bookkeeping
Jan. 22nd, 2006 12:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepenny"The Hostage Crisis on the Derelict Mistral Freighter D35-692N-C, Queen of Liverpool," 3rd draft: 8,000 words
I am noticing something, namely that when my brain has some technical writing issue it wants to worry at like an old sock, it tends to come out in science fiction. My very few science fiction stories (none of 'em published, some of them aggressively unfinished) are all also the ones that have given me the most technical spasms in terms of trying to figure out HOW to TELL the STORY. This is a different problem than the endless slow wrangle with voice that is the ongoing saga of Mélusine, The Virtu, The Mirador, andScardown Summerdown. [There's a Freudian slip that effs the ineffable, let me tell ya. --Ed.] This is a matter of, if I have events x, y, and z; characters Abel, Baker, and Charlie; and the particular narrative mode I've been saddled with, how do I put them together in such a way that they will make a compelling story?
The Queen of Liverpool, you will be glad to know, has not let down the side.
But I got closer this time, anyway.
I am noticing something, namely that when my brain has some technical writing issue it wants to worry at like an old sock, it tends to come out in science fiction. My very few science fiction stories (none of 'em published, some of them aggressively unfinished) are all also the ones that have given me the most technical spasms in terms of trying to figure out HOW to TELL the STORY. This is a different problem than the endless slow wrangle with voice that is the ongoing saga of Mélusine, The Virtu, The Mirador, and
The Queen of Liverpool, you will be glad to know, has not let down the side.
But I got closer this time, anyway.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-22 01:13 pm (UTC)Until I saw the various discussions in LJ about the distinction between F and SF, I would have thought that "how to tell a story" is the same in any genre. Now I wonder about the genre of stories set in the future.
Oh noes!
Date: 2006-01-22 03:11 pm (UTC)*g* Now everybody's going to know that I'm Sarah Elizabeth Monette and you're Sarah Elizabeth Bear, and we've just adopted the different names to confuse people and disguise our uberproductive five-person clone hive mind that produces ten books a year.
And I have to get back to working on Summerdown, apparently.
Re: Oh noes!
Date: 2006-01-22 04:43 pm (UTC)Re: Oh noes!
Date: 2006-01-22 05:20 pm (UTC)I couldn't even figure out what you were talking about until my husband pointed out that radical and egregious typo. Talk about Freudian.
::facepalm::
I have NO IDEA what happened there.
Absolutely. No. Idea.
The defendant pleads head cold and throws herself upon the mercy of the court.
Confusion to our enemies!
Re: Oh noes!
Date: 2006-01-22 05:20 pm (UTC)Re: Oh noes!
Date: 2006-01-22 05:27 pm (UTC)Re: Oh noes!
Date: 2006-01-22 05:29 pm (UTC)