of ideas than form, and thus became the master of form as he was the master of ideas. Or something.)
In brief, genre fiction is about ideas, literary fiction is about technique. And both forms have both ideas and technique.
Madeleine L'Engle, 1918-2007
Via the Onion A.V. club, I see that Madeleine L'Engle had died. Guess I feel I should point that out, since I wrote this post about her work not too long ago. Now I feel bad about not finishing A Swiftly Tilting Planet. So it goes.
Here's the Wikipedia entry on her.
Here's the Wikipedia entry on her.
Got nothing done yesterday.
I spent most of my night finishing my A Familiar Dragon book. It collects the first three books in a series of five, so I ordered the last two online from Amazon. it's sad that the books are out of print. I hope the author, Daniel Hood, is doing all right.
The books should be here by September 10th. It will be nice to get something in the mail. Something to make this place feel a little more like home.
And hey, it's the weekend. Hopefully the writing juices will kick back in. I feel like of thrown off my game by that long weekend. Think I need to just bite the bullet and start pouring over my notes again, get back in the mindset. Any time now.
The books should be here by September 10th. It will be nice to get something in the mail. Something to make this place feel a little more like home.
And hey, it's the weekend. Hopefully the writing juices will kick back in. I feel like of thrown off my game by that long weekend. Think I need to just bite the bullet and start pouring over my notes again, get back in the mindset. Any time now.
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