Desperately Seeking Conflict

[raefinlay]

*sigh* I have a problem.

I lurve to develop stuff. Building characters, creating setting, gradually revealing motivation and plot... I lurve it. I lurve it with passionate hotmonkey lurve.



Alas, no one wants to read such painstaking development. Readers want ACTION. They want to know what the story is about right up front, so they know whether to invest the time. This frolicking about with the reader, teasing him with veiled hints, sprinkling character insights... it's soooo last century.

This is the X-box society. We can drive a stick shift and talk on the cell phone and suck a mocha all at once. How does one write for such a culture? Well, not the way I've been writing, that's for sure.

I'm gonna have to think about this for a while.

On a somewhat related note, I finally got the dreaded anticipated EC review for Elisa 1. It was slightly less devastating than expected. As well as helpful, dead-on, and all that stuff. Funny, Ms. Smith-Gaynor said exactly the same thing everyonesakitty told me right after I posted it. Holly is Teh Smart.



And now, I must watch Angel. Because it's Friday night and Friday nights are Whedon nights.

Comments

[pjthompson]

What Bear and Kev and others said. Workshopitis. Two things OWWers will always harp on: tension and showing-not-telling. Each of those things is important, but aren't the only things. And not every reader requires instant gratification. Intelligent readers want more than action-action-action all the time and appreciate a subtle building of character and world as long as those things are intelligently done. And you've got nothing to worry about there.

As to your EC review, they always feel like a bit of a gut-shot. I've had some that had me quivering. But yanno, she also said lots of good things. (If you're like me you tend to focus on the bad things to the exclusion of the good.) She picked your chapter out of a whole month's collection and said, "Yay, she is Worthy. I have looked upon her work and, yay, it is Good." :-)

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

Thx Pam. Workshopitis! Hahahah! Yes, I've already suffered at the hands of the Passive Police, the Adverb Nazis, and Masters of the Single Entendre ("this just wasn't very clear..."). The 'shop is a wonderful, useful place. But yeah, we ultimately must make our own decisions.