The title just suckers you in. This isn't about blog wars at all.
I'm so funny.
A curious thing is happening with my TiVo. It sometimes has trouble displaying a station, usually because of a bad cable feed, and I get a variation of the BSOD. This particular blue screen, however, has informative writing on it and suggest steps I should take to get a displayable picture.
Right now (and I haven't checked them all), neither of PBS stations my cable provider carries comes in. Oh, sure, the religious networks come in fine, as do the many Mexican stations, just not any PBS affiliates. In forty-five minutes I want to watch the news, too. Grrr...
On to other matters.
Just now I tested the brand spanking new MSN search engine. Earlier I noted that my own novel was coming up second or third on Google, to The Angler's blog, where he talked about it. I got a kick out of that. Now I notice that my novel is first!
Which must drive the realBig Train Show people nuts. I even beat the url with that as its name!
Lots of writing going on.
I was very wordy in my formative years, it seems. I think I was still under the sway of some mistaken idea of what constituted "artful writing." Maybe it is, but it's not for me. Someone (and I strive to be this bad with names, believe me) was pissing and moaning about how MFA writing programs are ruining literature.
I think it was Noah Lukeman.
Anyway, his point was that they've created a self-feeding, self-generating idea of what's acceptable. Their narrow view is pretty much limited to two things: realism and metaphors.
Having nothing to do with that is my own first attempts. I think, like many, my writing was formed and influenced by High School writing classes. In those we did some attempts at "descriptive" writing, and I think I learned a lot of bad habits. When I wrote my first novel I knew about academic writing, business writing, and informal writing. Now, I used to write great letters (I think), or at least passable love letters, and never had any trouble with research papers or business correspondence, but in later years I began to hate the business model. It was too inflated with, frankly, meaningless word additiives.
So I invented or falsely remembered what literature looked like. I should write, I thought, about the majestic sweep of ebony wings on crows, and so I did. Now I try to write much simpler, and am chagrined by my earlier efforts.
I'm not sure if it's better or not, but I'm trying to be readable, not impressive.
Blogging Wars
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4 comments:
I agree with Lukeman. You couldn't get me NEAR one of those programs. I think they're a joke. (and an expensive one too)
Being readable (to me) is the ultimate goal of all this. I mean who the heck wants to fork over the dough for a novel that's hard (and unpleasant) to read? I want to be swept away from the first line, unable to eat, sleep or breathe until I reluctantly turn the very last page.
I know, I know... I don't ask for much... but on the flip side, I'm willing to try and give in my own writing that which I demand in the writing of others.
It's damn hard writing a book that's easy to read. Damn hard. :-)
It's damn hard writing a book that's easy to read. Damn hard. - I call it a struggle, but yeah, "damn hard" works too :)
J-- I've read three books recently that I really admire: Barth's Coming Soon, Perec's La Disparation/A Void, and Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler. None of these books swept me away, but they are the sort of books that seek out. I also eat stinky French cheese.
Wow, Ang. I'm impresed with that reading line up. You are a much more intellectual reader than I am. I mostly read mainstream fiction and general non-fiction. I like biographies a lot. I sometimes revisit the classics of American Lit. I guess it's good, though. We should read what we aspire to write.
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