An Experiment in Writing – Part 5: More on Openings – Establishing Voice, Atmosphere, Setting, POV, and Narrator

Picking up from where we left off in past experiments in writing

What I’ve discovered so far is these posts are going to be all over the place. Don’t look for a thread because, as I mention in this entry, something I mention in experiment 3 triggers something important and worth sharing but who knows when it’ll get into its own post?

I’ve learned to live with my shortcomings and would appreciate it if you’d do the same.

Both with mine and your own.

Because you know you have them and if you don’t admit to and acknowledge them, your characters will be flat, bland, and hollow, and who wants to read about characters like that? The world is already full of shallow, bland people. No need to populate your writing with them.

Anyway, on to establishing voice, atmosphere, setting, and narrator…

 
Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me or schedule a critique of your work.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Great Opening Lines posts
Katherine Mansfield via Great Opening Lines – and Why! (Mar 2019’s Great Opening Lines)
JD Salinger via Great Opening Lines – and Why! (Jan 2019’s Great Opening Lines)
Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan of the Apes) via Great Opening Lines – and Why! (Nov 2024’s Great Opening Lines)

Writing Mentoring

You are a fabulous teacher. – Parsippany, NJ

 
Let me save you some time before reading this post by starting out as I did with Critiques: Online or via Email; Do you want to improve your writing? Are you willing to pay to improve?

If the answer to either of those is No then read no further, this post isn’t for you.

Answered Yes to both? Read on.

The Joseph I know is a gifted author, supportive human, and thoughtful mentor. His thoughtful insights on a myriad of subjects allows for lively discussions and good insights. … The operative word is constructive. Suggestions by Joseph are very specific which helps the entire learning process. Note, this is different than simply working with an editor, or English teacher, or even beta readers, because the feedback is actionable. It is an honor to rank Joseph as a mentor. – Houston, TX

 
Continue reading “Writing Mentoring”

Critiques: Online or via Email

As a writer, Joseph helped me to unlock my potential, opening up parts of my stories’ universes I couldn’t see. – Beaumont, TX

 
Let me save you some time before reading this post; Do you want to improve your writing? Are you willing to pay to improve?

If the answer to either of those is No then read no further, this post isn’t for you.

Your critique of my novel was priceless. – Hudson, NH

 
Answered Yes to both? Read on.
Continue reading “Critiques: Online or via Email”

Lance Olsen’s “Architectures of Possibility: After Innovative Writing”

Yeah…well…I’m at a point in my writing career where I know I can write better and am actively looking for something to show me the way.

Sadly, this book wasn’t it. For all the philosophizing and too-long monologues about which authors are unique and why, it pretty much comes down to what I wrote about re The Almanac of the Dead – truly experimental writing is favored by those who want to be experimented upon. The experimental writing examples given in the book don’t seem that experimental to me or are so…experimental(?)…that only an…experimental(?)…person might enjoy them.

Architectures of Possibility: After Innovative Writing taught me many things and mostly about myself.

Learning about one’s self is often the beginning of wisdom. Time will decide if that’s the case here.

One thing I learned is I’ll probably not be an innovative writer as far as Lance Olsen is concerned.

Consider some of his examples of innovative writing:

Shelley Jackson re-conceptualizes the page as human flesh in “The Skin Project”, a 2095-word story published exclusively in tattoos, one word at a time, on the skin of volunteers, while Camille Utterback and Romy Achituv’s “Text Rain” transforms the page into a three-dimensional room you can inhabit-i.e., an interactive installation in which participants lift and play with falling letters that appear to exist all around them. Participants stand or move in front of a large screen, on which they see a projection of themselves in black and white combined with a color animation of the alphabet tumbling through space that seems to land on their heads, arms, outstretched legs. In”The Xenotext Experiment”, Christian Bök (in collaboration with Stuart Kauffman) undertakes what he calls “a literary exercise that explores the aesthetic potential of genetics in the modern milieu” by literalizing William S. Burroughs’ assertion that language is a virus from outer space, Bök encodes a short verse into a sequence of DNA and then implants that sequence into a bacterium to observe its mutations. To put it differently, he uses a primitive bacterium as a writing machine. His wish is to rocket the organic result into outer space some day, thereby sending language back where it came from while creating an ever-changing poem that would outlive, not only the works of Homer, Shakespeare, and Joyce, but earth, the solar system, and the entire galaxy as well.

Not my idea of a good bedtime read, that.

Not my idea of a good any time read, that.

What’s most amusing (to me) is that, when all the “Oh My!”s are out of the way, the writing advice is the same I’ve encountered in far more accessible volumes. There are some gems in here, yes, and that’s the case with any writing text I’ve read.

But on the whole? Far too much effort for far too little reward.

So perhaps that’s my lesson? I know how to write well, simply write well better.
And I am aware what suits me may not suit you, so decide on your own.

StoryCrafting and StoryTelling

“Interesting” is subjective. What doesn’t interest some people may excite others. 🙂

I take part in book review groups – you review mine, I’ll review yours – and I let people know going in I’m a tough reviewer.

The reason I’m a tough reviewer is fairly simple: I review books based on an author’s storycrafting and storytelling skills, not a book or story’s genre.

…good writing is good writing is good writing.

 
I’ve reviewed romance, poetry, chicklit, adventure, MG, and early readers, along with sf/f/h, and regardless of genre good writing is good writing is good writing.

Likewise, sometimes a writer is incompetent and their work sucks.

Storytelling – does the author have an interesting story to tell? Storycrafting – does the author tell the story in an interesting way?

 
For me, it comes down to storycrafting and storytelling. Storytelling – does the author have an interesting story to tell? Storycrafting – does the author tell the story in an interesting way?

Someone can have an amazing story to tell and do it poorly, kind of like a college prof who’s expert in their field and boring as heck in the lecture hall. That’s good story to tell told poorly. The prof who isn’t expert in their field and keeps the students interested has craft but no story.

Then there’s Door #3 – The prof who is both expert in their field and keeps the students interested, enthused about the subject and wanting to know more has both crafting and telling down cold. This is where you want to be if you want to be (in my opinion) an author worth reading.

The statement “What’s interesting is subjective” is true to a point. But yell Fire! or Rape! or Gun! and you’ll get people’s attention because some things aren’t subjective. Get someone’s attention first, they’ll decide if what got their attention is interesting enough to keep their attention.

But the key is getting their attention first, and that is done through good to excellent storycrafting and storytelling skills (and if you’re wondering what gives me the right to talk about such things, take a look at my patents and/or read Reading Virtual Minds Volume I: Science and History).

You’re sharing this because…?


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