Things that go bump

[Tom's House]

I listened this week to Peter's gentle critiques of pop-up submissions, the first time I have done so. It strikes me that it is very difficult to define what it is that does not work in a series of words that a writer puts down on paper. A sentence, a paragraph, indeed a book must flow naturally from its beginning to its much like an surfer rides a wave unimpeded to the shore. If he strikes a piece of driftwood or some other obstacle on the way in that way it ruins the ride. Inappropriate words, images that don't quite work, a mechanical error of some kind — however slight — all the writers equivalent of that piece of driftwood. It interrupts the flow and fatally so, waking the reader up from the dream of reading. One example: A text that Peter read told of a climber mounting a sheer cliff next to a waterfall. The author tells us that the climber "dug his toes into the the cliff's rock wall. It occurred to me that toes cannot dig into rock. They can find purchase,a crevice, an outcropping, or a fault, but not dig. This was a piece of driftwood of the kind that spoils the ride.

Can the art of avoiding such errors be learned? My experience tells me that it cannot, and that's a pity. Of course such errors are common of the first drafts of even the most experienced writers and are dealt with on a second reading.

 

[Amber]

I swear to god.... I'd have a heart attack if I read tabloids every day because so often... sweet, tame, litopia sends me into fits...

Why such doom and gloom?

Why can't the art of avoiding such errors be learned? Practice. Check what you write for inconsistencies and illogical subject/verb combinations.

Because I'd say ... cliffs aren't mounted. And you're right, toes don't ACTUALLY dig into a rock wall... although maybe they can grip.... FROG TOES!!! ....maybe they can slide into crevices... or dig into crevices.... But part of the gig don't you think?

It can be learned. I've messed up pretty good more than once but I often edit as I write. You can teach yourself how.

 

[Tom's House]

Hi Amber,

Not so much doom and gloom. Of course learning is possible. average writers can learn to be better writers, that's why I keep on trying to learn. But I believe that there is an innate sense of "rightness" that some have and some don't. nevertheless, we all keep trying.

 

[Amber]

Hi Amber,

Not so much doom and gloom. Of course learning is possible. average writers can learn to be better writers, that's why I keep on trying to learn. But I believe that there is an innate sense of "rightness" that some have and some don't. nevertheless, we all keep trying.

Oh. Maybe an ear.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

You're both absolutely right. Conceiving the story in hand has not been the most difficult thing for me. It's been the execution, crafting, as Tom says, so that there is a seamless inexorability, so that you, writing it, become invisible to the person reading it. My God, I thought writing short fiction was the training for a longer thing, but not so; it's taken years, and failures like sloughed off skins. I feel unbelievably stupid.

But, pick up a work of fiction, be ready, within its stated terms of reference, to suspend disbelief. Lawd help me and a raft of other toiling writers otherwise. Let's ditch half the pantheon of existing fiction. Maybe more than half.

I know the character can't literally dig his toes in, but I know exactly what the writer means, and to explain it as a technically correct thing would make me stop short, as an over-explanation where none was needed. We use that expression so often, metaphorically.

If the writing is really confident, I think the reader's going to go along with it, and maybe Tom didn't feel there was that confidence yet and got snagged.

The ear, as Amber says. The writer's gotta use their EAR.

Got to read it aloud. Can't see where the rabbit holes are. Not when you're so close up. You have to hear where they are to see them.

 

[Tom's House]

"there is a seamless inexorability, so that you, writing it, become invisible to the person reading it." Yes, that is the goal.

 

[ChrisLewando]

One can, of course, learn. That's the whole point. Every time you watch one of these movies a little more knowledge seeps into the grey matter... I have been writing for years, have had nine genre novels published, but numerous mainstream offerings rejected; and why? I think I'm beginning to get it. Finally. After all these years. Watching just a few of Pete's Pop Ups has make me see every sentence in a different light.

 

[Marc Joan]

I swear to god.... I'd have a heart attack if I read tabloids every day because so often... sweet, tame, litopia sends me into fits....

Amber, it's so tempting sometimes to deliberately post something riddled with inconsistencies, non sequiturs and logical errors, just to see your response! Not saying that the original post or any other post on Litopia had inconsistencies / errors, just speaking generally / theoretically.

 

[Amber]

Amber, it's so tempting sometimes to deliberately post something riddled with inconsistencies, non sequiturs and logical errors, just to see your response! Not saying that the original post or any other post on Litopia had inconsistencies / errors, just speaking generally / theoretically.

That's funny. I suppose I am easily played.