 For Authors: April 28, 2010 Issue [#3695] |
  For Authors
This week: Edited by: Cubby  
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Hello, everyone! Welcome to this edition of the For Authors newsletter.  This week's topic is focused on creating a convincing, fictional world, but first off, I'd like to share a few quotes with you. Enjoy!
Quotes:
"Writing should be like a pane of glass - there's another world on the other side and your vision carries you there, but you're not aware of having passed through a barrier to get there."
~ Patricia Cornwall
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"They [characters] are real not because they are like ourselves (though they may be like us) but because they are convincing."
~ E.M. Forster
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"The fiction writer has to make a whole world believable by making every part and aspect of it believable."
~ Flannery O'Connor
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"Fiction is an art that calls for the strictest attention to the real—whether the writer is writing a naturalistic story or fantasy. I mean that we always begin with what is or with what has an eminent possibility of truth about it. Even when one writes fantasy, reality is the proper basis of it. A thing is fantastic because it is so real, so real that it is fantastic."
~ Flannery O'Connor
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"The writer involves the reader by creating an illusion of reality. . . .The stronger this illusion of reality, the more completely it engrosses the entire conscious attention of the reader."
~ William Sloane
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"Ultimately, you have to believe. If it is not real for you, you cannot talk about it persuasively. Because the writing of fiction is all about producing an illusion, it's all-important that you believe in the illusion absolutely. You will never fool anyone else if you can't fool yourself." Madison Smartt Bell
~ Madison Smartt Bell
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Walking Through Glass
No one in their right mind would attempt to walk through a pane of glass; though literally speaking, writers and readers do this all the time!
Starting with an idea and/or a vision, a fiction writer creates a world separate from the real one. At first it may seem distant, unreachable, until at last the writer finds himself inside this new world he has built. He has stepped across the threshold of reality, into an imaginary place that feels almost as real as life .
If a story is well written, readers, too, will cross over into the fiction world, feeling as if they are right there among the characters. In fact, the reader should feel such a part of that world, he'd like to shout a comment to the character, such as, "No! She's lying to you!" or something similar. The reader has walked through the glass from reality into a fictitious world with hardly a blink.
As a writer creates a fictitious world, he must pay careful attention not to lose his reader. The characters must be convincing, allowing the reader to cheer or boo for them. Even in fantasy, some realism should be present for the reader to connect to. If a reader cannot easily transition himself from the real world to fiction, he will lose interest.
In children's stories, for instance, the main character might be a talking tiger. Most of us know tigers can't talk, but once we learn this tiger has a problem to solve, we forget there is no such thing as a talking tiger and find ourselves wondering how that tiger will solve its problem... So we keep reading the story. A talking tiger may be unrealistic but problem solving is an everyday occurance.
The Wizard of Oz is another example of transitioning. Whoever heard of a scarecrow with brains, a tin man with a heart, a lion seeking courage, or flying monkeys, among other unbelievable characters? But once again, there is problem solving involved. Dorothy wants to go home and the others try to help her. Their adventures capture our attention and pull us into another world. We find traits the characters have that we might have, too: Homesickness, lack of confidence, fear, and so on.
Be sure to create a world with human qualities in it, even though your main character might be a three-horned big toe, or a robot made out of milk cartons, or whatever you writing-heart desires. This goes for any type of fiction writing. You must be convincing while writing emotions, romances, illness, etc. Submerge yourself and the reader into a whole other life... a story one will never want to end.
A few related links:
http://www.writing-world.com/sf/world.shtml
http://factoidz.com/how-to-make-fiction-real-character-development/
And one for fun...
http://escapingreality.ca/
 Now for a prompt...  Imagine yourself walking from the real world into a fictional one. Look around. What do you see? hear? feel? smell?
May you have an inspiring week and an exceptionally inspiring year!
Keep on Writing!
 Cubby ")
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~FEEDBACK~
Shard 
I decided to try out the prompt and send it in :). A six-paned, cold, glass window. A few stains hide it's other wise perfect clarity. Through it the woods are covered in perfect darkness. I sit in front of a small, wooden desk. There are scrapes from use and the black paint peels off in some spots but it still holds the weight of the worlds I strive to create. Finally, I look to the door of my house. From the inside it's white and has one small semi-circular window in the top and in the center of it is a small fleur-de-lis. The door is freezing cold to the touch from it's never ending battle against the harsh elements.
~ Oh, I like that! I especially like how your desk holds the weight of the worlds you strive to create!
~MorningStorm~
Thank you, Cubby, for this newsletter! I find that my backgrounds can be a bit flat, so I am going to take your advice to heart and check out those links!
~ Super!
LJPC - the tortoise
Cubby, I know that may sound like I'm being the devil's advocate, but can't one over-describe, too? Sometimes descriptions slow down the plot, take the focus off actions or character development, and can become pedantic/indulgent -- it takes as much talent to restrain yourself from putting in descriptions as to 'breathe life' into something. (Both talents I have yet to master.) -- Laura
~ I whole heartedly agree! Too much description takes away a reader's focus action and devopment, as you say. To breathe life into a story includes not only physical elements, but all else, too. It probably sounds harder than it is, but what I mean is, descriptive words don't go very far if they aren't alive. Action, emotion, quirks, and so on, should be shown in a way that we experience the moment, not get bored to tears with the 'telling' of how something looks. I hope that helps! Your feedback is well-taken! Thank you...
Choppa Diablo
I havent put the book im writing for real on here. im just practicing to see if yall like it. I dootn wnat my work to be stolen or anything
~ Practice usually means the more you do it, the better you get! Go for it! Write on!
StephBee 
Great quotes on writing. I loved the F Scott Fitzgerald one the best.
~ I especially liked that one, too!
kurakira
maybe its a bit late but I've just uploaded an essay describing how we use words in many languages and how we get it right by changing the structure of the words sometimes and how sometimes we get it very right. Could be relevant to some readers. Thanks for putting up a news letter about something that doesn't bore me to tears. Jace
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Scyth
very interesting newsletter. i sometimes 4get to bring life to those type of things!
~ Glad you like it!
Fyn 
Great newsletter!!! Oh, and i simply couldn't resist!
Rain-forest-green skin clashes vividly with the florescent orange four-toed feet. The frog, hanging by a toe on my monitor, watches with red eyes that bore into me-a menacing grin daring me to write else he propel himself off the edge and into my nightmares.
~ Yikes! Now that breathes life, lol! 
Allen Riley
Cubby... you are quite a light... an inspiration of what is Life and the boundless frolic of peeping-glimpses that are as warming sunlight upon the face of innocence...
~ Nicely said! Thanks so much.
 Thank you all for the wonderful feedback!
As always...
Have a wonderful week!
AND KEEP ON WRITING!!!
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