Comments - Mistakes Writers Make-Even the Big Ones (R) - CrimeSpace2024-03-29T13:59:42Zhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=537324%3ABlogPost%3A131725&xn_auth=noI like your analogy to seeing…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2008-03-24:537324:Comment:1327992008-03-24T19:40:01.615ZPeg Herringhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/pegfish
I like your analogy to seeing the puppeteer -- that's exactly what it's like to hear the author's voice behind the characters' story.<br />
Good luck with balancing. Like I said, even some of the great ones have trouble with it (as do I when the schoolteacher in me sticks her two cents in).
I like your analogy to seeing the puppeteer -- that's exactly what it's like to hear the author's voice behind the characters' story.<br />
Good luck with balancing. Like I said, even some of the great ones have trouble with it (as do I when the schoolteacher in me sticks her two cents in). Firdt Things Firdt (Or Second…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2008-03-24:537324:Comment:1327782008-03-24T17:28:29.994Zlen howletthttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/lenhowlett
Firdt Things Firdt (Or Second)<br />
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I just had another thought on pontificating. A lot of people who read James Lee Burke's Detective Dave Robicheaux love the character. I do, and especially enjoy the descriptions of the Louisiana cuisine, since I grew up in the Gulf Coast and married into a Cajun family and have eaten my way across the area many times. Then you also know that Dave Robicheaux is a reformed alcoholic and remarks upon it at gret length in every story. But I would be surprised if…
Firdt Things Firdt (Or Second)<br />
<br />
I just had another thought on pontificating. A lot of people who read James Lee Burke's Detective Dave Robicheaux love the character. I do, and especially enjoy the descriptions of the Louisiana cuisine, since I grew up in the Gulf Coast and married into a Cajun family and have eaten my way across the area many times. Then you also know that Dave Robicheaux is a reformed alcoholic and remarks upon it at gret length in every story. But I would be surprised if anyone is distracted or offended by it. The reason is that it explains the character, it is integral to who Dave Robicheaux is, and it is not ever to be confused with a temperance lecture. Dave is who he is and, through this revelation of character, we know the reason. And Mr. Burke is not recruiting anyone to his side of the question. As for me, I find his degenerate, libertine partner Cletus a fine counterbalance and personal role model. Let me firdt relate this to a…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2008-03-24:537324:Comment:1327702008-03-24T16:59:38.341Zlen howletthttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/lenhowlett
Let me firdt relate this to another discussion I noticed about there not being enough opining on this site. I as a relatively new, unpublished member have, until now at least, tried to be a good boy and know my place and read and let my learned elders tell me something. So when should I start opining? Hopefully, when (and if) I am published and have something to say, I will exhibit enough class to not try to tell everyone else to stand back at let me tell them the way. So maybe the time is…
Let me firdt relate this to another discussion I noticed about there not being enough opining on this site. I as a relatively new, unpublished member have, until now at least, tried to be a good boy and know my place and read and let my learned elders tell me something. So when should I start opining? Hopefully, when (and if) I am published and have something to say, I will exhibit enough class to not try to tell everyone else to stand back at let me tell them the way. So maybe the time is now.<br />
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Let me opine a second or two: ENTERTAINMENT is the thing here in this line, and it is based on the love of an author's characters. We have to love even the villains because we have seen enough revelatory info delivered skillfully to feel a certain creepy intimacy. When the author gets in the way and shows their need to lecture, it's like the kids seeing the puppeteer's legs and hands behind the character. I am having that trouble right now. My character hates current events and the villains that hold the world stage so much I find that I have launched into diatribes and lectures, and my con man is left moralizing and preaching good instead of what we all know he should do as a good scammer which is look out for number one and admire the other big time guys who run the world like a horrible, fixed arcade game. Oh,oh, there I go again. Hopefully, I will have the discipline to edit out the soapbox pronouncements and couch my space allowed on the character. After all, as Karl Rove once said, "The play's the thing." You're right. I think the key…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2008-03-18:537324:Comment:1318042008-03-18T17:19:55.988ZPeg Herringhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/pegfish
You're right. I think the key is knowing when to say when, and it's hard to police your own work (not sure if a pun was intended there, or achieved, for that matter). I just know that "authortorial" (great term) is irritating when I find it. Oddly, others often look right over it or even consider it great stuff!
You're right. I think the key is knowing when to say when, and it's hard to police your own work (not sure if a pun was intended there, or achieved, for that matter). I just know that "authortorial" (great term) is irritating when I find it. Oddly, others often look right over it or even consider it great stuff! Yep, my editor keeps slapping…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2008-03-18:537324:Comment:1317762008-03-18T16:05:34.211ZGrant McKenziehttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/McKenzie
Yep, my editor keeps slapping my wrist about that in the line edits - unnecessary information and authortorial are the two biggest red pen marks. The weird thing is that in a lot of books I've read and enjoyed, it's these little asides that made them something special. I mean where would Police Captain Edward X. Delaney be without his sandwiches?
Yep, my editor keeps slapping my wrist about that in the line edits - unnecessary information and authortorial are the two biggest red pen marks. The weird thing is that in a lot of books I've read and enjoyed, it's these little asides that made them something special. I mean where would Police Captain Edward X. Delaney be without his sandwiches?