Inside the Sausage Factory · 4:21am Feb 4th, 2015
Unless you count the 30,000 words of unfinished novel which has resided on various hard drives for the last 15 years I do not write stories. I used to when I was much younger and they were all bollocks. I daren't read them now. The reason I do not write any more is because like anything else writing requires learning and practice to do it well. In short, it is hard work. I suppose it can be enjoyable hard work, but I won't know that now will I? I do work at things, practice them, learn them but writing is not among them. There are just so many hours in a day. And too many wonderful works by others that I wish to read. And read aloud. Oh how I love to feel the honeyed words drip from my lips. And that is the impetus for this particular post.
I do not know how it is that the wonderful writers here ply their craft, the dark particulars of it. (I am not a writer, you see). I am not certain I wish to know. I am sure there are aspects of it such as "oh I wrote that part with my pants down because I had a pustular sore on my groin" which I certainly have no wish for the knowledge thereof, but I also don't want to know about things like how some particular favorite part of a story which I like had several incarnations and numerous revisions before it reached the point where it was inserted into my head. Authors you may keep that to yourselves.
Ahh, but I shall play dirty and fail to reciprocate for I shall reveal MY nasty little secret: When it comes to recording a story I really do not care how good the story is...necessarily. There is a loophole but we shall come to that. In most of the stories you hear me read I am recording with no idea how the story ends, because the bulk of it is being recorded as I read it for the first time. Poetry is an exception because it must be read aloud several times to get the sense of its timing before you should even consider turning on the recorder, but most stories? Nah. There are a few I have never even finished recording because they ended so badly or took a turn halfway through to a place I did not wish to follow. There are exceptions to any rule, but most of the stories I choose to record are chosen because the words sound sweet to me when read aloud. I can usually tell without actually speaking them, but that is usually the first thing I will do when a story grabs my attention. If the sentences are constructed beautifully with smooth flowing words that evoke images easily without distraction (good grammar goes without saying and no run-on sentences), if the descriptions are full and rich, then that catches my eye (or my tongue).
If a story is written well enough, the words fairly fall from the mouth fully grown and potentiated, in all of their power. You do not have to try hard, or practice the lines to make them sound right. This type of story fairly reads itself; it is natural, rich and innervating. It comes alive as you read it. Often if there is a technical glitch and I have to re-record a part, I will find I do not like it as well as the first reading, it being so fresh, the sui generis of the story's manifestation. These stories can be rare at times so if I find one I usually hope for a rich body and a satisfying denouement. And more often than not that is the case! What is that you say? You are surprised? Remember that loophole I mentioned? There are no hard and fast rules but the things I look for are usually the hallmark of a good writer who knows how to craft an engaging tale. So I am rarely disappointed by my choices.
There are other things for which I might break the rules, deviate a bit from my criteria. I record things occasionally as favors I owe or as part of a group project. I like voicing dragons which was what led me to record "How to Train Your Pegasus." Turns out it was a nice little story to boot. "Past Sins" I recorded because it was my introduction not only to Ponyfic, it was the first piece of fanfiction I ever read, which gave it a special place in my heart. Happens I like the story anyway. But a lot of the stories I enjoy reading for pleasure I would never record. I am a sucker for a good HIE but most of them are not so pretty as to be read aloud. Comedy takes a lot of skill to pull off a good read; I am still looking for one that suits my fancy to record. I will look a bit longer. Other than that I like technical things, popularized science, news, histories. Not gonna turn that into sound.
So there, you've a peek behind my curtain. Keep yours closed pleased.
Yikes, that block of text. First rule of writing: make sure you separate things into paragraphs. It can be by topic, idea, or personal fancy. It's arbitrary, but it is also necessary. The whole TL;DR thing is associated with the good ol' block of text. Anyway, the one thing about writing that makes it truly difficult is that it's a long process. It takes time, and you have to be willing to give it that time. As you said, you don't get to see the now, the possibilities. But this also creates a unique problem that poetry doesn't have: it has to be long but profound. You have to learn how to make something profound in a bit of words. Sure, poetry can be long, but poetry has so much more involed with it that makes it a whole new entity, such as meter, diction, punctuation, and more. Punctuation is very important in many cases because it affects the meter.
I would still consider poetry harder based in my bias view of poetry. It is the ability of squeezing and compressing ideas into a small space that makes things hard. That's why I admire poets and their abilities.
2768552
Thank you for the advice. I think I will try to re-parse the missive so that it reads better. See you on the other side...
2768552
As I intimated earlier I am no writer but am willing to learn things which improve communication. Let me know if you think this reads better, or if you see another way I should organize it.
Also I suppose one always admires things that SEEM to come easily to others, regardless of how they may have toiled to achieve them. But then I believe there are natural abilities, and perhaps more importantly, natural inclinations. One needs to want. Oh what we can achieve, given desire and a lack of stupidity.
Poetry is an odd thing for me. There are days when I could not write a stanza, and others when it is difficult not to. Is that true of writing stories as well?
2768552
Oh that was actually fun, rather an adventure! I think I will go and see if I can find paragraphs in my other posts....
2768591
2768615
2768622
The paragraphs are looking good. It makes things easier on the eyes and a little less intimidating.
2768552
Okay I have restructured all of my posts now and you are absolutely right. Even I can make better sense of them now. I sincerely thank you. And you know, it is odd, that is something I have always done in my letters to colleagues and friends but the though did not occur to me to do it here. Perhaps one of the things I like about poetry is that it forces structure, imposes it upon the work (as you say, at times to the tune of fancy).
I shall leave you alone on this subject now. I have probably posted far more in response that etiquette allows. Thank you again. -Illya
Hooray for paragraphs! :D
I'll just say that my usual method of writing involves a lot of staring into space, wishing I were doing anything else. :B I won't say it's a good method but I get things done somehow.
OMG ILLYA LEONOV IS BLOGGING
ALERT THE INTERNET
Illya Leonov: forever the poet.
Really though, this is eye-opening. To start producing a story before you even know how it ends seems unthinkable to me, but one can hardly argue with the results.
Also, I can't help but hear your voice in my head as I read these.
2773411
I have hold my hands up and admit that, like Illya, I often start recording stories based on premise and the version I release is a reformatted and edited cold reading (minus the bloopers and cursing when I make mistakes). It's a major reason I only produce readings of one-shots. I, too, have stopped recording midway through when a story takes a turn I can't gel with (crouching futa, hidden clop). That's one of the reasons summaries are so important: if your summary is misspelled, uninteresting or mysteriously vague to the point of total impenetrability, I'll backspace away.
2781816 Well this has certainly been eye-opening. I may have to try it that way.