Open Thread: Oracle Hotline
The Bunny Pen is hopping so nicely that I forgot to put up the Open Thread on time! Well, there are worse reasons to forget...
What else is on everyone's minds at the end of this week? What kinds of writing issues are you wrestling with? I've recently ordered a bunch of books on writing--not the usage and technical books, generally I feel confident there--but books about the art and craft and whys of writing, which I'm endlessly fascinated by. I'm thinking about starting a set of semi-regular threads, like the Bunny Pen, which start with a quote about writing and throw it open to discussion.
For example, Ursula LeGuin, one of my favorite writers, says in Steering the Craft: "A story that has nothing but action and plot is a pretty poor affair; and some great stories have neither. To my mind, plot is merely one way of telling a story, by connecting the happenings tightly, usually though causal chains. Plot is a marvelous device. But it's not superior to story, and not even necessary to it. As for action, indeed a story must move, something must happen; but the action can be nothing more than a letter sent that doesn't arrive, a thought unspoken, the passage of a summer's day. Unceasing violent action is usually a sign that there is, in fact, no story being told" (117).
Yes, canon, I'm looking at you.
Other than my musing about writing in general, how's everyone's muses doing? :)
What else is on everyone's minds at the end of this week? What kinds of writing issues are you wrestling with? I've recently ordered a bunch of books on writing--not the usage and technical books, generally I feel confident there--but books about the art and craft and whys of writing, which I'm endlessly fascinated by. I'm thinking about starting a set of semi-regular threads, like the Bunny Pen, which start with a quote about writing and throw it open to discussion.
For example, Ursula LeGuin, one of my favorite writers, says in Steering the Craft: "A story that has nothing but action and plot is a pretty poor affair; and some great stories have neither. To my mind, plot is merely one way of telling a story, by connecting the happenings tightly, usually though causal chains. Plot is a marvelous device. But it's not superior to story, and not even necessary to it. As for action, indeed a story must move, something must happen; but the action can be nothing more than a letter sent that doesn't arrive, a thought unspoken, the passage of a summer's day. Unceasing violent action is usually a sign that there is, in fact, no story being told" (117).
Yes, canon, I'm looking at you.
Other than my musing about writing in general, how's everyone's muses doing? :)