Some of these new writers admit to not ever having read very much. They're the ones I think will struggle to write a good book, because they don't really know what a good book is. It's like a moviemaker trying to make a movie when he's only seen one or two, and didn't really enjoy them much. It's not that it can't happen ...never say never ...but it's very unlikely. It's a shame if folk are trying to create stories in a medium they don't actually enjoy. They'd probably be better off getting some video equipment, learning to edit onscreen, and shooting some movies of their own. Why not? It's never been cheaper or easier to do. It's what my nephew intended to do, before he went blind. Poor kid LOVED movies. He still goes to them, listens to the dialogue, and pictures in his head what's going on. Damn.
Good Lord @jannert, I'm over here reading about the connections between movies and books. Next thing I know, you're ripping my soul out of my chest... Sorry that happened. On to the topic, or rather a bit less off topic, anyone else think music helps with the rhythm of sentences? I think all arts have a crossroads of sorts, no you don't get 100% credit transfer from say, sculpting to writing, but I think you get something.
Yes. I listen to music when I write, and I tend to use a lot of literary musical devices (Alliteration, assonance, consonance, etc.) as well as Iambic pentameter in my prose. Also, look at my sig.
Haha I agree. I wonder how much of it is because when we visualise our own stories, we often visualise it like film - in pictures. I mean, how often have you come across a thread on this forum with people asking, "Oh but how do I make my readers see exactly everything I had envisioned to the last detail!?" They're not concerned with making their readers feel the story - they only want them to see it. Seeing it is the priority, which seems like a slightly flawed priority for pure narrative... And in some way, film is easier to learn from. You can see what make something so compelling. Whereas with good narrative, often it's actually rather difficult to unpack why writing it this way worked and what made it work. Somehow visuals and music have a much more instantaneous impact on the senses than reading does - reading is really rather... cerebral, if you think about it. It's also rare that a piece of narrative would be written in such a compelling manner that you recall it the same way you might recall a film when asked for a good example of something. Also, dissecting the structure of a book is harder than a movie I feel. In a movie it's clear when one section ends and the next begins. In a book, you rarely notice, save for chapter breaks, unless you paid careful attention - and with 300-500+ pages to wade through, it's unlikely that anyone would sit down and dissect it properly. But a film - if you wanna study it, you need only spend 2-3 hours on it. As someone else mentioned, film is easier and faster to consume. It might be not so much that people don't realise there's a difference as much as it's actually just well, again, pure laziness on the student's part. Both mediums deal with story-telling, except one of them take ten times as long to study - which are you really gonna choose, right? Somehow I feel like analysing writing is harder - there are more subtleties and nuances in it, and it's way more abstract. Film, in a way, might be "purer" - it's been stripped down to the absolute minimum needed to deliver exactly what the story needs to deliver. In a novel, there's much more room to play, and that makes it harder to strip it down to its precise components. I feel like I'm rambling... it's like I can sense a huge difference but I'm not sure how to say it, because I'm not too sure what the difference is - only that I know there's one!
Of course it does. What do you think poetry is? I think music and poetry are strongly linked, and when I write prose, I always "listen" to my sentences. They're not just words - I listen to the beat of them, feel it like it's an entire emotion rather than a sentence with exact words communicating what I want. So yes, having a musical ear or even playing relevant music while writing can definitely help I think.
That's taken as read about the so-called 'new writers.' New visitors not thinking straight when they're perusing a 'writer forum:' 'Me, I don't like books so much, me, yup.' ...I've been there myself with erotica sites. Standards are high - BDSM, shit in a cup, other people's underwear. We have also a significant problem hereabouts - people read too many books, someone has to say this, they are sometimes flaky individuals, you would not want one in the regiment, or lifeguarding. Or the new dish of late, favourites: 'I've writted a book, one hundred gay guys are stuck in a city - in the swimming pool, I don't know so much about the gays, what should I write, and what would they wear?' Or: 'My OP is black, not because he needs to be black to serve the storyline, any purpose really, just in my purity of thought I decided he should be black as a man, I am like that myself, a rainbow, y'know, with people.'
@Mumble Bee I use music more as an atmospheric than trying to utilize it in a more technical application. It helps to add something that can enhance the mood or tone of what is going on at a given part I am working on. For instance when writing a bloody brutal fight situation, listening to music of that equivalent really enhances the mood of me to let the rawness flow more freely.
Guilty as charged but I did recently read and enjoy True Grit. I confess that movies and screenplays form the basis of my storytelling 'training'.
There's room for all sorts of writing and "training," but I would hope that the take home message for most of us here is that keeping up with literature to some arguable extent is important for a healthy breadth of ideas in our writing discussions. There are several members here- Jannert, Ed, Peach, Wreybies, Steerpike, and Chicken Freak-who are good at keeping things fresh by pointing to novels, many of which I have not read, and I appreciate this. Surely the majority of people here will agree with me that providing examples from Star Wars, Dungeon and Dragons, and member's own unfinished WIPs (which often seem to be based on Star Wars or Dungeons and Dragons) is not the healthiest path for a writing forum.
See, why don't I believe you? If you truly have never read very much, you are definitely the exception to the rule that it's nearly impossible to write well if you don't read. Or have never read much. But you have mentioned worthy writers at times, so you MUST have done reading at some point in your life! Musta.... How on earth could you turn Martyr into a movie? So much of it is internal. It's what your character thinks that makes the story, not so much what she does.
Well, that's why it had to be a book (and took so long). I reference a lot of writers. I have close to a hundred books for reference but I only read a few pages here and there, to get a feel for style. Few have been read in full. And I admit that lack of reading full novels does impact my ability to tell a story as a whole, but that's where movies come in... for me.
Well, you are exceptionally talented, wherever it comes from. I am an unashamed fan. Don't break your leg in MY neighborhood!
