delany, etc.

Chris · 29 Jul 2003, 18:55 · from urth-v0307.mbox · original

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From: "Chris" <rasputin_ at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) delany, etc.
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 18:55:12 +0000
Message-ID: <urth-v0307-3822 at digest.urth.net>
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>On Monday, July 28, 2003, at 11:15 PM, maa32 wrote:
>   "You have a wonderful idea here.
>>Many wonderful ideas.  But you will have to get much better at writing=20
>>before
>>you can do justice to them.  You explain yourself way too much."
>>
>>I was infinitely grateful for his input - and I regard it as extremely
>>positive - yet here is the rub: everyone who has ever read my work says I=20
>>need
>>to explain more, because it doesn't make sense - that I make too many=20
>>quantum
>>leaps that should be explained.
>>
>>
>
>Don butts in with two maybe three comments:
>
>Having never read anything you've written I would instinctively say that=20
>Mr. Wolfe's advice will give you critical longevity and "everyone" else's=20
>advice will give you more marketability.  I'm a

Perhaps it's a certain confusion of terms. It sounds like your "everyone=20
else's" advice is telling you that they don't understand what the story is=20
getting at, and what they really want is more information to be able to wor=
k=20
it out. But what Wolfe is telling you is that you should give them this=20
information in more subtle ways than outright explaining it to the reader=20
with the voice-of-god: give them circumstancial clues, pieces from which=20
they can infer what you want them to know.

I haven't read your writing either so please don't take offense if I'm=20
guessing wrong. But the reason I guess this is because Wolfe has, on other=20
occasions, said that the tendency of a writer to try and "explain" things=20
explicitly is one of the main things a potential writer has to overcome. So=20
it sounds like just the kind of thing he would caution you against.

Civet

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STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* =20
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--=20

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