Comments for The Star Chamber

Comment on About by angela mazzella

angela mazzella — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:16:50 +0000

Last night I had a dream that I was a new hire and working with group of people in a huge complex of mid century office buildings. One of the VIPs came to me and said I was being admitted to The Star Chamber and I had to prepare for it. I had know idea what it did, even in my dream. So I am on a search as to the meaning of my dream and found your blog – for whatever it’s worth!
Just thought I would leave this note.

Comment on The Works of Stephen Donaldson by Eric Dale Eubanks

Eric Dale Eubanks — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:53:45 +0000

Thanks for this attention paid to Donaldson — for sharing with eloquence and brevity your insights into his oeuvre [have been reading and re-reading the THOMAS COVENANT books since the initial publication of LORD FOUL’S BANE, and as a professional actor since 1980, my only outstanding “dream role” on the list is Covenant himself….love the books, and love finding others who appreciate this terrific writer as much as I do.

CHEERS!
EDE

Comment on Gulliver’s Travels by elizaw

elizaw — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:19:26 +0000

I should read that book; it’s been a while since I grabbed any of the classics. Thank you, by the way, for refuting the common writing rules. I twitch every time someone defends ’show don’t tell’.

Comment on An Interview With Stephen Donaldson by Doorstep Salesmen « Mechanical Hamster

Doorstep Salesmen « Mechanical Hamster — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:29:45 +0000

[...] are actually better for being part of longer bodies of works. I read with interest Matt Keefe’s interview with Stephen Donaldson, and in particular his [...]

Comment on Selected Reading… by A Tense Situation « Mechanical Hamster

A Tense Situation « Mechanical Hamster — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:31:11 +0000

[...] rigour on the narrative styles and devices I was using. This was down to my earlier post and Matt Keefe’s comments (as well as some emails exchanged between us on the subject). If nothing else, by airing my thoughts [...]

Comment on Selected Reading… by Matt Keefe

Matt Keefe — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:03:00 +0000

Hi Andy,

As far as tense goes, I think there’s two sides to it – the grammar, and the style. The grammar part is a set of rules which can be learned (even if they are frequently confusing and somewhat less than logical). What interests me particularly is the use of tense as a stylistic choice, as is the case with its use in the opening chapter of Elric. Tense is almost always seen purely as a grammatical question (which, of course, it largely is) but I think it’s useful to remember that there are many situations in which, with a little imagination, a writer actually has a choice of tenses, and so there is its role in style to be considered as well. I might post more on this at a later date…

Matt

Comment on Selected Reading… by Andy Hall

Andy Hall — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:57:03 +0000

I think the ongoing perspective discussion between your blog and Gav’s has been very interesting. Deciding what perspective (or mix of) your fiction is going to be written in is obviously very important. Going back to the Narnia example I’ve found the storyteller device worked very well for me as I was reading it aloud to my daughter. It had a very ‘cosy’ feeling, perfect for that bedtime story feel. C.S Lewis does it well but it’s a fine balancing act, too much and I’d have found it jarring and it’d break the flow of the story.

As for other examples of differing perspective types, I’ve been reading a lot of George Macdonald Fraser’s Flashman recently. He uses an interesting mix of perspectives. The first is of himself in the fictional role as historical editor and so litters the text with opportune footnotes about the historical events Flashman finds himself mixed up in as well as setting the context for the story at the beginning and end of the book. The second perspective used is a first person account from the Flashman character himself. However, it’s not quite first-person limited as Flashman is meant to be writing his memoirs decades after the event’s he’s describing. So he has the benefit of knowledge his younger self doesn’t have at the time of the tale he’s telling. Which allows him, as the authorial voice to add a broader picture his young self is unaware of and even criticize his younger self’s actions as well. So, I’d best describe it as first person limited/omnipresent!

I note you also touch upon tense in the above entry and that’s a whole new subject that is worthy of discussion and one I’ve often struggled with, especially when writing Battle Reports in White Dwarf, it’s a real minefield! Novels today are normally written in past-perfect which I believe is meant to be around a second or so after the event. Obviously there are many books where tense use is deliberately mixed throughout. However, for some reason, I find reading large passages in true present text awkward, although that could just be me. It’s also quite easy to jumble your tense use – although that’s what a good editor is for!

Comment on It would be better to be omniscient… by A Matter of Perspective « Mechanical Hamster

A Matter of Perspective « Mechanical Hamster — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:33:43 +0000

[...] some discussion amongst us writer types. Matt Keefe has written an interesting piece on the use of omniscient versus limited narrative on his site, and this got me to thinking about the narrative form used in most modern novels too. [...]

Comment on It would be better to be omniscient… by gavthorpe

gavthorpe — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:27:36 +0000

This talk of the ‘modern novel’ has got me thinking, particularly in connection to your piece in the epic nature of Tolkien’s works. I wonder how much of the style of the modern novel is in response to the needs and desires of the readership and how much of it is self-sustaining? Has the modern approach re-educated the readership to suit itself rather than responded to the desires of the reading public?

To put it another way, is there a genuine difficulty for readers to cope with older forms of prose or is it the case that readers are no longer prepared by schools and the novels produced to cope with these styles of writing? Unfamiliarity rather than some innate feature of the writing could be the greater cause. This trend towards a homogenised novel form could be why so little modern fiction is considered ‘classic’ when weighed up against earlier works.

Hmm, maybe a subject for a future entry…

GAV

Comment on Television – Take It or Leave It by Jonathan M

Jonathan M — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 08:48:14 +0000

Meh… in my experience the difference between a good TV critic and the likes of say Sam Wollaston in the Guardian is that great TV critics don’t need worth subject matter. They can find interesting things to write even about the lowliest of game shows or day time TV programmes.