Annie said -
I can only say again that non-verbal communication does not a good story make... in fact, under most circumstances, it makes for a stultifyingly boring story with characters that are next to impossible for the reader to relate to.
How can you write in a purely "verbal," communicating medium by being "non-verbal." It just doesn't work.
Wow. I honestly believe that there is some vast gulf of what writers and readers want, and that if you are on the other side of it, you just don't understand the other.
every single sentiment in what Annie says is the exact *opposite* of what I believe about fiction. But I know that all those statements are true for Annie, and I am grateful to read them so clearly and forthrightly expressed.
it has convinced me that people with opposing views will just have to relax about it all, and accept that there will be this whole bunch of stuff they can't ever get on with at all. That applies to both sides. It's as if we are talking a different language: but confusingly a different language with the same words in it :-)
I also think there are more fanfic writers with Annie's view. Sad for me - because it means there is less that I like to read, and fewer people who will like what I write. Of course it isn't sad *really* as it means that there is all this stuff being happily read and written, by people who are on exactly the same wavelength.
Alison
At 06:42 PM 2/13/01 +0000, Alison Page wrote:
Annie said -
<SNIP!>
How can you write in a purely "verbal," communicating medium by being "non-verbal." It just doesn't work.
Wow. I honestly believe that there is some vast gulf of what writers and readers want, and that if you are on the other side of it, you just don't understand the other.
<SNIP!>
I also think there are more fanfic writers with Annie's view. Sad for me - because it means there is less that I like to read, and fewer people who will like what I write. Of course it isn't sad *really* as it means that there is all this stuff being happily read and written, by people who are on exactly the same wavelength.
Speaking as someone on the "character" side of the junkie chasm, who nonetheless *does* like what you write, as well as other works found on the "action" side (including even Mr. Faulkner's)...I speculate that perhaps Annie means it would be very difficult to accurately transcribe "body language", in comparison to speech, as a means of communication...how would you go about writing out the Buster Keaton movie playing in your head (well I know *I've* always got one rolling) to make it ROTFL amusing? Better off converting into a more dialogue-oriented format. "'X,' said Y [Z-ly]" gets the point across succinctly, if not always terrifically aesthetically; where a list of Y's bodily contortions (which in real life or a Buster Keaton movie *could* communicate "X, Z-ly" very efficiently) will have the reader skimming ahead for the next period/paragraph break/dirty word.
Bah, Zathras expresses self badly. Well tough, I ain't gonna delete it now.
--"Dave" -- "Tyler and Marla are never in the same room. I never see them together. Still, you never see me and Zsa Zsa Gabor together, and this doesn't mean we're the same person."
-
Alison Page -
Penny Dreadful