Need HELP!!!
Jun. 26th, 2004 12:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amalthiaOkay well not that badly. I'm still looking for a beta reader to help me with re-revising my story Spellbound and I'm going through another point of writer low-self esteem.
See, I know this is a bad idea, but I compared my story to another story, which honestly has a lot of grammar/spelling errors, and yet the first two times I read the story I just could not stop reading. It's one of my all time favorite stories. So yesterday I tried to figure out what did the author do that made a potentialy badly (grammatically) written story so engaging that I never even noticed all the errors until I read the story again for the tenth or eleventh time.
I think a large part is the dialogue. Not many people know how to write dialogue that makes you feel like you are with the characters. The story also hit almost every one of my kinks. hard not to love a story that does that. I think the author used some repetition but it really drove home all the negative emotions swirling in the main characters heads. Her characterization of Snape was wonderful, I could totally see Snape reacting the way he did in this story.
So the debate with myself continues, what makes a story good? Obviously, it's not perfect grammar (yet that is why I'm spending so much time revising Spellbound, I'm rewriting whole paragraphs using Strunk and White Elements of Style grammar book as my guide.) In an attempt to improve my story. Now I'm realizing as I near the finish that I may have killed what made the story so interesting in the first place. I'm assuming it had good qualities since I already got some feedback saying so.
However, I will continue what i've started. I still believe concise sentences are more powerful than wordy ones, and passive sentences that can be changed to active ones, should be. I'm not sure if I should rework the dialogue in my story, I've never heard anyone speak concisely. However, it's something to consider.
Grrr it's times like this I wish my sister read slash, she's willing to read everything else I write, but not anything with gay characters or rape or torture. Not that I can blame her.
See, I know this is a bad idea, but I compared my story to another story, which honestly has a lot of grammar/spelling errors, and yet the first two times I read the story I just could not stop reading. It's one of my all time favorite stories. So yesterday I tried to figure out what did the author do that made a potentialy badly (grammatically) written story so engaging that I never even noticed all the errors until I read the story again for the tenth or eleventh time.
I think a large part is the dialogue. Not many people know how to write dialogue that makes you feel like you are with the characters. The story also hit almost every one of my kinks. hard not to love a story that does that. I think the author used some repetition but it really drove home all the negative emotions swirling in the main characters heads. Her characterization of Snape was wonderful, I could totally see Snape reacting the way he did in this story.
So the debate with myself continues, what makes a story good? Obviously, it's not perfect grammar (yet that is why I'm spending so much time revising Spellbound, I'm rewriting whole paragraphs using Strunk and White Elements of Style grammar book as my guide.) In an attempt to improve my story. Now I'm realizing as I near the finish that I may have killed what made the story so interesting in the first place. I'm assuming it had good qualities since I already got some feedback saying so.
However, I will continue what i've started. I still believe concise sentences are more powerful than wordy ones, and passive sentences that can be changed to active ones, should be. I'm not sure if I should rework the dialogue in my story, I've never heard anyone speak concisely. However, it's something to consider.
Grrr it's times like this I wish my sister read slash, she's willing to read everything else I write, but not anything with gay characters or rape or torture. Not that I can blame her.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-26 09:49 pm (UTC)you're right!!!
Date: 2004-06-27 05:57 pm (UTC)