tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post3980336961547300483..comments2023-09-05T12:51:25.656-05:00Comments on edittorrent: Get It On The PageEdittorrenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-38704829556505247522010-10-25T19:11:02.332-05:002010-10-25T19:11:02.332-05:00Great advice. That's why we need editors and ...Great advice. That's why we need editors and critiquers. We're just too close sometimes to see the forest for the trees (forgive the cliche). :DLisa Gail Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03648323153868702165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-74173546808871190062010-10-25T08:01:50.071-05:002010-10-25T08:01:50.071-05:00In genre novels, the motivation is usually on the ...In genre novels, the motivation is usually on the page. But I've yet to read something more "literary" where I've had any inkling of character motivations. I just don't get books like _The Shipping News_, _My Life as a Fake_. To me, those are just words going by--characters behaving according to unexplained and completely inscrutable motivations.<br /><br />Even some of the more literate (and compelling) television shows, like _Mad Men_, routinely fail to put the motivations on the screen. I don't understand why Don Draper does 75% of what he does. My wife and spend the show tossing hypotheses to each other. But even in the end, it's rarely clear.<br /><br />Perhaps there's a double standard here. Perhaps the "more literary" work simply depends on the reader to fill in a lot more of the blanks.Anonymous Cowardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-88245720655278115812010-10-25T07:54:47.078-05:002010-10-25T07:54:47.078-05:00Whenever my critique partners have this conversati...Whenever my critique partners have this conversation with my, my response is "He does this because blah blah blah...so obviously that's missing, where and how do you recommend I work on this?"<br /><br />And then I take their suggestions, figure out how I want the additions to be written, and put it on the page :)Giles Hashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10772067878017549159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-52948381886457419432010-10-24T22:20:48.680-05:002010-10-24T22:20:48.680-05:00I know. We might do a lot of character work where ...I know. We might do a lot of character work where we define the character goal and motivation and all, and it's great that we've figured that out. There's just one more step:<br />GET IT ON THE PAGE.<br /><br />We can do that as subtly or as obviously as we need to. We can hint or say it straight out or just have it in his gestures or her tone of voice... but something has to clue the reader in to something, like his motivation or her conflict, or at least that they have a reason, if not what it is.<br /><br />The reader is a book reader, not a mind reader. <br /><br />AliciaEdittorrenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-83864438188270170582010-10-24T19:53:45.613-05:002010-10-24T19:53:45.613-05:00I'm absolutely guilty of this. I so often have...I'm absolutely guilty of this. I so often have questions thrown at me and the scribbled comment "you need to work out how this works."<br /><br />It's not that I haven't worked out the detail but I've not actually written it down. "Just say it outright" is something I need to work on.Sylviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05925593802209715440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-42207137072510148622010-10-24T16:55:44.902-05:002010-10-24T16:55:44.902-05:00Good grief, I just had this conversation with a co...Good grief, I just had this conversation with a couple of writers I know. It seems like it always boils down to this:<br /><br />The writer sort of, kind of 'hints' at what, say, the Motivation in a scene is. They kind of say it, but not really, and they think they're being subtle. Or they think that -- because they explained in a previous chapter that the character's background and fears or whatever is XYZ, they don't have to put motivation in Scene 2 of Chapter 12 because the reader should understand already. <br /><br />As the conversations went on I heard a lot of the same thing from different people and it all boiled down to "I don't want to hit the reader over the head with it and treat them like they're stupid. I read a book by So and So where they did that to me and I found it boring and stupid and I was insulted that they didn't think I was smart enough to get it."<br /><br />To me the greater fear should be having a reader think WTF? about what a character just did because once that happens, you're now at risk of losing the reader because they're annoyed, frustrated, confused, and now potentially not liking your protagonist(s).<br /><br />JTJulie Harringtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02880895598847092028noreply@blogger.com