Style (1)
They used to say (my old profs) that there are two types of literature, and thus, two types of writer. The Classicists and the Romantics. The Classicists are interested in the style, the "how" of telling the story, the little tricks the creator uses to hook his audience and keep them reading or listening. Too many little tricks turn into purple patches, which is a bad thing. (A purple patch is a section of the telling which interrupts/stops the reader by attracting them to the words and the way they are put together, thus pulling us out of our suspended disbelief in the created story.) The Romantics are more interested in what happens to the characters, in the emotional and physical conflicts with which we readers identify and care about the created beings.
I probably don't have to tell you that I've always leaned towards the Romantic side (positivity, emotion, nature, spirit). Towards more flesh than flash. Not to be dazzled by the teller's tricks but rather to be immersed into the world the teller has created.
That said, I had fun playing with style as I wrote and rewrote EMBERS.
They used to say (my old profs) that there are two types of literature, and thus, two types of writer. The Classicists and the Romantics. The Classicists are interested in the style, the "how" of telling the story, the little tricks the creator uses to hook his audience and keep them reading or listening. Too many little tricks turn into purple patches, which is a bad thing. (A purple patch is a section of the telling which interrupts/stops the reader by attracting them to the words and the way they are put together, thus pulling us out of our suspended disbelief in the created story.) The Romantics are more interested in what happens to the characters, in the emotional and physical conflicts with which we readers identify and care about the created beings.
I probably don't have to tell you that I've always leaned towards the Romantic side (positivity, emotion, nature, spirit). Towards more flesh than flash. Not to be dazzled by the teller's tricks but rather to be immersed into the world the teller has created.
That said, I had fun playing with style as I wrote and rewrote EMBERS.
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