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

[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.