Even though I’d written nothing new, I have still been contributing to Legends Undying.
Some might remember I am one of the Weekly contributors (I’m Monday, and often feel like it). What I have been contributing are older stories of mine. Stuff that had previously been posted on this blog, and that maybe 13.65 people have read. I don’t know why, but few people read my fiction, either here or there. Oh . . . right!
Well, I’ll keep writing for them 13.65 who do enjoy it.
Anyway, this week I contributed some new stuff. The continuation of The Fall of Angels, Chapters 4-6. Chapters 1-3 can be found HERE. And, since I usually introduce the piece, I did so again. I reprint that introduction below, as it appeared HERE, for them who can’t be bothered to go there.
~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o
Sixteen weeks! . . . wow . . .
Once again, I’m up . . . only this time, this time I’m ready. I have the next installment of Fall of Angels up and ready to go.
I don’t usually get a whole lot of feedback here, so I went elsewhere for an opinion, and I did get some feedback.
My style of writing does not lend itself very well to serialization. That was the feedback. Well, that, and I don’t describes the characters or places enough, and I tend to infer too much without giving an adequate exposition of it.
. . . hmmm . . .
So, I have to agree about the serialization bit. Personally, I don’t like it.
For one, few people chancing upon the middle of a story are likely to go back and read WCB (what came before).
For another thing, serialization has gone out of style . . . sure, it works in television, and movie adaptations of Tolkien books. But for a short story, there is just not enough to hold one’s interest. The problem is that serialization works when you end each segment with a cliff-hanger. Well . . . it works if one presumes the reader likes the characters. Otherwise they might even cheer the prospect of their demise. Why, they might stop reading the story, and just imagine the characters died in a gruesome way.
But how many cliffhangers can you have in a short story?
So, here’s what I will be doing . . . at the end of this story (one or two more chapters), I’ll return to the self-contained story.
Not only that, but I will be keeping them fairly short. The operative word in short story is, after all, “short”. The good news is that when I do write something longer, it will be complete.
The plan, for now, is to alternate weeks between a couple of flash fiction pieces, and longer, more developed short stories.
WAIT!! . . . dang, I have The Blood, as well. Crap. Oh well; to every rule there must be an exception. When I have something to add to The Blood, it will serialized. I don’t see any other way of working it.
As for the rest of the criticism . . . what can I say. That is my style of writing. Still, I could try and describe people and places a tad more. However, I always find it a two-edged sword. I believe “looks” often predispose readers to formulate opinions about the characters.
I prefer to present “who they are”, over “what they look like”. Once a reader knows the character, they will “flesh out” his or her looks. Besides, how often have you read a book, loved a character, and then find out the actor playing the character in the movie adaptation looks nothing like what you imagined? What’s the use of me describing someone who will likely be changed for the movie.
What? . . . no, they are not making a movie of any of my stuff.
Resplendent No More
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. . . my FP ward . . . chieken shit.
So much of what you write here resonates with me. I have dabbled in writing from time to time and I have had very similar feedback. No so much the serialisation thing, as I have never tried it, but the comments about not describing people (I am much less interested in the colour of their hair than in what they say and do!) and inferring too much rather than explaining. Hey ho. It is what it is. Plenty of fine writers could be accused of those ‘faults’ too; Hemmingway comes to mind immediately. Of course, I am not a fine writer. For one thing, I am too visual, hence the photography.
I am going to go back and read your story from the start. I skimmed the synopsis above chaps 4&5 and am sufficiently intrigued to want to read more. By the way, do you watch Supernatural? We are firm fans in this house. Anyway, the concept of bad angels is central there too.
Oh man . . . you’re going to compare my story to Supernatural?!?
Disclaimer . . . as explained elsewhere, this started as a flash fiction piece, then got expanded to “help” Bill (my wife did not like how I had left it), and finally grew in scope. As such, I’ve had to adapt a plot over what I had originally written, and it probably suffers a bit for it.
Not making excuses . . . er . . . OK, I’m making excuses, but in my defense . . . no, I’m just making excuses. I get all excusey-like when people take an interest in my stuff, and actually read my writing. It’s the whole “Damn it, Jim! I’m an engineer, not a writer!” bit.
As for Supernatural, I have watched portions of Season 1, then “things” conspired to turn my attention elsewhere (damn angels; always meddling in people’s lives), but the plan is to catch up (eventually).
As for angels . . . yeah, I never got the “good” angels bit. For one thing, it seems a bit of a contradiction. We either have free will (and hence can be judged for our actions), or we have these “things” who watch over us, in which case they should be blamed for “guiding” us into doing bad stuff. Of course, everyone takes credit for doing the good stuff . . . we are very god-like in that respect.
Well, you most certainly burst my bubble! Here I was anticipating a movie version of your story and now you tell me there’s not going to be one. Party pooper! (But in a deep part of my being there’s still an amber of hope glowing just in case . . .)
And no, please do not go into too much physical description of the characters . . . that spoils my perfect image of them!
Don’t worry . . . not planning to turn into a “describer”. The most I ever did was Greg and Susan in “The Guardians” story, and even that was minimal.
And yeah . . . movie options have not come flooding down my chute.