weakness

[jebbypal]

Sooo...I came to a realization this weekend. I write like I read.

What do I mean by this? Well, you know all those wonderful descriptions that fantasy authors and the like pour into their books? Yeah, umm, well, at best I skim them. More likely I skip till the train of thought or dialogue picks up. Basically this stems from my very overly impatient personality and need to finish a story AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. No, I know, no one is going to steal the book from me. Moreover, I don't even have the excuse of avoiding library fines since I generally (ie always) buy my books. Yet, I still do it.

But this has definitely caused me a problem for writing. It's next to impossible for me to write descriptively. Oh, I can do it if I force myself...but it comes out stilted and then screws up my dialogue to no end. Twin Regrets has helped me a teeny tiny bit, but it's mostly exposed how hard it is for me to do and how I much prefer to just put down the pertinent points. But I realize that if I ever want to write a real novel in scifi or fantasy, well, that weakness is going to kill me before I start.

Sooo....have any of you guys had this problem? If you have, how'd you beat it? If you haven't, your ideas are welcome too.

And I realize that I don't always do this..when I beta, I do actually read everything, but it's painful for me to actually read a real novel like that. I just don't ENJOY it then. But not a lot of fanfic is strong on description either...

Anyways, those are my thoughts after finding my JOhn voice and getting another scene done since my antibody still hasn't come in.

Comments

[shetiger.livejournal.com]

Dude (http://www.livejournal.com/users/docmichelle/161737.html). I am so very much like that. I have to struggle to figure out where to put in description and thinky thoughts in with the action and dialogue. I'm fine on introspective vignettes and stuff like that, but when I'm actually trying to have a plot happen? It drives me up a wall. And I do think there's a balance somewhere between a completely spare, script-like style and the really flowery stuff.

I just haven't figured out how to get there yet. But I've been working on figuring it out for the past six months. I have no advice yet, sorry. :(

[jebbypal]

I've gotten decent w/ the introspective thoughts IMO....but the description..yeah, not so much. Which is probably just a symptom of me as well---I'm the person who will never be able to find the car in the parking lot unless I own it (and have for several years). I can't find my way back to places unless I drove there myself. And I just generally don't pay that much attention to the landscape etc. Especially not in "words". MOre of, oh gee, that's an interesting color of green.

And yeah, there is a balance. I just know I haven't reached the proper balance yet.

That medical/futuristic short you did was actually very well balanced IMO...but then again, I may not be the best judge:)

[azuremonkey.livejournal.com]

I'm the exact same way! I am always forcing myself to add stuff between the dialogue to make it more descriptive. And having to actually describe someone -- forget it. It always ends up sounding forced, like I just stuck it in because I had to. Which is exactly why I did it.

So, I know the feeling.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_eb/]

I'm having trouble with this in my current fic. It's been so long since I've written anything that wasn't a script. I feel like I'm stepping on the actors' toes if I go into too much description of the character's emotional responses and I don't want to do the set designer's job cause I know they're sure to get snippy.

[poisontaster]

I'm just never going to fit in with the cool kids, am I? I actually have the opposite problem. I'm split pretty evenly between visual and aural when I picture the story and when I write it. So I actually have to work VERY hard NOT to describe every little thing and stink up the place with overly floral description. Writing fanfic has actually made me better at not being overly descriptive because everyone knows what Mal, or Crichton, or Sheppard looks like. You remember when I wrote Gutterstars; the first thing you noticed was too much description. But I'm better now. I think.

And I actually dislike a lot of description in fanfic specifically, because it always seems to smack of a bit of Mary-Sueism.