Writing fiction has become hard work. I guess after working the press and having everything ruthlessly ripped apart by editor and public, I'm pretty keen on how belief and disbelief work.
So, I've several times now come to points in a story where'd I'd like to write something, but on writing it, there's a voice that comes up and says "Why did that happen?"
And then I say "Magic."
And then it replies "No, you faggot, that's not good enough. Where's the science? Where's the reasoning? You weren't given a brain to fuck around like this, now get on it."
At which point, I cower, and rewrite paragraph after paragraph. So far, the results have been better, but the going is awfully slow. Any little inkling of something that can't be explained rationally within the system provided irritates me. Characters need to be developed, but developed gradually without the long-droning monologue-graphs that I've found myself writing.
The end result will likely be much better than anything I wrote a long time ago, but that said, damn, it's hard.
3 comments:
What's wrong with magic? It sure beats being rational.
As Mark Twain said,
"The difference between fiction and non-fiction is that fiction has to be absolutely believable."
Ergo, pigs flying when the system clearly states that only horses and birds may, is still a breach in the reader's belief.
Also, a story in which everything is possible becomes a non-story, as any kind of problem can immediately and instantly be solved. So even magic need conform to rationality in order to be useful in a narrative. It's a simple matter of cause and effect, something I used to be quite good at conjuring up, but nowadays, have some difficulty with.
fuck mark twain!
but in all seriousness I understand what you are saying. I don't know that that I've ever quite followed it though. I kind of just write and don't look back, for the most part.
Obviously, it often comes out like shit, but I ain't getting paid for this!
Though there are plenty of stories that I've started and never finished because of the same reasons as you, I suppose.
The difference is you'll probably actually finish whatever it is you are struggling on and it will be even better because of said struggle.
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