Some of you folks may want to click back and read something else, not because this is getting personal or private, but because it's going to be long and possibly uninteresting. Despite being a woman who has developed a reputation as a drabble writer, my natural style -- in conversation and in writing -- has much in common with the Mississippi River. It is lengthy. meandering, and sometimes murky.
Wendy, I don't think you sound patronizing, and I hope I don't sound fawning, because I certainly don't mean to. I don't truly want to be you -- but I do envy some of your writing skills. Your gift for bringing characters and relationships alive -- especially the OT3 -- in simple, lovely language, stirs envy in my soul. High on the list is Dimensionally Transcendent, especially the first four chapters.
You are not the only writer I envy, I confess. DameRuth's ability to describe the Doctor's essential alien nature in just a few words is wonderful, Glass Houses being my favorite example.
There are others, but it's 2:00 in the morning, and my mind is not as clear as it might be. I should mention that I'm talking about authors whose writing skills I envy -- there are many others whose work I enjoy and admire, but I don't particularly want to write like them, because it doesn't fit my style.
Some of this feeling is for reasons I've alluded to in email, after you've beta-read a chapter for me. Let me see if I can explain it coherently. I sometimes have trouble writing about the process of writing.
There have been some chapters that I was not sure of. They seemed dull, or lacking action or suspense, and yet you found them exciting. Or a cliff-hanger which seemed fairly predictable to me, left you startled. Because I trust your honesty, and your judgment as a writer, I have to believe that this is so.
So, it comes down to what I call "authorial blinders". It's hard for me to have a clear perspective on my own work. The surprise at the end of the chapter isn't much of a surprise to me, since I've written it, re-written it, and read it three dozen times over. I can appreciate a nice turn of phrase or a clever bit of dialogue in my own fiction, but I see them "through a glass darkly". Then I read someone else's story, and it's all fresh and new, and the language jumps out at me, and I think, Wow! I want to make people feel like this when they read my fiction. Apparently, some people do feel like that when reading my stories. The paradox is that I can't read through their eyes.
I'm not sure there's a solution, short of taking some retcon just before reading my own story.
I don't know if this makes much sense, but I wanted to say it. And although it was Wendy's comment that triggered this meandering epic, anyone else is welcome to jump in and discuss the author/reader paradox.
Rambling about writing and writers -- LONG
Wendy, I don't think you sound patronizing, and I hope I don't sound fawning, because I certainly don't mean to. I don't truly want to be you -- but I do envy some of your writing skills. Your gift for bringing characters and relationships alive -- especially the OT3 -- in simple, lovely language, stirs envy in my soul. High on the list is Dimensionally Transcendent, especially the first four chapters.
You are not the only writer I envy, I confess. DameRuth's ability to describe the Doctor's essential alien nature in just a few words is wonderful, Glass Houses being my favorite example.
There are others, but it's 2:00 in the morning, and my mind is not as clear as it might be. I should mention that I'm talking about authors whose writing skills I envy -- there are many others whose work I enjoy and admire, but I don't particularly want to write like them, because it doesn't fit my style.
Some of this feeling is for reasons I've alluded to in email, after you've beta-read a chapter for me. Let me see if I can explain it coherently. I sometimes have trouble writing about the process of writing.
There have been some chapters that I was not sure of. They seemed dull, or lacking action or suspense, and yet you found them exciting. Or a cliff-hanger which seemed fairly predictable to me, left you startled. Because I trust your honesty, and your judgment as a writer, I have to believe that this is so.
So, it comes down to what I call "authorial blinders". It's hard for me to have a clear perspective on my own work. The surprise at the end of the chapter isn't much of a surprise to me, since I've written it, re-written it, and read it three dozen times over. I can appreciate a nice turn of phrase or a clever bit of dialogue in my own fiction, but I see them "through a glass darkly". Then I read someone else's story, and it's all fresh and new, and the language jumps out at me, and I think, Wow! I want to make people feel like this when they read my fiction. Apparently, some people do feel like that when reading my stories. The paradox is that I can't read through their eyes.
I'm not sure there's a solution, short of taking some retcon just before reading my own story.
I don't know if this makes much sense, but I wanted to say it. And although it was Wendy's comment that triggered this meandering epic, anyone else is welcome to jump in and discuss the author/reader paradox.