Booking Through Thursday: “It’s Personal”

from Deb (August 1, 2013)

Do you have a preference between “person” in the books you read? Do you prefer third-person to first-person? Or don’t you care?

And … why??

Interesting question. I think it depends a lot on what kind of story it is. A consistent first-person narrative means keeping a limited perspective. This can be very effective if it is done right but it requires a certain skill from the author if at the same time he/she wants to convey things to the reader that are meant not to be perceived by the fictional narrator. 

On the other hand, there is probably even more danger of careless slipping from an intended main character perspective if the author uses the third-person kind of narrative. I think what irritates me most is when there are sudden illogical side-steps from the main perspective. (Like if 95% of the story is told from the main character’s perspective and we only get a few sudden glimpses here and there from someone else’s unspoken thoughts.)

So I’d say the most important thing is that the author makes consistent and well thought-out use of whatever narrative perspective(s) chosen. Shifting perspective can be totally okay too, but it has to be done in a consistent way or it will come across as “cheating”.

And the Moral of the Story Is …

In yesterday’s post - answering the question what kind of book I would write if I could – I said that although I always loved to write, I never really felt I had a Great Story lurking, just waiting to be told.

This morning I woke up reminded of something that might contradict that statement: On several occasions lately, I’ve woken up in the morning with the feeling of having dreamt “a complete story” rather than the usual odd fragments shifting shape and focus from one part of the dream to the other.

The annoying part is that I’m never quite able to recall the details! It’s just that feeling… of the dream having had a starting point, and a proper (hm!) plot, and reaching The End before I wake up. But the memories of it dissolve when hit by daylight!

This morning I stayed in bed for a while, trying to recall the dream. But of course the notepad and pencil that should be beside my bed weren’t there, and I had to get up to get them, and before I’d found them, most of the dream was gone. All that I was able to jot down was one sentence, summing up the “moral” of the story:

“Sometimes the person who we think is placing obstacles in our way, is really the one who is trying to clear the way.”

Then I put the notepad aside and completely forgot all about it during the rest of the day - until just now when I happened to find the pad again, and saw the words I had written on it.

As for the rest, I only vaguely seem to recall a house full of people, and flowerpots being moved around and turning up where they shouldn’t be – and that the person responsible was not the one everyone suspected.

If you happen to be a Great Novelist, please feel free to steal the plot. I doubt I’ll be able to do much with it…
*LOL*

BTT: Do It Yourself

Today’s Booking Through Thursday question comes from Cathy De Los Santos, who asks:

If you could write a book, what would it be about, and why? (Though, of course, some of you already HAVE.)

I used to want to be a writer - or at least I used to think of myself as someone who wanted to be a writer, which is not necessarily the same thing. I never really had my head full of stories waiting to be written though… At least not with plots long enough to build a book around.

Back in the 1990’s I attended a few summer courses in creative writing and I enjoyed that a lot; but I still never really felt that I had The Great Story lurking, just waiting to be told.

This past year, after the death of my parents… Going through old photo albums, and notes on bit and pieces of family history, and old postcards collected and written by my grandmother’s siblings… I do sometimes wonder if there might be a story waiting among those fragments…

I think that if I could, I’d want to write a book about “ordinary people” whose story would otherwise be forgotten. To be able to make characters interesting, who would not have thought of themselves that way.

As I write that, I realize that we do have a very strong tradition of working class literature in Sweden. I read a lot of that kind of books back in my youth.

Best known abroad is probably Vilhelm Moberg’s The Emigrants series, about Swedish emigrants moving to the USA in the 19th century; also filmed by Jan Troell in the 1970's. Probably very hard to outdo!

Looking at facts rather than dreams… Forms of writing that always came easier to me have been letters, short reflections, essays, occasionally a bit of poetry. Blogging is perfect because there are no rules. A blog post can be anything (except perhaps a Great Novel). So maybe I should just stick to that…

… Or if I ever do write a book, perhaps I should try an epistolary* form!

*(= “written in the form of or carried on by letters or correspondence”) 

D for Diary (ABC-D Wednesday)

Which of the quotes above fits YOU best?
Do you, or did you ever, keep a “Dear Diary”?
(If you did: Do you still have them? Read them?)
If your diary-habits changed – do you know why?

I never kept a proper diary for any length of time; and by that I mean the “Dear Diary” kind, i.e. recording feelings as well as dates and facts. The sporadic attempts I made back in my teens, I decided later in life not to keep. (Never regretted that so far, and I assure you it was no loss to the literary world.)

Somehow, I think I always preferred to have real readers in mind, rather than just writing to myself.  So I wrote letters instead: The principle of “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. (In Sweden we go even farther and say “more than ten”.)

[By the way – did you know that this proverb refers back to mediaeval falconry where a bird in the hand (the falcon) was a valuable asset and certainly worth more than two in the bush (the prey). I had no idea until just now when I looked it up!]

Even my attempts at just keeping short notes in a pocket diary show a clear tendency to be a typical New Year’s resolution never lasting beyond the month of March or so. Such diaries I have for a number of years back. But whichever one I pick up, I see the same tendency: I seem to be very busy every January and then gradually my life gets emptier and emptier until next New Year! (This, of course, is a poor mirror of Reality. All it really reflects is my diary-keeping habits.)

Considering this, I have to say I’m rather surprised at myself that blogging turned out a very different experience and that I’ve been keeping this up for over three years.

I think there are three main reasons. The first is that it did not take too long until I made contact with other bloggers; and as soon as I did that, blogging became more of a social activity than like keeping a diary. (By now I know that there are more than two birds out there in the bush.)

The second is that blogging is not really like keeping a diary at all. It can be, but it does not have to. If I don’t feel like writing about personal stuff, I can write about something completely different. Or quote someone else ...

… Or just post a picture! The third thing is that my blogging came to involve and evolve my photography as well as writing. And this too as an extrovert rather than just an introvert experience.

So thank YOU whoever you may be who took time to read this! 

ABC Wednesday – D

A Good Story Deserves Good Writing (BTT)

Time for another bookish question from Deb at Booking Through Thursday :

What’s more important: Good writing? Or a good story?
(Of course, a book should have BOTH, but…)

Yes, too right a book should have BOTH! As all regular readers of this blog know, I’m not a fan of choices like this… It’s almost like having to choose between flour or fluid when baking!

I think I’d have to say good writing, though. Good writing can lift a feeble story; and a good story can be ruined by bad writing.

…

PS. Here’s a link to my recent review of a book that had BOTH:
Kate Morton – The Forgotten Garden

For Scriptor Senex

Scriptor Senex’s ramble today reminded me of this rather astonishing experiment, which I managed to re-find with a little help from our friend Google:

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Some of the emails circulating this information say that only 55 out of 100 can read it but I’m not sure if that figure originates from the same research. My guess is that most experienced readers won’t have too much trouble with it.

Anyway, it might be a comfort to know on such days when our fingers don’t quite seem to obey our intentions.