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fair enough
There's a comment to yesterday's post that I wanted to pull up into the light of day:
Erm, I'm pretty sure that most of the novels that I consider great, from Jane Eyre on down to White Noise, break some or most of these rules. If this is intended to be advice for beginners, then I'm sure it's all sensible enough, but something about how you're stating them chafes.
My response: yes. absolutely. I should have begun this whole venture with the usual disclaimer, so here it is:
Rules of thumb are not graven in stone. They are guidelines. Every one of them has been broken, and broken successfully. I am just one more writer who was a teacher, with one approach. I have had some success with these rules as my point of departure.
So why provide these guidelines, I'm asking myself. I came up with some reasons:
1. to air out my thoughts and regain perspective (on this count I can say, the weblog has been useful for me)
2. to share what experience I have that might be useful to writers at an earlier stage in their careers (see disclaimer above)
3. to start conversations
Point three is where things haven't really gone the way I thought they might. I rarely get a substantive comment that might be the beginning of a conversation, although the same Guest Commenter did provide one in response to this entry (Rule 5):
This seems to depend on the prose form. Short stories don't require that the characters change; in fact, I find many shorts in which the character does experience some kind of epiphany or transformation to be rather artificial. Often the thing that changes in a short story is not the change in the main characters, but the reader's understanding of them. Consider, e.g., George Saunders's "The End of FIRPO in the World", which is a terrific story but I have a hard time isolating any change in the main character. (The main character does die, but I submit that this isn't an "interesting" kind of change.)
So why don't I get these kinds of comments and following from them, conversations? A few different possible reasons come to mind.
1. my usual readers just aren't that interested;
2. my approach does grate, as Guest Commenter suggests;
3. this isn't a good venue for such discussions.
I put up the new feature that allows readers to rate the posts for just this reason, to see what's interesting and useful and what isn't. If a clear pattern emerges, I'll just stop doing whatever it is that isn't working.
One thing I can't do, though, is change my voice. Because there is the possibility -- even the probability -- that what grates on Guest Commenter's ear is just me. My personality, the way I present myself to the world. In which case, I suspect we'll just have to do without each other's company.
Back to work.
October 22, 2005 12:32 PM
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Comments
I love your blog, Sara. I'm not sure why others don't start up a conversation, but for myself, it feels like I'm sitting in on a facinating lecture. I've come here to listen and learn and ruminate. A lot of what you post about I take away to chew on some more, it requires that kind of in depth thinking process, for me at least. But no, I rarely feel the impulse to jump in with my two cents. ;-)
Posted by: Jaq at October 22, 2005 12:50 PM
I've been lurking here for a while, and this seems like a good time to say 'hello.' I'm a phd student in English (composition and rhetoric). I came to your fiction when looking for books that are richly written and romantic-- something like Diana Gabaldon's work. Your books sit next to hers on my personal bookshelf.
Your "English with an Accent" is sitting on my academic bookshelf-- I came to it through my research into writing and whiteness in the U.S.
For what it's worth, I visit here almost daily. I'm interested in your career path-- from academia to fiction writing. I imagine myself doing the same. I know I need to be doing academic work right now, but I feel like I've got some fiction buried in here somewhere, too.
I enjoy your work-- the books and this blog-- and that's why I visit.
Posted by: Meagan at October 22, 2005 03:58 PM
I've been reading here for about a month now and am enjoying your entries. I don't know why folks don't start conversations. I can offer only why I haven't commented here before. To be honest, I've gotten a bit gunshy.
If I have the time and I agree with a post, I'm likely to comment. If I don't agree, or if I have a different take on the subject, I've gotten reluctant to comment and instead, blog about it. I have my own writing blog (tho I am so far, not pro published) and often use posts elsewhere to inspire my own blogging.
But too often on a number of other writing blogs I read, when I offered my contrary opinion, instead of starting a conversation, my comments led to an antagonistic exchange with the blogger getting defensive and me reiterating or clarifying leading to more defensiveness and then I back out. I'm not saying you do that, :) , but it has led me to not comment much anymore on writing blogs. Unless it's to defend fanfic (which I wrote for 15 years before stopping 10 years ago). :)
I don't like rating posts or comments. What people say is very subjective and, same with reviews, I take them all with a big grain of salt. And I, too, don't get much commenting on any of my blogs. In my case, I think it's a matter of hitting a nerve with someone before they feel inspired to comment.
Posted by: Shelly at October 22, 2005 05:10 PM
I think I need to clarify a couple things. First, I don't mind if people don't comment. I'm glad if they do, but I don't worry if they don't. Wondering why something happens (or doesn't) is very different than wishing that it would (or would not). For me, at least.
If something I write here serves as a departure point for writing on your own weblog (as in Shelly's case), then that's great.
Also, I don't expect people to agree with me. I really don't. I grew up in an Italian family where disagreement was the preferred form of interpersonal interaction. I'm not uncomfortable with discussion, and I hope that I don't frighten anyone away for fear of some kind of a rant.
I'm truly glad if what I write here is useful or interesting to some people. If I grate on other people for whatever reason, in whatever way, I can live with that, too. It would be silly to think that everything I put down is going to be equally pleasing or useful or interesting to everybody. There's not enough time in the day to worry about something like that.
Posted by: sara at October 22, 2005 05:46 PM
I don't mind if folks comment, either, but I do like when they do. :) But as long as I know they're reading, or at least skimming... With LiveJournal, I know how many folks on LJ have friended me, so I can figure that my words pass by their eyeballs at some point. Comments are a way to let us know that yes, people really are reading what we have to say.
I'll take you at your word re: disagreement. Just know that I've heard it before, from others who, after I posted my contrary comment, proved they really didn't mean it. Maybe they believed they did, and maybe they didn't think they got defensive, but I'm an expert on defensiveness, having spent the last 6 years weaning myself from that same bad habit. heh
Posted by: Shelly at October 22, 2005 06:16 PM