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on writing, and 'pretty'
ironic as it might seem, i don't like fics that are pretty. pretty, but empty, like a crystal vase sitting by the window. you look at it once in a while, and it's gorgeous in the light and captures rainbows in the diamond-shaped facets, but...
it gets boring, after a while.
when i use metaphors, i try to use them in-character, and with reason. my imagery tries to paint a picture with good reason. i'm trying to make a point here, with every word i write, and every metaphor and simile and description contributes to that point. that's why writing is, to me. it's to communicate - to tell a story, to weave something gorgeous in the minds of the reader. i try to make everything like a constant video, like you are watching the world through the eyes of the characters and it's appropriately tinted. i don't know whether i succeed, but i try.
what i really dislike, honestly, are descriptions and metaphors and imagery for the sake of it. they are pretty, they help the reader visualise but-
there isn't a point. there isn't a true story to tell. there isn't characterisation. replace these two characters with anyone else and the fic works perfectly fine, or even better, in some cases. the metaphors used aren't what the character themselves might use. it's all a sort of mess of pretty language and it's really such a pity. because, really, these fics are no different from those millions of beautiful, realistic landscape paintings (things like this.)
it serves no purpose. it's like a crystal vase, all ornamental and nice to read once in a while but eventually the magic fades, and it just becomes something your eyes slide past each time you walk by it. it's really very sad when this happens, because-
all these authors, they could have done so much better. these authors - they are the ones who can do it. they can create images, draw links, characterise. it's just that-
they're doing it all so disjointedly, and in the end, it's all a waste. there's no purpose, no meaning, and it's just so flimsy in the end. they could have done more; written something more memorable, something that truly strikes you with a truth that touches your heart, or even an image that haunts you even when you're surrounded by mundanity, or something about the character that changes entirely how you view him.
because that's what art is.
change. revolution. even if it's something miniscule. it's what i try to do with every piece of fic i write - create art.
because that's what language is.
eta; wow. so many responses, and so fast? -takes note of the timing. or is it the subject matter? hmm.-
it gets boring, after a while.
when i use metaphors, i try to use them in-character, and with reason. my imagery tries to paint a picture with good reason. i'm trying to make a point here, with every word i write, and every metaphor and simile and description contributes to that point. that's why writing is, to me. it's to communicate - to tell a story, to weave something gorgeous in the minds of the reader. i try to make everything like a constant video, like you are watching the world through the eyes of the characters and it's appropriately tinted. i don't know whether i succeed, but i try.
what i really dislike, honestly, are descriptions and metaphors and imagery for the sake of it. they are pretty, they help the reader visualise but-
there isn't a point. there isn't a true story to tell. there isn't characterisation. replace these two characters with anyone else and the fic works perfectly fine, or even better, in some cases. the metaphors used aren't what the character themselves might use. it's all a sort of mess of pretty language and it's really such a pity. because, really, these fics are no different from those millions of beautiful, realistic landscape paintings (things like this.)
it serves no purpose. it's like a crystal vase, all ornamental and nice to read once in a while but eventually the magic fades, and it just becomes something your eyes slide past each time you walk by it. it's really very sad when this happens, because-
all these authors, they could have done so much better. these authors - they are the ones who can do it. they can create images, draw links, characterise. it's just that-
they're doing it all so disjointedly, and in the end, it's all a waste. there's no purpose, no meaning, and it's just so flimsy in the end. they could have done more; written something more memorable, something that truly strikes you with a truth that touches your heart, or even an image that haunts you even when you're surrounded by mundanity, or something about the character that changes entirely how you view him.
because that's what art is.
change. revolution. even if it's something miniscule. it's what i try to do with every piece of fic i write - create art.
because that's what language is.
eta; wow. so many responses, and so fast? -takes note of the timing. or is it the subject matter? hmm.-
no subject
Like, you write a certain way - the novel-way, the traditionalist way, while these writers write in like... a more abstract/poetic way. It's different, not the same, and you can't disregard what they're doing as something that "serves no purpose," because they wrote it for a reason, and even if you didn't get it, even if you thought that it's just something that sits pretty and nothing beyond that, it's still memorable to other people. I, for one, really enjoy that kind of style, and like it when people find new ways to describe stuff, haha, 'cause it's usually in that style where it happens.
- I don't think this made a whole lot of sense, but I think what I'm saying is, don't discount the "pretty" fics. They're just as much as an artform as regular writing is. It's just different, not meaningless or whatever.
no subject
I have written two entries - not fic, but musings - that are public that I feel to be simply 'pretty writing'. I do it all the time because that's how I think, in general, in images and descriptions, which is why I know where the line has to be drawn. When it comes to fic, when it gets far, far too descriptive, it stops becoming 'fiction' because that implies stories and characters and all of that is drowned under language.
There's a reason why imagist poems are terribly short, and many of them seem almost ridiculous and pointless (for one hilarious example, google 'This is Just to Say' by William Carlos Williams). Sometimes it veers too much into the pretty language and the beautifully shaped words and lines that it stops saying anything about the characters or the story. Because those gorgeous lines aren't really what a character will actually think, so they don't contribute to characterisation, and they don't move on the story.
Perhaps I take too much lit analysis classes, but for me what 'art' and 'good writing' means to me is... well, having something to say, and to say it in a way that people will be able to get your point immediately. Drowning the characterisation and plot in pretty language frustrates me, because honestly the shine of the language fades on the second read (and rereadability is one of the main criteria that I judge any work of literature), and it just becomes like a crystal vase. You stop being entrance by the rainbow and your eyes slide past it.
But I understand that it's a matter of personal taste. I'm just mostly rambling to get my thoughts out proper, really. ^^; So thank you for actually engaging me into a discussion. ♥
no subject
Most of the "pretty" writing I've seen don't overload their prose with imagery and metaphors and all the other stuff you're talking about, so I'm not really sure why you'd think the characters and the stories are drowned by it. Maybe you're just reading the wrong stuff? 'cause if that's the case, then that's just - bad writing, not "pretty" writing uhhhh.
Perhaps I take too much lit analysis classes, but for me what 'art' and 'good writing' means to me is... well, having something to say, and to say it in a way that people will be able to get your point immediately.
. . . Isn't that just a dissertation, and not literature? Because to me, 'art' and 'good writing' can't really be defined by a strict set of guidelines. It's supposed to be experimental, fluid, able to change according to the writer's whim - that's what language is. Words, sentences, phrases - haha, they're there to be manipulated, not boxed in, I think, so if you don't get the point at first reading - then maybe the author's trying to tell you something. But then again, I've never had trouble reading "pretty" writing, or maybe I'm just used to it. And again, a lot of the "pretty" writing I've read don't drown their characterization with purple prose; the characters still are pretty recognizable, and all that.
Haha, it's just. I write this way too, sometimes, and a lot of my friends do, as well, so - I get it that it's just a matter of preference, but please don't look down on it as if it's something you can't appreciate?
no subject
What I'm talking about abstract writing. I really don't want to pull out examples or even the fics that I feel fit this post entirely, because this is a public post, so I'm going to try to describe what I think here. It's when the writers pull out literary somersaults and gorgeous, abstract descriptions - sometimes entirely in one character's POV and it makes me take a step back and gape because there's nothing there that hints to me properly that it's that character in particular, or even that there's a plot or even a plot to all of it. It becomes so abstract, so pretty in that it loses all meaning and become like the crystal vase.
Mm, no, I'm not looking down on it. I just, like you said, I don't appreciate it, thus I don't like it. And I really think it's a huge pity because writers who write like how I described above have the technical skill, but... they just aren't writing about anything, in the end, and all of that technical skill become just... flimsy, without content.