Hear that? It's the sound of two hands clapping in the wilderness of American literacy. Send down an angel to witness and shout out a loooonnnnggg amen - brava, love ♥
Thanks, darlin! The subject of writing is one that I'm passionate about - especially because I'm surrounded by people who believe that writing is of little value in any elevated form.
I spend the majority of my day surrounded by business people of a mindset that art - especially literature - is pointless, boring, and poses less of a challenge than the mastery of skillsets related to economics or medicine or the like.
It gets old. Really, really old.
Kind of like watching someone kick my grandmother in the face.
Unsurprisingly, two of the three individuals in the example exchange claim to be writing novels.
Eeek! *hides*
Excellent advice, though--nodding through those, especially the bit about passive voice and *sob* killing your darlings--and very fun to read the rewrites from heave_ho. You're absolutely right about lazy writing. (What I don't understand is...where's the fun in pounding out a few sentences about Jack's restless night? Don't they want to stab themselves in the eye with boredom while they write it the way I do when I read it? It's much more fun to make him suffer in inches...)
Hey, love! *waves* Thanks for popping in and reading. :)
Glad you found my advice useful, and that you enjoyed the rewrites. It was fun to play with the language, to toss things around a bit. Hadn't done something like that in a long time.
In any case, the lazy writing always gets me. Of course, writing should be fun, but the fact that the act of creating a story is enjoyable shouldn't necessarily preclude diligence in fashioning said story.
For me, it all comes down to respect - for the craft and for the language. I think the majority of those of us that write have roots in Suethor territory, as though Mary Sue herself is a rite of passage for young authors. The difference, for me at least, is whether one chooses to grow or to stagnate.
I think the majority of those of us that write have roots in Suethor territory, as though Mary Sue herself is a rite of passage for young authors.
Heh. Yep. I was writing, through several of my teen years, about a tall, slender, golden-haired, golden-eyed half-dragon princess with untapped, unknown Speshul Powers. I think there was a prophecy involved as well.
Oh, I had my own sickeningly beautiful, Speshul Sue myself. When I was in the 6th grade, I actually wrote a 150 page hunk of garbage (*cringes*) in which said azure-eyed wonder managed to enchant every vampire in Anne Rice's gang.
Yeah.
I burnt it.
*shudders at the memory*
Although I will say, I did spell-check the thing before I printed it out and asked my parents to read it.
Saying a piece of writing is so terrible that it has no place is tempting, but perhaps the question is not so much whether Sue!fic should be shunned as it is whether Sue!fic can be redeemed by applying the tools of the trade
( ... )
Comments 22
Reply
I spend the majority of my day surrounded by business people of a mindset that art - especially literature - is pointless, boring, and poses less of a challenge than the mastery of skillsets related to economics or medicine or the like.
It gets old. Really, really old.
Kind of like watching someone kick my grandmother in the face.
Thanks for reading. :)
Reply
Unsurprisingly, two of the three individuals in the example exchange claim to be writing novels.
Eeek! *hides*
Excellent advice, though--nodding through those, especially the bit about passive voice and *sob* killing your darlings--and very fun to read the rewrites from heave_ho. You're absolutely right about lazy writing. (What I don't understand is...where's the fun in pounding out a few sentences about Jack's restless night? Don't they want to stab themselves in the eye with boredom while they write it the way I do when I read it? It's much more fun to make him suffer in inches...)
Also...hee, icon!
Reply
Glad you found my advice useful, and that you enjoyed the rewrites. It was fun to play with the language, to toss things around a bit. Hadn't done something like that in a long time.
In any case, the lazy writing always gets me. Of course, writing should be fun, but the fact that the act of creating a story is enjoyable shouldn't necessarily preclude diligence in fashioning said story.
For me, it all comes down to respect - for the craft and for the language. I think the majority of those of us that write have roots in Suethor territory, as though Mary Sue herself is a rite of passage for young authors. The difference, for me at least, is whether one chooses to grow or to stagnate.
Reply
Heh. Yep. I was writing, through several of my teen years, about a tall, slender, golden-haired, golden-eyed half-dragon princess with untapped, unknown Speshul Powers. I think there was a prophecy involved as well.
*cringes*
Reply
Yeah.
I burnt it.
*shudders at the memory*
Although I will say, I did spell-check the thing before I printed it out and asked my parents to read it.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment