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Uh, what the hell just happened?
'Uh, what the hell just happened?' otherwise known as 'Annerb's written another weird and vague fic that makes my brain hurt.'
I've been thinking a lot about styles of writing, specifically in relation to how much the writer needs to explain and how much they can leave up to the reader to connect in their own. Mostly this stems from the disparate reactions to my latest fic, Roanoke. This fic was written as a ghost story, specifically from the point of view of a character that would never know exactly what happened, but have to extrapolate from her experiences and the snippets that are shared with her in the process of the tale, much like the reader themselves. In fact, for that story the cast of characters themselves were rather secondary, the background for other things. The main star of the story was actually the setting, Atlantis, her moods, her motivations, her secrets. Some people seem fine with this, but there are also people who at the end of the story feel a bit cheated, I imagine, because everything wasn't made clear in the end. I waffle back and forth between just seeing it as a difference of taste, and seeing it as a failing on my end. It's probably a little bit of both.
It's a tough balance, I think, trying to find the sweet spot between over narration/excess explanation, and vagueness to the point of confusion and disruption of the reading process. I like writing a fic where someone might feel the need to read it again once they finish, a la The Sixth Sense, or my Cassie apocafic Revelations. When you get the big reveal at the end, you feel the need to read/watch again from the beginning to see if any strings are showing. I'm fine with that. But I don't want my reader to have to re-read a section five times just to figure out what the heck is happening.
On the other hand, one of the major things that can stall out my writing (and my reading) is when I get too engrossed in narrating and explaining. The whole story just grinds to a halt and it usually takes me a while to figure out why. This actually happened in an earlier draft of Roanoke, where I sat down and realized I had four straight pages of the main character thinking things out, rather than talking to someone or reacting to things around her. 'Actions and Conversations!' I had to remind myself. Solid narration is difficult to write and damn boring to read. It's important for me as the author to be aware of the entire plot and everything that is going on, but it isn't important for me to include all of that, in fact, as the author, it is my job to cull all non-essentials, to keep the story flowing and readable. (Though I swear sometimes I feel like I need to write Commentary for fic or something, like an annotated author's edition. So many of my stories had other things going on in the background that the narrating POV character isn't necessarily aware of, things that weren't vital to the process of the story that I'd love to share. Man, like Beneath The Stains of Time, particularly.)
So I think these days I tend to err on the side of leaving things out rather than including too much, but really, it depends on the type of story I'm writing. And I think I will always have a soft spot for vague and dreamy stories. I just want you all to know that I am not torturing you out of maliciousness, or at least not without feeling bad about it. ;)
I will say though, that if some of you are out there still scratching your heads over Beneath The Stains of Time or Acceleration, I apologize! Lol.
In other news: MALOMARS. YUM.
I've been thinking a lot about styles of writing, specifically in relation to how much the writer needs to explain and how much they can leave up to the reader to connect in their own. Mostly this stems from the disparate reactions to my latest fic, Roanoke. This fic was written as a ghost story, specifically from the point of view of a character that would never know exactly what happened, but have to extrapolate from her experiences and the snippets that are shared with her in the process of the tale, much like the reader themselves. In fact, for that story the cast of characters themselves were rather secondary, the background for other things. The main star of the story was actually the setting, Atlantis, her moods, her motivations, her secrets. Some people seem fine with this, but there are also people who at the end of the story feel a bit cheated, I imagine, because everything wasn't made clear in the end. I waffle back and forth between just seeing it as a difference of taste, and seeing it as a failing on my end. It's probably a little bit of both.
It's a tough balance, I think, trying to find the sweet spot between over narration/excess explanation, and vagueness to the point of confusion and disruption of the reading process. I like writing a fic where someone might feel the need to read it again once they finish, a la The Sixth Sense, or my Cassie apocafic Revelations. When you get the big reveal at the end, you feel the need to read/watch again from the beginning to see if any strings are showing. I'm fine with that. But I don't want my reader to have to re-read a section five times just to figure out what the heck is happening.
On the other hand, one of the major things that can stall out my writing (and my reading) is when I get too engrossed in narrating and explaining. The whole story just grinds to a halt and it usually takes me a while to figure out why. This actually happened in an earlier draft of Roanoke, where I sat down and realized I had four straight pages of the main character thinking things out, rather than talking to someone or reacting to things around her. 'Actions and Conversations!' I had to remind myself. Solid narration is difficult to write and damn boring to read. It's important for me as the author to be aware of the entire plot and everything that is going on, but it isn't important for me to include all of that, in fact, as the author, it is my job to cull all non-essentials, to keep the story flowing and readable. (Though I swear sometimes I feel like I need to write Commentary for fic or something, like an annotated author's edition. So many of my stories had other things going on in the background that the narrating POV character isn't necessarily aware of, things that weren't vital to the process of the story that I'd love to share. Man, like Beneath The Stains of Time, particularly.)
So I think these days I tend to err on the side of leaving things out rather than including too much, but really, it depends on the type of story I'm writing. And I think I will always have a soft spot for vague and dreamy stories. I just want you all to know that I am not torturing you out of maliciousness, or at least not without feeling bad about it. ;)
I will say though, that if some of you are out there still scratching your heads over Beneath The Stains of Time or Acceleration, I apologize! Lol.
In other news: MALOMARS. YUM.
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I think a lot of interpretation of a story has to do with the reader's state of mind going in. I will admit that I'm only about half way through Roanoke because this has been the week of 1001 distractions and about five paragraphs in I realized that this is a story I'm going to want to curl up with later and read start to finish without interruption, really get into the atmosphere of it, so to speak.
I think a lot of fic readers follow their favourite writers because of a certain something, be it theme, style, characters and pairing, whatever, so when that certain something they expect is not there, they have a bit of panicked 'ohmygod what is this?' moment that pulls them out of the feeling-space they were expecting and colors their perception of the story slightly. Of course this isn't true of all readers, but fic readers can be fickle. (I know I am if I'm in a certain mood)
The other issue, as a reader, is the 1001 interruptions. How many of us open up a story at work to read over lunch, or while we're waiting for that pot to boil while we're cooking, or when ever we have some time to kill? As a reader, you're not giving 100% attention to the story, and as such, you're missing out on the subtle details. So many times I've flagged stories to go back and read again and I'm convinced I'm looking at a completely different story.
I'd have to say though, I've never come across any of your stories where I've had a 'wtf moment' because of lack of description or narration, nor have I been bogged down by too much. You've got the right balance. Now I just need to find some place to hide and read, un-interrupted. :D
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