Friday, December 3, 2010

Write, writing, written, wrote; right?

If you read my original post I mentioned the fact that I write and might even be called a published author if you count the books on disk publisher who offered me a contract, published my manuscript on floppy disk around 1991 or so and them promptly went belly up.  Since then I have published exactly nothing, but I do have two completely finished novel manuscripts and about 5 or so more in various stages of completion.

If I have finished books you might ask then why have I not been published again...  well I haven't really pursued publication as diligently as necessary, in fact I really haven't pursued it much at all.  I sent out a few dozen queries, all of which were soundly rejected, but that's about it.

Now you're probably wondering why I don't pursue it as diligently as I should... the honest answer to that would probably be the fact that I don't think I'm good enough...

People who read my work tend to fall into 2 categories... they either love it and want to read everything but my grocery list, or they hate it because my writing style sucks big Sasquatch balls...

If you don't know much about writing you're probably now wondering what the hell a writing style is and why it would possibly have anything to do with Bigfoot's testicals.  Writing style is the way in which an author presents his story to his target audience...  It can be in first person where the character conveying the story (not necessarily the author) is the main character.  This kind of story is pretty easily identifiable because everything is "I did this" or "I felt like that" and the only emotional imput to the story is that of the main character unless the character is one with psychic or empathic abilities and even then the reader is only fed other characters emotions and motivations and thoughts through the filter of the main character.

Or it can be in some variation of 3rd person... I don't remember all the names of the variations or exactly how they work so I'm not even going to go into them seperately (my Associate's Degree classes were a long freaking time ago and too many drastic drops in blood sugar has killed off what few sparking neurons remembered any of that crap).  The point I'm making is in a 3rd person story the character conveying the story is a narrarator.  He or she tells you the story, describes what is happening and fills you in on the motivation and emotions of all of the characters.  Usually these stories like first person stories convey the point of view (POV) of only one of the main characters or if you are shown the emotions and motivations of other characters then the different POVs of set out one at a time in different chapters or sections or whatnot.

I don't write like that.  I tend to write in what is or was once call omnicient POV which basically means that in any given scene you will be conveyed the emotions, thoughts, and motivations of whatever characters are present at the time.  I write like this because I like the flow it gives to the story.  The reader is not only an observer of the scene but they can see and understand the characters thoughts and motivations.... they don't have to wait for later to find out why the hero is a bumbling idiot because while they are seeing the scene through the eyes of the heroine they are also privy to the hero tangled emotions that end up also tangling his feet.

A lot of readers don't like omnicient POV...  most agents don't like omnicient POV...  most publishers don't like omnicient POV... I on the other hand, love omnicient POV and having tried over and over to force myself into the mold of an author who spits out one character POV for an entire section or chapter I finally decided that being published isn't worth writing a novel that I myself would have no interest in reading.

There will no doubt be a part 2 to this post because I'm sure I'll find more to say on the subject especially if my muse returns and I'm actually brave enough to write something that I'm willing to share with my writing group.  Who are all wonderfully talented, creative, supportive people; most all of whom don't like omnicient POV :)

Oh and I also didn't even begin to expound on the complete absence of spelling, punctuation, and grammar in all of my writing :) :)

3 comments:

  1. I like your writing and I like to write in a similar point of view.

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  2. Thanks Kimber I always like your stuff too. I was thinking the other day about the last thing you brought in that I saw... With all the unknowingly dead people gathered together; I really liked that one.

    Most people either love it or hate it. The omnicient POV absolutely drives some people insane because they get the one character in their mind and then try to read everything that way and it confuses them. My husband always says my writing is like my thinking it just jumps all over the place.

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  3. Yes folks I am aware that I spelled testicles wrong LOL it was intentional I assure you although I am, as I said, utterly unable to spell.

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