tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4994072470312639837.post1294151105171812323..comments2024-03-26T15:49:05.333-07:00Comments on Criminal Minds: The Body On Page OneJosh Stallingshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09913654176433125233noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4994072470312639837.post-22074867291935636502013-11-19T13:02:06.536-08:002013-11-19T13:02:06.536-08:00Lisa Alber--
I have to comment on your really bad ...Lisa Alber--<br />I have to comment on your really bad experience. In my very un-humble opinion, writing in the third person is almost always more challenging AND more fun than confining oneself to a single pair of eyes and ears. Imagining events through several characters' perceptions requires that the writer BE those characters. I wish I'd been there. I would've asked the guru whether he thought Shakespeare was a hack for presenting events through multiple points of view. But on second thought, I wouldn't have bothered. He was obviously to dense to get it.Barry Knisterhttp://bwknister.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4994072470312639837.post-3902507649378587882013-11-18T15:16:09.298-08:002013-11-18T15:16:09.298-08:00Whoops - I'm not anonymous! Must have hit the ...Whoops - I'm not anonymous! Must have hit the wrong button, Lisa and Barry. sorry.Susan C Sheahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18225627756540127032noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4994072470312639837.post-89174975958991940032013-11-18T15:14:36.671-08:002013-11-18T15:14:36.671-08:00Lisa, so funny. It's a balance, learning to li...Lisa, so funny. It's a balance, learning to listen to advice we may not like and learning to ignore advice that is no good (or at least no good for us). <br /><br />Barry, that's how I learned to write - by being an insatiable reader from toddlerhood on. I don't always slow down to analyze the writing. Some of it osmoses - things like tone, rhythm, and humor. But you're right that reading with your writing antennae up is a great way to learn this craft.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4994072470312639837.post-14168061477305239682013-11-18T15:00:13.747-08:002013-11-18T15:00:13.747-08:00So true, Susan. He was all ego, so, in reality, th...So true, Susan. He was all ego, so, in reality, the worst instructor ever. He's still got acolytes though, which is interesting to me. One time I went to a reading of his acolytes, and their prose all sounded the same. It was like an MFA program gone very, very wrong. :-)Lisa Alberhttp://www.lisaalber.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4994072470312639837.post-26222635058031222002013-11-18T12:20:38.499-08:002013-11-18T12:20:38.499-08:00I happen to think the best advice writers can be g...I happen to think the best advice writers can be given is guidance on how to read as writers, not as garden-variety readers. It's a different set of skills, skills that emphasize seeing how things work, not what happens next. Once a writer learns how to read like a writer, s/he shouldn't need to rely on how-to writing books. By extension, the worst advice would be (in my not-so-humble opinion)books full of exercises, with little analysis of passages of good writing. Barry Knisterhttp://bwknister.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4994072470312639837.post-33386568378799775752013-11-18T11:50:03.443-08:002013-11-18T11:50:03.443-08:00Lisa, what a horrible, unhelpful "guru!"...Lisa, what a horrible, unhelpful "guru!" Our job is to write a story that will capture readers, sometimes by teasing them in with soft whispers and sometimes with loud bangs. The fact that there are so many published crime fiction writers attracting their own audiences makes it abundantly clear there is no one right way. Susan C Sheanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4994072470312639837.post-10562019807484402192013-11-18T11:04:37.496-08:002013-11-18T11:04:37.496-08:00I used to take workshop/conference writing advice ...I used to take workshop/conference writing advice so much to heart that I'd shut down, think I was doing everything wrong, and despair.<br /><br />Like the whole thing with prologues--I had fits for years about this because my debut has a prologue. GASP. Catriona mentioned this on her Saturday guest post on The Debutante Ball--people get so vociferous about it! When really, prologues are just another craft trick in our arsenal of craft tricks.<br /><br />But, the absolutely worst advice? A guru teacher who shall remain anonymous, who only writes in first person, who told me when I dared to bring a third-person piece to his workshop that third was basically for hacks and people who only sold paperbacks in airports. Can you believe that? I cried. And now, of course, I'm thinking: my paperbacks in airports? Hell, yeah, bring it on!<br /><br />But it did stop me for awhile. I cried during the workshop too.Lisa Alberhttp://www.lisaalber.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4994072470312639837.post-63408228264128550452013-11-18T08:47:53.244-08:002013-11-18T08:47:53.244-08:00I like that idea that you need conflict at the beg...I like that idea that you need conflict at the beginning, not necessarily a body.<br /><br />I'm currently reading a book that leads off with several pages of ho-hum activity. I wouldn't have kept reading it if it wasn't by an author I had heard good things about. Sure enough, halfway through it's gotten really good. But I wonder if in her early books she had conflict earlier on. <br /><br />Bottom line, even though I wasn't blown away by excitement in the first few pages, the writing was perfectly good--unlike many debut books I read in which the writing is poor and turns me off. So for me, good writing trumps a body.Terry Shameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07202071611825887999noreply@blogger.com