When I first started to write, I followed my friend Barbara O'Connor's WRITING TIP TUESDAY posts like a child with Christmas candy. Now I love seeing the Writing Links shared by Caroline Starr Rose.
I learn a lot from fellow writers.
Thanks, Dorian Cirrone, and so many others.
What fun, unwrapping each one and tasting it. Putting it back if it isn't right. Saving a tip for later. Does it work for me? Can I apply this to what I need right this minute in my novel?
I've shared Writing Tips here on this blog, and here's another:
Does the story suffer from too much reality? Sol Stein said a reader is “primarily seeking an experience different from and greater than his or her everyday experience in life.” Erica Jong said a novel “must make my so-called real world seem flimsy.” And here is Kurt Vonnegut: “I don’t praise plots as accurate representations of life, but as ways to keep readers reading.’’
A novel is an amplification of real life. It is more exciting, more fun, more romantic, more glamorous, and more dangerous. It is wittier, braver, courser, faster and bigger. A novel has more smell, more taste, and more sound. Friendships are closer, and enemies are crueler. Children are more mature, and old people more profound. Dogs don’t just lie around, and cats have a purpose. Everything is more.
We all live real lives, and so we don’t want to read about real lives as our entertainment. Ramp up the story.
You can read the entire, excellent article HERE.
Off to ramp up a story. Or dream up a story.
The New Year will be here soon. Are you writing something new to celebrate?
Cheers!
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| (Lots of great images HERE!) |
1 comment:
Bigger and better than reality. Good one, Augusta. I'll remember that! Thanks.
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