From: A_Tina_Hall@kruemel.org
> A. Tina Hall wrote:
> > wrote:
> > > A. Tina Hall used his keyboard to write :
> > >> William Vetter wrote:
Sorry, I only noticed this reply on google groups, it must have gotten
too old to keep on my uplink while I neglected to get new posts.
> > >>> this one was about openings. It's thesis was the belief that it is
> > >>> possible to write an opening so strong, that editors, literary
> > >>> agents, readers, publishing executives are compelled to read on.
> > >>
> > >> Did they provide proof, or was that just their wishful thinking? :)
> >
> > > I have read a lot of them, and they blur together. It may have been
> > > _Hooked_, by Les Eggerton.
> >
> > I'm not going anywhere near that. :)
> >
> > Thing is, do you blindly swallow what they say, or do you expect them to
> > build up some credibility and expect them to back up what they say?
> >
>
> I'm sorry, I just noticed that you replied. I've been having problems with
> Verizon, no service at home for about 4 weeks.
Aw.
My only excuse is being distracted.
> I hope he's gonna say something that seems reasonable. There were
> cameo 2-paragraph inserted quotes from some publishing editors...a
> couple were SF line names I recognized. One of them said she looks
> for gender, age, position in society of POV character in first
> paragraph. That seemed to make sense. I take it seriously when it
> seems credible.
I tend to have that stuff in the first scenes, not sure if first
paragraphs. Why look for it, though?
> I read a book by a business consultant a long time ago. He said that
> business seminar guys only push one idea, and that was a sales aspect.
> You could tell he was talking about himself (his idea was to analyze
> all interactions in the office as people's hindbrains battling
> primitively with other person's hindbrains). So when I see one of
> these books that hammers away at one notion, it makes me feel like
> author is selling himself.
Yeah. People who claim that everyone does X, no exceptions,
automatically lose all credibility with me.
> > > OK, let us say the first sentence mentioned elves. Why shouldn't
> > > you read LoTR instead?
> >
> > I dropped LotR on page 70 (or so), bored. No character in sight that I
> > wanted to read about, and the writing style was awkward.
>
> It is what it is, but it was kinda the first of what it was.
I don't change opinion on something just because of that.
> You know, I tried to read _The Life and Times of Tristam Shandy, A
> Gentleman_, once, and I didn't know what it was supposed to be, and I
> said, "This is page fifty, and this author is still talking about the
> circumstances of the POV character's conception!" so I stopped there.
Hehe. You held out longer than I would these days. :)
> > > I've had a different relationship with my teachers than most. When
> > > you become a world expert in your specialty, then there are very few
> > > people who know much relative to you. You don't rely on them for
> > > truth, you absorb the technical language they use (which they often
> > > half-understand), then go to the library. You expect venality, not
> > > truth.
> >
> > Eh, no, I expect truth, claimes backed up, and if they are caught at an
> > obvious falsehood, all credibility is gone.
> >
> > Plus, you're not a world expert in the speciality of writing.
>
> That's true, I'm not. I shall tell you a story to illustrate what I
> was getting at.
> Once upon a time, I was involved with a scientist. [...]
> That was when I realized that he never knew what any of the words
> meant at all, and he had found the paragraph somewhere and memorized
> it by wrote. [...]
> Here is the moral that I am getting at: there are a lot of people who
> can make it appear as if they are experts, but they don't necessarily
> know much.
I've encountered that when people tried to explain something to me (some
did, ways back, here on Usenet) but just used whatever they'd been told,
without being able to go deeper into it, answer any questions.
Made me rather sceptical of people claiming they know stuff.
[...]
> So, what I meant was that I learned to be cautious with people who
> behave as if they're experts, especially when it's linked to their
> careers. And really the only thing I had was to go look for a science
> book that was clear to me (Some are clearer than others, and when an
> author actually strives to inform somebody else, that gives me a
> certain degree of trust that he knows something). So that has a lot
> to do with my approach.
Ok. I guess I don't have to worry that you take those books on writing
as laws then. :)
Some people do, and sometimes you come across as if trying to force your
way to write to match what some book said.
>> And I doubt the writers of those books are.
> Most of 'em are telling you how to write like they do. I found a how
> to book by Ursula LeGuin that I hadn't read about a year ago, read
> most of it. It made me scratch my head, like, just because Ursula can
> write this way and sell a book, that doesn't mean I can.
Yeah.
--
Arentus threw up his hands. "How crazy do you have to be to think you're the
ultimate power and everyone has to jump at your whim?" He looked at Ranes as
if expecting an answer.
Ranes grinned. "How crazy are you?" -- Magic Earth II: Without Heart
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