WHY AM I INCAPABLE OF GOING TO SLEEP AT A REASONABLE HOUR

[apiphile]

Oh good grief I hate updating this. I am as always full of angry and contentious thoughts, which I will sideline in an attempt to avoid trouble with the no people reading this, and then I'll write something so boring that no one wants to comment on it anyway

Comments

[apiphile]

You wouldn't enjoy a cab ride with a driver who kept weaving all over the road and asking you the way every ten seconds; I don't like an author to do that either.

I think that's an excellent analogy, and I agree - I don't like an author who has so little confidence in their story that they feel the need to hammer me about the motivations of their character etc. If you're writing well, I will pick that up, and if I don't get it I will talk to someone else who has read the book and see what they picked up!

I could never remember who was talking

My big worry with the multiple PoV stuff I do - even though I usually separate out the PoVs into separate chapters - is that the characters all sound the same (and that they all sound like me). I think that is not just a worry with MPOV fiction but with successive books that have different PoV characters, written by the same author. You worry that all the interesting things about the character are just elements about the author that they forgot to leave out.

There are many action sequences, but, being as they're so densely and lengthily written, you create the tension yourself as your understanding builds, rather than being manipulated by text layout. He tells every kind of story in those books, and I find them all beautiful and captivating, even when nothing much is happening at all.

Agreed - one of my favourite things with PO'B is that he loads the text with so many passing details and observations of people's nature that in some cases you merely get a really rich picture of the world, but in others he's sneaking in information that becomes important later on, and when it crops up you realise that you had known all along, but not consciously. It is very neat.

[apiphile]

With confident readers, yes. I've encountered an unfortunate amount of people who hate books because "the author was trying to be clever", which usually meant the author was succeeding in being clever but the reader wasn't...

[apiphile]

Mmm, I like to put in a bit of effort or at least to be slightly surprised by things, but not to have to root around through loads of theory sites in order for things to make sense - I do like it when people can come up with some insight into the story I wouldn't otherwise have got, though.