I think what I'm getting at with my comment about AUTHORS is that I'm not interested in reading the self-aggrandizing stuff. I have no good examples, when what I need right now are examples! Some stuff is sort of, "I did this because I am so very cool," and that just kind of irritates me as a writer - I get nothing out of it but disdain for the story I thought I loved.
Does that make sense? I guess that's what I'm trying to say about process. You can't describe it, and with some people, they don't even *consciously* know why what they do works. But when you watch them, or help them, or hear about it afterwards, you're that much closer to knowing where they were when they came up with what they did, and how they knew what to include.
Here's a great example of something that was like DVD commentary that really WORKED for me. femmenerd. When she did that fic-mix-fic. Seeing the PROCESS and the raw bits and how she wanted it to come together and why she felt how she did about the characters and what would make sense and the input she was asking for. THAT. That, was an amazing experience. Perhaps you will agree, being in on it and being much adored by The Femme.
That's the key for me, in what you're saying, that experience. I loved it.
I learned a lot about her, about her writing process, about my reading and writing and those particular characters. Could that whole thing be duplicated? Yes, I think it could. But could a comm capture the passion that Femme had at that exact moment? More difficult, certainly, but not any less an admirable goal.
Back to the other topic - I often don't want to know EXACTLY why someone put something into a sentence, or fic. I think I don't want everyone to know that sometimes I just had a flash of a hot sunny day and that's why that character had the same memory. It's so arbitrary, and as such, personal.
If it turned out well, then it's better that the reader thinks I'm brilliant and clever and never knows that I'm just a person sitting here with issues and trying to amuse myself with stories.
So I don't *ache* as you put it to know all. Unless we're talking about RL authors, in which case I do *ache* to know how Graham Greene decided the protagonist in "Heart of the Matter" came to his disbelief and ultimate suicide and whether he ever, at any point in the story, had a chance at salvation.
In this way, I think there are authors who really could hold my attention for hours in a discussion of their process, again -- I may not have the right perspective on DVD commentary, not having read the right authors.
no subject
I think what I'm getting at with my comment about AUTHORS is that I'm not interested in reading the self-aggrandizing stuff. I have no good examples, when what I need right now are examples! Some stuff is sort of, "I did this because I am so very cool," and that just kind of irritates me as a writer - I get nothing out of it but disdain for the story I thought I loved.
Does that make sense? I guess that's what I'm trying to say about process. You can't describe it, and with some people, they don't even *consciously* know why what they do works. But when you watch them, or help them, or hear about it afterwards, you're that much closer to knowing where they were when they came up with what they did, and how they knew what to include.
Here's a great example of something that was like DVD commentary that really WORKED for me.
That's the key for me, in what you're saying, that experience. I loved it.
I learned a lot about her, about her writing process, about my reading and writing and those particular characters. Could that whole thing be duplicated? Yes, I think it could. But could a comm capture the passion that Femme had at that exact moment? More difficult, certainly, but not any less an admirable goal.
Back to the other topic - I often don't want to know EXACTLY why someone put something into a sentence, or fic. I think I don't want everyone to know that sometimes I just had a flash of a hot sunny day and that's why that character had the same memory. It's so arbitrary, and as such, personal.
If it turned out well, then it's better that the reader thinks I'm brilliant and clever and never knows that I'm just a person sitting here with issues and trying to amuse myself with stories.
So I don't *ache* as you put it to know all. Unless we're talking about RL authors, in which case I do *ache* to know how Graham Greene decided the protagonist in "Heart of the Matter" came to his disbelief and ultimate suicide and whether he ever, at any point in the story, had a chance at salvation.
In this way, I think there are authors who really could hold my attention for hours in a discussion of their process, again -- I may not have the right perspective on DVD commentary, not having read the right authors.
Ah, fluffy pillows, you are so elusive.