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This week I finished:
Nothing! Everything I'm reading at the moment is quite lengthy. ;o)
This week I started:
Shatter (The Children of Man) ~ Elizabeth C. Mock
This was a free download on the Amazon website, so I thought I would give it a try. It's an epic fantasy with magic, mystery and lots of characters and places with funny names. And when I say lots, I mean lots. I'm up to chapter 9 and there are three separate sub-stories going on (though two have converged now, which helps) and frequent references to the various belief systems, gods and mystical forces that exist in their world. I don't want to criticise, as the characters and storyline are good - but it feels like I've had everything thrown at me at once but without any explanation. If I'm honest, I felt so overwhelmed that I nearly gave up on it, which is rare as I hate to leave a book unfinished.
I've pushed on and it has improved, but I still don't have any feel for how things 'work' there, if you know what I mean. What are the rules of that world? There was a series of articles in Writing Magazine about constructing a fantasy universe and one of the pieces of advice was that the 'rules' have to be set down clearly so the reader knows what is considered 'normal' and can get their footing, as it were. If elephants can fly there, then show that this is the norm so that the reader doesn't wonder why none of the characters have noticed when a herd flies by. If there's a complex religious belief system then you need to explain it to us early on so that we don't feel a bit stupid for not understanding it (like I did, and to a certain extent - still do at chapter 9!).
I am intrigued to know what happens to the characters - even if I don't really understand yet what it is that's threatening them - so I'll carry on to the end. Hopefully I'll pick up what's going on along the way!
I'm still reading:
* Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett
* The Children's Book ~ A.S. Byatt (still up to ch 22)
Have a great week!
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I read those 'building your world' articles by Stuart Palmer, too and it's interesting, isn't it, that now we're aware of these things, we can see 'faults' in other writing. (I hate to use the word faults about other people's writing, because I know how hard they must have worked.) But also, i think, it's a lesson about being too close to your own writing sometimes. You think you've made something clear. It's in your head what you meant to say and so you think you've done it well, but someone new to the writing, to the world you've created, hasn't got all that knowledge in their head and so it can be confusing and sometimes unclear what is meant.
ReplyDeleteI think I've said that right! LOL.
Hi Nicolette
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly it! I'm certain that everything is completely mapped out in the author's head, but I wonder whether she might have forgotten that the rest of us weren't privy to all the planning and decision-making that got her to that stage...
It's definitely something to bear in mind - the fine line between giving enough detail to make something clear, but not dumping too much information on the reader. Show, don't tell, as they always say!
Thanks for reading :o)