Writing About Writing About Writing

[mark_asphodel]

 I was going to talk about kids in fanfic, but this is something else I'd had on the back burner.

Anne Shirley, the beloved and iconic red-haired Canadian girl from the Anne of Green Gables books, is a writer.  She never becomes a career journalist or novelist or anything like that, but that's besides the point.  She's a writer.

Comments

[kyusil]

This was a really interesting post, as usual. I'd only ever read Anne of Green Gables, back when it was 5th grade required reading and I was disappointed in the lack of dragons, but this makes me want to give it another try. It's really fascinating how young or amateur writers fall into the exact same traps, almost like clockwork (as a visit to this tumblr will demonstrate).

also eagerly awaiting kid post. *^*

[mark_asphodel]

Thanks!

Yeah, kid post will be tonight, maybe?

[myaru]

Ah, this is applicable to me as much now as when I was younger. Oh descriptive passages. :/

I think I was Ruby Gillis.

Yes, definitely. Maybe I still am.

That's disheartening.

Now I really do want to read the original novels. I think I'll put them on my list. (Like my reading list ever gets done; as soon as I finish one book, I add three more.) If only I'd read this when I was younger.

[mark_asphodel]

I think I was Ruby Gillis

Hah!

Now I really do want to read the original novels.

They hold up pretty well, IMO. Maybe it was the nostalgia, but just digging for quotes led me to skim several chapters. I think it helps that Montgomery does give the reader a chance to sympathize with a number of the adult characters.

I used to be so bad with the overdone descriptions... it was actually a fanfic that broke me of it. "No, we DON'T need to know the color of the soap in every bathroom of this hotel! ARGH!!!"

[amielleon]

I never read Anne of Green Gables, but those excerpts really are fantastic. I had a good many little giggles at myself.

I acutely remember, in fact, a very early conversation in which I admitted that I killed a few more characters than I would've liked because they were crowding the set. My correspondent very seriously said that she had hers run off to Canada instead.

A few years later I was killing them just because I enjoyed it. I'm not sure I'm out of that phase yet. Maybe I've just gotten better at masking that fact.

[mark_asphodel]

I had a good many little giggles at myself.

The books really do stand up to time quite well. The human insight there is... above average, at the least.

A few years later I was killing them just because I enjoyed it. I'm not sure I'm out of that phase yet. Maybe I've just gotten better at masking that fact.

Yeah. I was definitely there. Still am, deep down inside.

[hooves]

I...love you forever

[mark_asphodel]

First, the quote (Gil, right?) from your LJ Cut.

No, in the books it was cranky old Mr. Harrison... one of my favorite characters, really. Montgomery has such convincing adults.

This was a really thoughtful piece you put together here

Thanks. It'd been percolating in the brain for sometime, and it surprised me a little that nobody in this circle had done it yet. But I guess fewer people read the Anne books than I'd imagined.

She did some terrible things, but she wasn't a bad person.

I don't see the Mary Sueness of a character who's so often wrong-- sometimes humorously, sometimes bitterly-- and who actually learns from it. Sues don't learn! Emily, OTOH, creeped me out. I think the pointed ears had something to do with it. Pointed ears!

and brings them to Gilbert when he's dying of TB

!

Gilbert died?

GILBERT DIES?!?

NOOOOOOOOOO. He never died in the books! Evil cruel movie adaptation!

But trying is all that matters.Trying and paying attention to at least some of the people who are trying to help you! Which is

[hooves]

Cranky old people are THE BEST.

And no, Gilbert doesn't die! But they think he's going to. iirc, Montgomery wrote about TB quite a bit, as it was being learned about more and more as she was writing books.

But yeah, if Gilbert died I wouldn't like the series at all. LMAO. He's too awesome to die. D:

[mark_asphodel]

And no, Gilbert doesn't die! But they think he's going to

Oh, maybe that was based on the scene from the books where he nearly kicks it from typhoid fever, then. That's OK.

Montgomery wrote about TB quite a bit, as it was being learned about more and more as she was writing books.

Yeah, there's a really good examination of it that you can get through Google books. Fascinating.

He's too awesome to die. D:

Indeed.

You know, I think the Anne books left me with a lasting distaste for the name "Roy." ;P

Not that Roy Gardner was a bad guy. He just wasn't Gilbert!

[sailorvfan10]

See I had an opposite problem with descriptions--I never HAD any. And it's something I still struggle with (I always have to go back and add in descriptions just so they're not, you know, standing around surrounded by an expanse of white).

Definitely wrote a lot of Mary Sues though >.>

"I wouldn't give up altogether," said Mr. Harrison reflectively. "I'd write a story once in a while, but I wouldn't pester editors with it. I'd write of people and places like I knew, and I'd make my characters talk everyday English; and I'd let the sun rise and set in the usual quiet way without much fuss over the fact. If I had to have villains at all, I'd give them a chance, Anne -- I'd give them a chance. There are some terrible bad men in the world, I suppose, but you'd have to go a long piece to find them -- though Mrs. Lynde believes we're all bad. But most of us have got a little decency somewhere in us. Keep on writing, Anne." I do believe that is the best critique you can get. Don't give up writing entirely, but constantly work on it to

[mark_asphodel]

I do believe that is the best critique you can get. Don't give up writing entirely, but constantly work on it to improve. And keep improving.

They're very sensible books. Which makes me wonder how much of Anne's journey was a self-critique on the part of the author.

[sailorvfan10]

What I find relatable is how Anne's journey in writing is...pretty much every writer's journey. It was mine, at least. I'm always finding new things about writing. There are times I throw up my hands and go, "That's it, I'm giving up writing forever because I fail!" and I'm told, "But you love writing! You can't give it up just because you spliced commas and that character needs some improving."

And that not everything you write has to be shown to the people at large, too.

I wouldn't be surprised if Anne's journey was the author going, "Hey, these are actually my experiences and what I did wrong when I first started out."