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Malcolm
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Kurt Vonnegut: "We must acknowledge that the reader is doing something quite difficult for him, and the reason you don't change point of view too often is so he won't get lost, and the reason you paragraph often is so that his eyes won't get tired, so you get him without him knowing it by making his job easy for him." Vonnegut always said what the world really needed was more courtesy. No doubt it was his courtesy to his readers that made him so popular.
This post was last edited by Malcolm, 15 Sep 2011, 03:14
No stars. No charts. Just crits.
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unclearthur
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You're preaching to the converted with me. You need to be nagging all the idiot published writers who seem to think it's clever. http://cavalrytales.wordpress.com
www.cavalrytales.co.uk'The battle that never ends is the battle of belief against disbelief'
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Malcolm
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Quote: unclearthur, Thursday, 15 Sep 2011 19:51You're preaching to the converted with me. You need to be nagging all the idiot published writers who seem to think it's clever. http://cavalrytales.wordpress.com They're not more clever than Vonnegut, I'll wager. A writer has to do whatever serves the story best, and nothing serves the story better than getting the reader to read it.
No stars. No charts. Just crits.
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PERRY
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Burgess - junk/ Tolkien - LOTR/ Eddings- Belgariad/ Asimov - Foundation. Head hopping galore. If you don't practice, you'll never get the hang of it.
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RobertB
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There are loads of head hoppers out there, I agree, and some of them have written best-sellers. I still think it's best avoided though!
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unclearthur
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Quote: RobertB, Monday, 26 Sep 2011 20:59There are loads of head hoppers out there, I agree, and some of them have written best-sellers. I still think it's best avoided though! There are plenty of badly written best-sellers out there. P'raps trying to write an easy-to-follow narrative is where I'm going wrong. But it annoys me to death whenever I come across it, mostly because I'm a fairly quick reader (of fiction) and it ALWAYS breaks the flow. Just because a writer's got a grasshopper mind doesn't mean it should be foisted on his readers, I reckon. http://cavalrytales.wordpress.com
www.cavalrytales.co.uk'The battle that never ends is the battle of belief against disbelief'
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awrigley
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Climb every mountain Ford every stream Break every friggin' rule Till you find your style It's the ability to interest people that matters in getting writing read. It has nothing to do with head hopping or not.
Memory... What was that?
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Destinyschild
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I'm with Andrew on this one. I found the quote by Kurt Vonnequt rather condescending. I'm perfectly able to follow stories which head-hop, rather enjoy them, actually. To suggest readers need the easiet way to access a story is to disparage their intellect. Some of us, perhaps many of us, want to be challenged. I'm sick and tired of hearing about the 'rules'. They are obviously there to be interpreted. Take a look at the work of some of the critically acclaimed new novelists and see how they approach things. If it works, it works. Don't dumb down to meet the lowly expectations of some. DC
This post was last edited by Destinyschild, 28 Sep 2011, 19:11
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unclearthur
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Quote: awrigley, Wednesday, 28 Sep 2011 18:10It's the ability to interest people that matters in getting writing read. It has nothing to do with head hopping or not. Or writing, from what you're saying. http://cavalrytales.wordpress.com
www.cavalrytales.co.uk'The battle that never ends is the battle of belief against disbelief'
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unclearthur
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Quote: Destinyschild, Wednesday, 28 Sep 2011 19:08I'm with Andrew on this one. I found the quote by Kurt Vonnequt rather condescending. I'm perfectly able to follow stories which head-hop, rather enjoy them, actually. To suggest readers need the easiet way to access a story is to disparage their intellect. Some of us, perhaps many of us, want to be challenged. I'm sick and tired of hearing about the 'rules'. They are obviously there to be interpreted. Take a look at the work of some of the critically acclaimed new novelists and see how they approach things. If it works, it works. Don't dumb down to meet the lowly expectations of some. DC Whoa! Are we ankle-deep in the same muckheap here? I'm not talking about omniscient or multiple POVs but stories with few character viewpoints where the author suddenly jumps into a (often) minor character. That's not an intellectual challenge, it's just lazy. The writer can't be bothered to work a congruent changeover into his narrative. Actually, I lie: it's obviously a challenge too far for the author. Dumbing down to the writer's level, then. If decent storytelling equates to lowly expectations, I've got 'em. http://cavalrytales.wordpress.com
www.cavalrytales.co.uk'The battle that never ends is the battle of belief against disbelief'
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