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Sep. 20th, 2009 12:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
issenlloIs the deadline for Blind_go over? *checks date* Yup, I see that it is. I only had about two-thirds of mine done. Hm, this is the first BG I've actually missed out on. >_>
RL has been too busy for words, and a bunch of other stuff cropped up at the last minute, which just goes to show, I should have started writing much, much earlier. But anyway, I'll be looking forward to the fics this round. A cliche round! I was surprised while writing how many cliches I could fit into my fic (I thought I'd just be using one) with just an off-the-cuff comment here and there. Good times.
Happy birthday, Hikaru!
Speaking of writing, I was just reading this book yesterday and came across this terrific advice on writing about sex:
After going through some ways to write about sex, the author says,
If you don't feel comfortable writing about sex, then don't. By this, I mean writing about sex as it actually exists, in the real world, as an ecstatic, terrifying, and, above all, deeply emotional process. Real sex is compelling to read about ebcause the participants are so utterly vulnerable. We are all, when the time comes to get naked, terribly excited and frightened and hopeful and doubtful, usually all at the same time. You mustn't abandon your characters in their time of need. You mustn't make of them naked playthings with rubbery parts. You must love them, wholly and without shame, as they go about their human business. Because we've already got a name for sex without emotional content: pornography.
(Steven Almond, "Hard up for a hard-on", The Writer's Notebook)
Hm. I guess it gets mixed up in fandom because we do go for the emotional stuff and the porny bits, often at the same time. And the part about writing reflecting the real world is, well, that part gets a bit ignored in fandom. But the "You mustn't abandon your characters" rings so very true. I guess if you are a writer--and especially if you're writing original stuff and are inventing your own characters--it's a matter of integrity to have faith in your characters and see them, er, through. :p Whether you're writing villains or heroes or upright characters or immoral ones.
This books is pretty interesting in that it presents viewpoints without telling you How To Write a Book: it's mostly short essays about this and that, some I agree with, some I don't. The one about editing The Great Gatsby is fascinating, and I'm eyeing the one about fairytales with sceptism and curiosity (and it was the reason I borrowed this book, rather than another knitting book).
Should read a novel next time.
RL has been too busy for words, and a bunch of other stuff cropped up at the last minute, which just goes to show, I should have started writing much, much earlier. But anyway, I'll be looking forward to the fics this round. A cliche round! I was surprised while writing how many cliches I could fit into my fic (I thought I'd just be using one) with just an off-the-cuff comment here and there. Good times.
Happy birthday, Hikaru!
Speaking of writing, I was just reading this book yesterday and came across this terrific advice on writing about sex:
After going through some ways to write about sex, the author says,
If you don't feel comfortable writing about sex, then don't. By this, I mean writing about sex as it actually exists, in the real world, as an ecstatic, terrifying, and, above all, deeply emotional process. Real sex is compelling to read about ebcause the participants are so utterly vulnerable. We are all, when the time comes to get naked, terribly excited and frightened and hopeful and doubtful, usually all at the same time. You mustn't abandon your characters in their time of need. You mustn't make of them naked playthings with rubbery parts. You must love them, wholly and without shame, as they go about their human business. Because we've already got a name for sex without emotional content: pornography.
(Steven Almond, "Hard up for a hard-on", The Writer's Notebook)
Hm. I guess it gets mixed up in fandom because we do go for the emotional stuff and the porny bits, often at the same time. And the part about writing reflecting the real world is, well, that part gets a bit ignored in fandom. But the "You mustn't abandon your characters" rings so very true. I guess if you are a writer--and especially if you're writing original stuff and are inventing your own characters--it's a matter of integrity to have faith in your characters and see them, er, through. :p Whether you're writing villains or heroes or upright characters or immoral ones.
This books is pretty interesting in that it presents viewpoints without telling you How To Write a Book: it's mostly short essays about this and that, some I agree with, some I don't. The one about editing The Great Gatsby is fascinating, and I'm eyeing the one about fairytales with sceptism and curiosity (and it was the reason I borrowed this book, rather than another knitting book).
Should read a novel next time.