kurt vonnegut thing
I was going to whine about how tiring the past two days were, but then have a meme instead. Stolen from bluegerl:
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
Yeah, basically. I want to give them something interesting. I like writing things people haven't before, going down plots that people haven't tried. This is generally why I take forever to start writing in a fandom because I need to know what people are writing so I don't do that. This is also why I used to change fandoms like underwear. Once I'm done filling spaces, I'm done.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
I've read plenty of novels in which everyone is kind of despicable, though. And plenty of people go for despicable bastards. What I would do is to make sure everyone has flaws, preferably a crap load of them, but at the same time they still have their redeemable points. i.e. write people, not characters. (Also holy fuck, I hate the 'rooting for' thing. Maybe I'm just in my 'I love problems that arise because people are stupid pieces of shit and screw up their own lives' phase. It's not about fucking winning.)
3. Every character should want be motivated by something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things-reveal character or advance the action.
.... What happened to the scenery, mate?
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
... Did I mention that I really, really love fucking around with timelines and chronologies? I don't care where I start as long as I end up starting. We'll basically go through a rollercoaster ride of timelines anyway.
6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
LIKE I SAID, I'm in a phase in which I think problems coming from the outside are lame and passe and I'd rather just have a bunch of flawed assholes who dug their own graves and must claw their own ways back out. I suppose it's the same thing to show what the character is made of, but holy God I just want character development that happens because people fuck themselves over, realised they did something stupid, and scramble around to fix it. Is that too banal?
Because Jesus Christ most of the time your enemy isn't a villain, isn't society, isn't your parents, isn't the government, isn't the military, isn't aliens. It's just you.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
I write to please me. I post because if I don't, I will never post. I am never, ever 100% happy with what I write (I cheat all the time and go back and edit my LJ posts. I always find typos whenever I do. And change some phrases sometimes), but if I wait until I'm 100% happy I will never post anything ever and I will never learn from anyone's reactions.
Which brings me to the next point. I don't write things for popularity. I used to, but nowadays I don't give a fuck. But I love comments because I want to know what worked, what doesn't, and even if you don't tell me explicitly, I can still extrapolate from what you said. If there are no comments, I'll assume that it's crap and try something else.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
No Christ, no. No, no, no. I hate the adage that you treat your readers like idiots. I prefer to think that my audience are people who understand what I'm getting at without me writing 'Charlie is an assassin with a gun and he's on a mission to kill some people'. I expect that if I throw my reader into a scene and describe the scene enough, they'll get it. Show, not tell.
... I think I just have very different writing strategies than Kurt Vonnegut.
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
Yeah, basically. I want to give them something interesting. I like writing things people haven't before, going down plots that people haven't tried. This is generally why I take forever to start writing in a fandom because I need to know what people are writing so I don't do that. This is also why I used to change fandoms like underwear. Once I'm done filling spaces, I'm done.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
I've read plenty of novels in which everyone is kind of despicable, though. And plenty of people go for despicable bastards. What I would do is to make sure everyone has flaws, preferably a crap load of them, but at the same time they still have their redeemable points. i.e. write people, not characters. (Also holy fuck, I hate the 'rooting for' thing. Maybe I'm just in my 'I love problems that arise because people are stupid pieces of shit and screw up their own lives' phase. It's not about fucking winning.)
3. Every character should want be motivated by something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things-reveal character or advance the action.
.... What happened to the scenery, mate?
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
... Did I mention that I really, really love fucking around with timelines and chronologies? I don't care where I start as long as I end up starting. We'll basically go through a rollercoaster ride of timelines anyway.
6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
LIKE I SAID, I'm in a phase in which I think problems coming from the outside are lame and passe and I'd rather just have a bunch of flawed assholes who dug their own graves and must claw their own ways back out. I suppose it's the same thing to show what the character is made of, but holy God I just want character development that happens because people fuck themselves over, realised they did something stupid, and scramble around to fix it. Is that too banal?
Because Jesus Christ most of the time your enemy isn't a villain, isn't society, isn't your parents, isn't the government, isn't the military, isn't aliens. It's just you.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
I write to please me. I post because if I don't, I will never post. I am never, ever 100% happy with what I write (I cheat all the time and go back and edit my LJ posts. I always find typos whenever I do. And change some phrases sometimes), but if I wait until I'm 100% happy I will never post anything ever and I will never learn from anyone's reactions.
Which brings me to the next point. I don't write things for popularity. I used to, but nowadays I don't give a fuck. But I love comments because I want to know what worked, what doesn't, and even if you don't tell me explicitly, I can still extrapolate from what you said. If there are no comments, I'll assume that it's crap and try something else.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
No Christ, no. No, no, no. I hate the adage that you treat your readers like idiots. I prefer to think that my audience are people who understand what I'm getting at without me writing 'Charlie is an assassin with a gun and he's on a mission to kill some people'. I expect that if I throw my reader into a scene and describe the scene enough, they'll get it. Show, not tell.
... I think I just have very different writing strategies than Kurt Vonnegut.