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In lugnet.castle, Matt Hein writes:
> In lugnet.castle, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> > I know some people don't like Orson Scott Card, and some do. But this book
> > of his _How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy_ is chock full of good
> > advice. Amazon(tm) has it, it's a bit more than a regular paperback but
> > worth the price, at least it was to me.
> > Writing to engage the reader is a lot different than writing
> > documentation... The big takeaway for me was the different TYPES of story...
> > are you writing a character driven story, or a big idea story, or a millieu
> > story, or a historic event story? Deciding that helps a lot because it gives
> > you structure for what you want to accomplish, or at least an approach.
>
> Well, I've got quite a nice list of books to peruse
> for christmas vacation. (not a bad collection, as that :)
>
> However, what if you were trying to fuse
> story types? For example, let's say you're
> writing the book in a historic stance, yet
> it's character driven. (kind of like a
> bible epic?) Throw in a very large idea like
> a religious theory into it, how would that
> be classified? All three, or forced into
> one type depending on the dominant trait?
What is the desired focus? That something is set in a particular time period
does not in and of itself make it milleau... if the characters are what
drive the story, it's still character. It's not a forcing per se I don't
feel, but a way to ensure you have focus on what is necessary and what isn't.
Certainly you can have multiple foci but I would leave that to very
experienced writers to pull off successfully.
Take the Star Wars saga for example. Focus on "A New Hope" for instance This
is primarily an "events" story. Sure, there's a milleau (which makes it very
fascinating) but it's a backdrop for the story. Not a lot of time is spent
exploring how gadgets work or the particulars of societies. you are thrown
in and expected to catch up on your own. Sure there's character development,
but Luke's becoming a Jedi is NOT the entire focus of the story, per se.
Sure there are ideas, but they are secondary to the excitement of flying
down the trench and blowing things up.
Hope that helps. I'm a never published writer so take that with a grain of
salt. But I'm an avid reader and I know what I like. Epic, or to a lesser
extent character driven are often the most fun to read. Ideas can seem
rather pontificatorial if not done right, and milleau stories tend not to be
very engaging at all since not much happens.
I'm a latecomer so I don't know where the FUT belongs but I would tend to
think it's out of .general at this point ??
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Message has 2 Replies:
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 | | Re: Please read this!
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| (...) Well, I've got quite a nice list of books to peruse for christmas vacation. (not a bad collection, as that :) However, what if you were trying to fuse story types? For example, let's say you're writing the book in a historic stance, yet it's (...) (21 years ago, 23-Dec-02, to lugnet.castle, lugnet.general, lugnet.publish)
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