Slouching toward a point
With my near-constant trawling of 852prospect.org’s archive lately, I’ve started to think about the difference between well written and well told, because believe it or not, it’s possible find incredibly well written stories that are completely ass. By that, I mean an author will have an excellent command of the written word and can write vivid sex scenes and spot-on characterization, but when it comes to actually telling the tale, she will fall flat on her face. (Yes, Virginia, you need character motivation to go along with plot resolution. And while you’re at it, a plot would be nice as well.)
For all that I lack confidence in the nuts and bolts of my own writing, the one thing I don’t worry about is my ability to develop a plot to a satisfactory resolution. Once I have a plot in mind, the rest is fairly straightforward, because writing is easy at that point. Don’t scoff -- I’m serious. The plot defines the story and gives me limits on what I’ll put in and what I’ll take out. Everything I leave in has to serve the plot, either by way of moving it forward or moving the characters forward or defining the characters for the reader so they understand why the characters are behaving the way they do. Without plot, a story is just a bunch of scenes that have a surface connection, and nothing more.
My flist asks me why I read crap!fic so much, and I’ve never really had an answer beyond “masochism” before. As I think about it, though, I read crap!fic because as horrible as the writing is, the author has managed to come up with a premise that intrigues me. My all-time favorite crap!fic author makes me howl with laughter at times, but damn if she doesn’t come up with some original plots.
At any rate, that’s my take on it, so now it’s poll time:
Poll Hobson's Choice
For all that I lack confidence in the nuts and bolts of my own writing, the one thing I don’t worry about is my ability to develop a plot to a satisfactory resolution. Once I have a plot in mind, the rest is fairly straightforward, because writing is easy at that point. Don’t scoff -- I’m serious. The plot defines the story and gives me limits on what I’ll put in and what I’ll take out. Everything I leave in has to serve the plot, either by way of moving it forward or moving the characters forward or defining the characters for the reader so they understand why the characters are behaving the way they do. Without plot, a story is just a bunch of scenes that have a surface connection, and nothing more.
My flist asks me why I read crap!fic so much, and I’ve never really had an answer beyond “masochism” before. As I think about it, though, I read crap!fic because as horrible as the writing is, the author has managed to come up with a premise that intrigues me. My all-time favorite crap!fic author makes me howl with laughter at times, but damn if she doesn’t come up with some original plots.
At any rate, that’s my take on it, so now it’s poll time:
Poll Hobson's Choice