I’ve heard some discussion about the use of italics, and today I ran across an example of what I think it a good use of italics in my current reading. This excerpt is from A Wanted Man: A Jack Reacher Novel
Category: Thoughts about Writing
bookmark_borderCritiques
It’s amazingly hard to accept and to do critiques.
When I was a music major I always had a teacher; someone that knew a lot more than I did, someone who had years more experience than I did, someone that I trusted. After years of work with the instructors, with the directors, I developed a sense of rightness, of understanding, an ability to see the gaps between was is and what should or could be, and, a sense of how to work at closing that gap.
bookmark_borderTranslating = Editing?
I don’t understand any language other than English. But I have read some translations: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Flaubert mostly, and others. Last year I met an author whose first language is French but he writes in English. I asked why he doesn’t translate his works himself, and he replied that writing fiction is one thing, translating is another. But he’ll happily argue with his translator.
bookmark_borderImprovising
Some time ago an experienced writer told me that he imagined that writing fiction is like improvising jazz. Then he asked me, as a (hobby) jazz musician and budding fiction writer, did I find that to be the case? I said that, as also a legit (classical) composition major in university, I felt that writing fiction is more like composing. To compose I do a similar process that I use when improvising; I listen to what I have in my head and improvise what should happen next, but I get to use instruments that I can’t play, and many at once, if I want.
bookmark_borderWeaknesses, of a writing style
I have a few writing tendencies which are weaknesses. I’d like to understand their source so that I can figure out how to manage them.
bookmark_borderRichard Ford: Canada
I’m reading Richard Ford’s “Canada
” atm, and noting how different this is as a reading experience for me, compared with “Rabbit Is Rich
“, by John Updike, the last novel that I read. First off, I’ve read Updike before, and even read that Rabbit novel before, whereas I haven’t read any Richard Ford before, so I have to read for content, for the story, which I didn’t have to do with Rabbit. With Rabbit I could appreciate Updike’s writing ability and skim the content, or at least it stuck very easily in my brain.
” atm, and noting how different this is as a reading experience for me, compared with “Rabbit Is Rich“, by John Updike, the last novel that I read. First off, I’ve read Updike before, and even read that Rabbit novel before, whereas I haven’t read any Richard Ford before, so I have to read for content, for the story, which I didn’t have to do with Rabbit. With Rabbit I could appreciate Updike’s writing ability and skim the content, or at least it stuck very easily in my brain.bookmark_borderShow, don’t tell
One of the first aphorisms given to beginning writers is the old ‘show, don’t tell’ claim. Like any ‘rule’ of any endeavor, especially those of creative natures, it has as its basis some helpful advice, yet you also need to understand it, and then be able to understand when to break the rule.
bookmark_borderMore comparisons, music to fiction
One of my more recent large projects is revising a 3DayNovel from a year and a half ago, and, at the same time, revising the sequel that I wrote last NaNoWriMo.
bookmark_borderComposition; musical and fictional
I was a classical composition major in university who came from a self-taught jazz background. Sometimes I think about the differences between writing fiction and writing music.
bookmark_borderWriting with flow
Ah, the holiday season. This year, in spite of not traveling for Christmas, I took more time off work than usual and, combined with not losing hours driving or sitting in the airport/airplane, I’ve had more free time.