Post by account_disabled on Jan 2, 2024 20:02:26 GMT -8
Another frequent mistake I've made in past years. But maybe even lately, who knows? What is the narrator's intervention? It's when the writer wants to insert himself into his story, a bit like Hitchcock did when he participated as an actor or extra in his films. In that case, however, it is legitimate, it is not a real interference, but a participation. In fiction, however, it is dangerous, because the reader understands that it is not the character who carries the story forward, it is not the character's thoughts that he is reading, but those of the author. I think it's another easy mistake to make. But nothing that good editing can't find and correct. #5 – Carrying out dialogues I talked about this some time ago. It's a mistake I often find in the novels I read.
In Leviathan – The Awakening by James SA Corey it happened often. What do I mean by ending dialogues ? Look at this example: Dawes stood up. He looked bitter. “You're making a mistake,” he said. The action is that of Dawes and the dialogue follows the action, so that sentence must be left on the same line, otherwise the reader - or at least I... - understands Special Data that the dialogue is spoken by another character. Does this cause problems only for me? #6 – Little care for “world building” A mistake I made at the beginning of my novel PU was pointed out to me by a friend who read the first part. The good thing is that I didn't even notice, everything seemed fine to me. It's not enough to create a world but you also need to illustrate it in detail and show it to the reader. This is a rule that I have printed in my mind. The reader does not read our minds, but on paper or screen. This means that we have to take care of world building through narrative, we have to describe the environment.
Otherwise readers will not understand the scene, they will not be able to imagine the setting, especially if it is a fantasy or science fiction story. #7 – Clichés How frequent are they? We live in clichés, we use them every day, they are part of us, of our language, of our communication. We rely on clichés to make us understand, to make our messages easy to understand. If all this can be shared in spoken language, it is not in written language. The use of clichés depersonalizes the writer , because it makes his writing homologated to other writings, the author homologated to other authors. The cliché in the story feels like it has already been seen, but it does not have the same flavor of deja vu , nor its same aura of mystery. Indeed, it is a sign of little imagination, little creative effort . Little revision work.
In Leviathan – The Awakening by James SA Corey it happened often. What do I mean by ending dialogues ? Look at this example: Dawes stood up. He looked bitter. “You're making a mistake,” he said. The action is that of Dawes and the dialogue follows the action, so that sentence must be left on the same line, otherwise the reader - or at least I... - understands Special Data that the dialogue is spoken by another character. Does this cause problems only for me? #6 – Little care for “world building” A mistake I made at the beginning of my novel PU was pointed out to me by a friend who read the first part. The good thing is that I didn't even notice, everything seemed fine to me. It's not enough to create a world but you also need to illustrate it in detail and show it to the reader. This is a rule that I have printed in my mind. The reader does not read our minds, but on paper or screen. This means that we have to take care of world building through narrative, we have to describe the environment.
Otherwise readers will not understand the scene, they will not be able to imagine the setting, especially if it is a fantasy or science fiction story. #7 – Clichés How frequent are they? We live in clichés, we use them every day, they are part of us, of our language, of our communication. We rely on clichés to make us understand, to make our messages easy to understand. If all this can be shared in spoken language, it is not in written language. The use of clichés depersonalizes the writer , because it makes his writing homologated to other writings, the author homologated to other authors. The cliché in the story feels like it has already been seen, but it does not have the same flavor of deja vu , nor its same aura of mystery. Indeed, it is a sign of little imagination, little creative effort . Little revision work.