fullygoldy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fullygoldy) wrote2006-07-16 07:29 am
fullygoldy) wrote2006-07-16 07:29 am
The Science of Writing
No, I'm not really a writer. I do love reading just about anything that is extremely well-written though. I'm also pretty decent as a technical writer/editor. I've dabbled on and off in creative writing, but I rarely finish anything I start because I never think what I'm working on measures up to all the wonderful examples I've personally read.
Earlier this year, I picked up "The Best American Science Writing 2005," edited by Alan Lightman. It's a fairly small paperback volume that has been riding around in my purse for several months. I pull it out whenever I'm in a Dr.'s office, which is nearly every Friday this year. Last week, the article I was reading, "Dining with Robots" by Ellen Ullman turned out to be some fabulous food porn! I want to share it here, but I've done food to death lately, so today I'm sharing the next-to-last article, "The Sea of Information" by Andrea Barrett. Ms. Barrett is a novelist, and her essay "...illuminates the differences in the way that artists and scientists work, especially in their use of information" (Lightman). The passages that struck me most were:
I'm really glad I found this compilation. There are some fascinating and informative articles and essays in it; only 2 in the whole list didn't hold my attention. I never would have seen any of these on my own, so the compilation serves a useful purpose in giving these fine works greater exposure. I'm sure that's exactly what the editors intended, so yay for them. And yay for me, because I'll be looking for the 2006 volume as soon as the year turns.
Earlier this year, I picked up "The Best American Science Writing 2005," edited by Alan Lightman. It's a fairly small paperback volume that has been riding around in my purse for several months. I pull it out whenever I'm in a Dr.'s office, which is nearly every Friday this year. Last week, the article I was reading, "Dining with Robots" by Ellen Ullman turned out to be some fabulous food porn! I want to share it here, but I've done food to death lately, so today I'm sharing the next-to-last article, "The Sea of Information" by Andrea Barrett. Ms. Barrett is a novelist, and her essay "...illuminates the differences in the way that artists and scientists work, especially in their use of information" (Lightman). The passages that struck me most were:
When I looked at the sugar factory in Williamsburg and dug up early photographs of it or articles about how sugar was processed there, I was looking for those details that would allow me to imagine one person working in and moving through that space; I was imagining it as background. A social historian, looking at the same material, might ask what wages were, what the ethnicity of the workers was, where those workers lived, who got paid what for what hours. Facts, from which inferences could be drawn. I was looking for something else.
I wanted what would help me not to tell, but to show. If I could convey what I wanted to convey by a set of logically ordered and clear statements, I'd do that. But a good novel or story or poem tries to convey a different kind of knowledge, and to operate on the reader in a different way, through the emotions and the senses. Facts can help evoke emotion, especially those that transmit texture, tonality, and sensual detail. But facts can't drive a piece. Research, no matter how compelling, may give me the bones of a fiction but never the breath and the blood. It's a wonderful, sometimes immensely useful tool that helps give me something to write about. But without the transforming force of the imagination, the result is only information.
"not to tell, but to show." We hear this all the time. Editors, teachers, beta readers and writers are always saying "show, don't tell." And this is truly the difference between a story idea and a well-crafted story. I can regularly write the 'telling' part of stories, but it takes an artist to show us what is going on. Even when they are teaching us stuff we don't know yet, meaning lots of information is being conveyed, they're still showing us how the character is taking it in, and the effect that information has on the character. They don't really care about our learning of the facts, only the character's. The wonderfuljanissa11 comes to mind because she writes a lot of medically based stories. In her "Halflight," we get some pretty detailed explanations of how the central character is losing his sight, but that only serves to inform his reactions. What does it feel like to lose your sight as an adult? She's obviously spent a lot of time thinking about that question, because the reader feels the anger and despair, the desperation and courage as they crash over the character in waves.
In 1936, Walter Benjamin wrote this: Every morning brings us the news of the globe, and yet we are poor in noteworthy stories. This is because no event any longer comes to us without already being shot through with explanation. In other words, by now almost nothing that happens benefits storytelling; almost everything benefits information. Actually, it is half the art of storytelling to keep a story free from explanation as one reproduces it. (emphasis added)
Wow. That is probably the most succinct lesson on writing ever formulated. Put it next to "brevity is the soul of wit," (Shakespeare) and you can pretty much throw away all your volumes of creative writing how-tos. Keep your "Elements of Style" though. ::g::
I'd forgotten that while facts may be in a text--sometimes delectably--they can't be the text itself. ...that emotion--that central element of fiction--derives not from information or explanation, nor from a logical arrangement of facts, but specifically from powerful images and from the qualities of language: diction, rhythm, form, structure, association, metaphor.
Emotion derives from powerful images and from the qualities of language. This must be why I love language and words so well. There is nothing more exciting or satisfying to me than finding and using the perfect words to convey what I'm thinking, seeing or feeling.
...plot summaries are boring. If the novel's working, I shouldn't be able to reduce it to an outline, and I shouldn't be able to articulate what it's really about.
Heh. I'm going to stop stressing out over not being able to write witty plot summaries.
We write in response to that world; we write in response to what we read and learn; and in the end we write out of our deepest selves, the live, breathing, bleeding place where the pictures form, and where it all begins.
Owowowow. That bleeding place. We've been watching season one of "The L Word," and one of the characters, Jenny, is a writer. She really is a writer, because she bleeds all over the screen. Mia Kirshner gives a startlingly deep portrayal of the young writer, and while I don't agree with Jenny's relationship choices, I can see how all of her choices feed her deepest self, and I can see her dredging up everything to get what she wants down on paper. I'll never be that kind of writer, and in my mind, that means I'll never truly be a writer. I was born to merely appreciate artistic expression in this life. Hopefully, in a future life, I'll be allowed to participate in that expression. Of course, karmically speaking, I probably wasted my talents in a past life. ::sigh::
I wanted what would help me not to tell, but to show. If I could convey what I wanted to convey by a set of logically ordered and clear statements, I'd do that. But a good novel or story or poem tries to convey a different kind of knowledge, and to operate on the reader in a different way, through the emotions and the senses. Facts can help evoke emotion, especially those that transmit texture, tonality, and sensual detail. But facts can't drive a piece. Research, no matter how compelling, may give me the bones of a fiction but never the breath and the blood. It's a wonderful, sometimes immensely useful tool that helps give me something to write about. But without the transforming force of the imagination, the result is only information.
"not to tell, but to show." We hear this all the time. Editors, teachers, beta readers and writers are always saying "show, don't tell." And this is truly the difference between a story idea and a well-crafted story. I can regularly write the 'telling' part of stories, but it takes an artist to show us what is going on. Even when they are teaching us stuff we don't know yet, meaning lots of information is being conveyed, they're still showing us how the character is taking it in, and the effect that information has on the character. They don't really care about our learning of the facts, only the character's. The wonderful
janissa11 comes to mind because she writes a lot of medically based stories. In her "Halflight," we get some pretty detailed explanations of how the central character is losing his sight, but that only serves to inform his reactions. What does it feel like to lose your sight as an adult? She's obviously spent a lot of time thinking about that question, because the reader feels the anger and despair, the desperation and courage as they crash over the character in waves.In 1936, Walter Benjamin wrote this: Every morning brings us the news of the globe, and yet we are poor in noteworthy stories. This is because no event any longer comes to us without already being shot through with explanation. In other words, by now almost nothing that happens benefits storytelling; almost everything benefits information. Actually, it is half the art of storytelling to keep a story free from explanation as one reproduces it. (emphasis added)
Wow. That is probably the most succinct lesson on writing ever formulated. Put it next to "brevity is the soul of wit," (Shakespeare) and you can pretty much throw away all your volumes of creative writing how-tos. Keep your "Elements of Style" though. ::g::
I'd forgotten that while facts may be in a text--sometimes delectably--they can't be the text itself. ...that emotion--that central element of fiction--derives not from information or explanation, nor from a logical arrangement of facts, but specifically from powerful images and from the qualities of language: diction, rhythm, form, structure, association, metaphor.
Emotion derives from powerful images and from the qualities of language. This must be why I love language and words so well. There is nothing more exciting or satisfying to me than finding and using the perfect words to convey what I'm thinking, seeing or feeling.
...plot summaries are boring. If the novel's working, I shouldn't be able to reduce it to an outline, and I shouldn't be able to articulate what it's really about.
Heh. I'm going to stop stressing out over not being able to write witty plot summaries.
We write in response to that world; we write in response to what we read and learn; and in the end we write out of our deepest selves, the live, breathing, bleeding place where the pictures form, and where it all begins.
Owowowow. That bleeding place. We've been watching season one of "The L Word," and one of the characters, Jenny, is a writer. She really is a writer, because she bleeds all over the screen. Mia Kirshner gives a startlingly deep portrayal of the young writer, and while I don't agree with Jenny's relationship choices, I can see how all of her choices feed her deepest self, and I can see her dredging up everything to get what she wants down on paper. I'll never be that kind of writer, and in my mind, that means I'll never truly be a writer. I was born to merely appreciate artistic expression in this life. Hopefully, in a future life, I'll be allowed to participate in that expression. Of course, karmically speaking, I probably wasted my talents in a past life. ::sigh::
I'm really glad I found this compilation. There are some fascinating and informative articles and essays in it; only 2 in the whole list didn't hold my attention. I never would have seen any of these on my own, so the compilation serves a useful purpose in giving these fine works greater exposure. I'm sure that's exactly what the editors intended, so yay for them. And yay for me, because I'll be looking for the 2006 volume as soon as the year turns.
no subject
I always feel this intense urge to run to linkcat and request each and every book you mention! :D (This one is already requested....)
no subject
no subject
I'll definitely keep you in mind if I just can't wait for the library. And yes, I always love hearing about the books you read. I especially love science and physics stuff (when I can concentrate on it) so keep shooting those recommendations my way...
Hugs!