Comments on: But Whose Story Is It?

By: Sylvia Day | Sensual Romance Author :: Weblog

Sylvia Day | Sensual Romance Author :: Weblog — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 02:32:18 +0000

Booksquare
Booksquare blogged the other day about historical accuracy in books. I have to say that I agreed with most of what was said.

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 17:04:11 +0000

Crouch's thickheadedness is reinforced by the excellent Clive James review in The Atlantic, which also has problems with Roth's creation but gets James' points across in a way that (a) treats Roth's intent with respect and (b) doesn't make everyone but James out to be a dummy.

By: booksquare

booksquare — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 01:51:34 +0000

Yeah, I like the twists and surprises, too. But I work out the story on the page — I wonder if LeGuin and Lemswhiller are careful plotters? I always imagine those who plot intensely in advance work out the surprises there.

Every writer approaches this differently (thank goodness!), but I think the story rules. My guess is authors who pull their characters back are remaining true to the story — heck, if real people can behave out of character, why can’t fictional people (and we have less tolerance for made up folks’ inconsistencies…).

By: Susan Gable

Susan Gable — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 18:51:59 +0000

I like it best when my characters do unexpected things. That’s part of the “magic” as far as I’m concerned – and quite often, they know the story far better than I do – after all, it’s their story, not mine.

When I get stuck in a story, it’s often because I’m trying to force the story or the characters to do something it/they shouldn’t.

I think a lot of crits leveled against books are leveled because the writer didn’t write the book the way the reader wanted.

Being PC in fiction is highly overrated – and yet it is imposed on writers. And I agree – that’s a lie. It should be the reality of the story that matters most. (And the reality of the story may not be the same reality that we experience daily. Also, as a writer I’d like to point out that just because one of my characters holds a certain opinion does NOT MEAN that I have the same exact opinion. In fact, if I do my job right, the reader shouldn’t be able to tell what MY opinion is – only the opinions of my characters.)

By: gwenda

gwenda — Mon, 11 Oct 2004 15:54:44 +0000

Sorta but not really related… I attended a panel discussion/interview session with Ursula LeGuin and Carol Emshwiller at a conference a few years ago and someone in the audience asked them what they did when their characters started behaving in unexpected or out of control ways. I wish I could remember which of them actually answered, but they both shook their heads and agreed, mystified, that they went back to the point where the misbehavior started and deleted, then rewrote so the characters did what they wanted.