Writerly M-Type Thing

[dawn_felagund]

We got some of the snow from the storm to the south of us, just enough that schools were two hours delayed this morning. This meant that I missed teaching first and second periods, which were fully planned. Tomorrow is a half-day, so I only have to teach first and second periods. Which means that this is one of those rare moments in my life when I

Comments

[wheelrider]

I still find Fëanor intimidating as hell. I've never gotten over that string of corrupted and deleted files associated with everything I wrote from his PoV.

ORLY? He's reaching out from the Halls to put a stop to any unauthorized biographical writings, eh? ;)

I find him intimidating as hell, also, and I'm nowhere near the Silm scholar you are.

[dawn_felagund]

YES! It was very weird.

When I was writing AMC, there was one section (two chapters) from Fëanor's PoV.

First, the first chapter was written with all kinds of random weird stuff that didn't happen. (Yes, I wrote the chapter but certainly hadn't pre-planned any of those things.) I had to start over.

Then, a large chunk of the chapter was deleted and lost.

Then, the disk on which Fëanor's chapters lived--I was still using floppy disks then!--corrupted. Thankfully, I'd emailed the chapters to myself but still.

I started the AMC prequel one year at Deep Creek Lake. Got four chapters that I really like, alternating Nerdanel's and Fëanor's PoVs.

The USB stick where I'd saved them corrupted later that week. <0>

[wheelrider]

Whoah. Powerful cursing at work!

[huinare]

I am often surprised at the vitriol directed against first person.

Yes!

I've seen literary magazines state outright that they don't accept first-person stories.

No! D=

First person is what I prefer to both read and write.
___________

From what I've read of your Caranthir, I really enjoy him. =D

[dawn_felagund]

Thank you! :)

Someone told me once that the prejudice against first person is because first-person tends to produce some horrid results. But the fact that many awful stories are in first person doesn't erase that some awesome stories are as well! It seems a silly thing to reject a story for without even reading it.

[huinare]

Nor does it erase the fact that many awful stories are in third person too!

I suppose that, if the story is a badly-written self-insert author-fantasy, it may be somewhat more obvious in first person, but aside from that it seems to me that any POV has the potential for disaster (or awesomeness).

[dawn_felagund]

I've done editing for two (small) literary magazines in my life and certainly never noticed significantly more awful first person than third.

Okay, there was the stack of porn stories sent into the university literary magazine when I was assistant fiction editor that were in first person and some of the most awful stories I've read (the author's name was Chris, and he liked to lean on the i-key when his partner called his name in bed), but they were all by the same person, so they're rather an outlier! :^P

[heartofoshun]

You would be articulate writing this thing! You should read mine! Ha! Kind of a big long 'Duh!' I read yours and laughed at myself. Writing is very personal, so I am not even embarrassed that I have enjoyed these writerly M-things because they made me self-reflective.

I love the many layers of meaning in a single word, for example, or how changing even small details in terms of structure and punctuation can create a certain effect. I love playing with symbolism and foreshadowing. I am very deliberate in making these kinds of stylistic decisions and enjoy when people pick up on it.I could have said that (obviously I could not, because I did not)! But I actually do that when I write. Not always that effectively apparently, because I often do use Betas and torn between loving feedback in that form and not liking that people want to give me a better word and suggesting the exact words or phrases that I carefully considered already and rejected because they did not contain the nuances and layers of my final choice of vocabulary or

[dawn_felagund]

You would be articulate writing this thing!

Ha! I'm glad you thought it articulate. It often felt like a stew of metaphors to me. :^P

But I do love thinking about these things. I have my little pet theories. Usually only Bobby--bless him--gets to hear about them. Like the Language Layercake--that's a favorite. The Characters in a Room technique did get mentioned here!

If I were to ever be successful in writing beyond fandom, I could be one of those annoying writers who writes a how-to-write book.

I could have said that (obviously I could not, because I did not)!On that post, we certainly talked about making deliberate choices in our stories ... so you kinda did, if only in the comments. :) I don't remember if it was in the original post, so I'll trust you know better than me

[heartofoshun]

Thank you! I didn't know that. :)

I've said it before! Lot's of times--both that it is one of my favorites and my all-time favorite (I'm hedging at little on number one now, only because you have written some incredible stories since then). You just don't remember and I recommend it all the time.

The thing about it is, whereas AMC was a fabulous escape for me into a world I did not even know I wanted people with my favorite Silm characters. Light of the Roses was initially a painful and disturbing story, but really has an underlying hopefulness to it, despite foreshadowing of things to come. There is a sense of it's not over 'til it's over. Now I am blathering. Erestor is a great character also and influenced the way I write my very different one. Your Telvo is such a fantastic character--so vulnerable and courageous at the same time. It has a cast of fantastic characters--the wives and Curufin. Even Erestor's parents and their marriage(!), seen only in his internal monologues.

[dawn_felagund]

I remember you finding it disturbing and darker than AMC! So I must be remembering the negatives and not the positives. (I do remember you complimenting it, just not that it was a/the favorite.) Sorry! My brain is crazy forgetful lately.

[indy1776]

I don't understand the hatred of first person myself. It's just another way to tell a story; neither good or bad in and of itself. And as someone who enjoys writing it, I try not to let the vitriol get to me but don't always succeed. (I actually mentioned in my answers to this that the SWG is the only place in fandom I've ever seen where first person fics are widely read and loved.)

[dawn_felagund]

Oh! You did this too! I need to go read that. :D

I just mentioned to Huin that I've edited for two small literary magazines in my time and never noticed more awfulness in first person than in third. To me, PoV is a tool like any other in a writer's repertoire. Putting something off-limits that is the best choice for a particular project simply makes no sense to me.

[heartofoshun]

I do have a prejudice against second person--it recalls bad horror fiction for me. "Desperate, you round a turn in the musty, dark tunnel when you hear the shuffle of footsteps behind you. You run faster and faster, but then you stumble, sprawling flat on your face. Before you can scramble to your feet, you feel its hot breath on your neck and smell the stench of its foetid breath!" Got that out of my system! That is the kind of thing that second person conjures up for me.

[with_rainfall]

:D Not to mention all those CYOA Goosebumps books (good Lord, I used to devour those as a kid!) That said, I know it's not great literature, but Peter Lerangis manages a pitch-perfect and genuinely interesting Ducky McCrae in the Babysitters Club YA spin-off series California Diaries. Mind, those are written in journal format, so not quite the same as novels.

It also... kind of worked in If on a Winter's Night a Traveller.

[dreamflower02]

I am enjoying this meme a lot, seeing what my friends and I have in common, and what's different.

It's funny--with me, first person is unusual, and present tense is as well; but when I do use one, the other often follows. In fact, of my rare present tense stories, I can't think of one that's not first person.

Your writing is always intriguing, and makes me think--especially about characters I don't think of often, and nearly always makes me want more.

[dawn_felagund]

Thank you. :)

I love these kinds of memes--both doing them and reading others' responses to them. The creative process and how very different it is for each person endlessly fascinates me. I used to feel bad, as a young writer, when I would venture into the Writing section of B&N and pick up one of those books on writing advice, often by a famous author, and realize that I did little or nothing of what they recommended (write in the morning, force yourself to write at least 15 minutes a day, write plot outlines before beginning ...). I now know how different each writer is, and those advice books feel rather silly in retrospect.

It's funny--with me, first person is unusual, and present tense is as well; but when I do use one, the other often follows.

Hmm ... this might be true of me too. I'll have to look back sometime and figure this out!