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khiemtranAfter a much needed break down at my parents' house, featuring very little apart from overeating, reading and the occasional trip to the SurfCoast, I've come up with a tentative plan for my writing 2006.
Disclaimer: as usual with any of my plans, any resemblance to actual events, future or otherwise, is purely coincidental.
1) Shelve the WIR
After some quiet contemplation and some illuminating reading, I'm now convinced that I need to improve as a writer before I can approach the WIR again. The most useful book was Gao XingJiang's _Soul Mountain_, which actually covers some of the same ideas that I was trying for in the WIR, though of course in a vastly diferent way. While I'm not quite at the throw-the-manuscript-in-the-fireplace stage, I now recognise that I was underequipped to do justice to the story. _Soul Mountain_ was also a timely reminder that there's more to good writing then tight third and filtered description (for one thing, it was largely written in second person present(!)).
2) Experiment and Build
I'm not quite at the next level yet, but I'm starting to catch glimpses of it. What I want to do now is start with a clean slate and work on some new techiques. I've started to shift my ideas about what it is that makes me like a book, which means in turn that I'll be shifting what I'm aiming at. I'm feeling now that somewhere along the line I've got something wrong, that the things that I thought I needed to do to get a good book aren't quite the full story. Time to go back to first principles and work on the elements one at a time. What makes a good voice? What makes a story interesting? What will give me that elusive texture I've been looking for? And what will give me what I really want, that feeling of opening and unveiling that I've been able to glimpse but not reproduce?
3) Read more and write less
This will probably be the easiest part of the plan to implement, since I'm likely to have far less free time than I did before. Time to get some quality reading in, and to get a chance to learn more from the masters. My reading has probably been lacking anyway in the last few years, especially while I was in get-it-done mode for the WIR.
Disclaimer: as usual with any of my plans, any resemblance to actual events, future or otherwise, is purely coincidental.
1) Shelve the WIR
After some quiet contemplation and some illuminating reading, I'm now convinced that I need to improve as a writer before I can approach the WIR again. The most useful book was Gao XingJiang's _Soul Mountain_, which actually covers some of the same ideas that I was trying for in the WIR, though of course in a vastly diferent way. While I'm not quite at the throw-the-manuscript-in-the-fireplace stage, I now recognise that I was underequipped to do justice to the story. _Soul Mountain_ was also a timely reminder that there's more to good writing then tight third and filtered description (for one thing, it was largely written in second person present(!)).
2) Experiment and Build
I'm not quite at the next level yet, but I'm starting to catch glimpses of it. What I want to do now is start with a clean slate and work on some new techiques. I've started to shift my ideas about what it is that makes me like a book, which means in turn that I'll be shifting what I'm aiming at. I'm feeling now that somewhere along the line I've got something wrong, that the things that I thought I needed to do to get a good book aren't quite the full story. Time to go back to first principles and work on the elements one at a time. What makes a good voice? What makes a story interesting? What will give me that elusive texture I've been looking for? And what will give me what I really want, that feeling of opening and unveiling that I've been able to glimpse but not reproduce?
3) Read more and write less
This will probably be the easiest part of the plan to implement, since I'm likely to have far less free time than I did before. Time to get some quality reading in, and to get a chance to learn more from the masters. My reading has probably been lacking anyway in the last few years, especially while I was in get-it-done mode for the WIR.
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Date: 2006-01-02 12:27 am (UTC)Second person present tense can be very evocative. I especially loved how Stewart O'Nan used it in A Prayer for the Dying. I'm also becoming reacquainted with how good well done omniscient can be thanks to Minette Walters's mysteries.
However things go, good luck.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 01:39 am (UTC)Second person present actually seems to be quite common in Chinese novels. Or at least, I've seen two now that used it. What I'd like to do now is take take some time to explore all the different voices and tenses, and then hopefully gain some understanding into how to use each of them.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 01:43 am (UTC)