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Message |
    
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1840
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 09, 2006 - 09:45 pm: |   |
We have all, at various times, experienced rejection. But what could be worse than to become a highly paid big name writer only to have the critics and the public turn on you for seemingly no reason at all? That's exactly what happened to Herman Melville. His latter novels didn't sell well (including Moby Dick) and he had to rely upon his wife for support. His response was to dig in and write.
Herman Melville is a writer's writer. He's got it all - style, depth (perhaps a bit too much as far as the public was concerned), and scope. We could all take lessons from him. Here, for your perusal and enjoyment is one of my favorite novellas, Benito Cereno, now published by DUNGAN BOOKS online at http://www.fdungan.com/benito.htm.
http://www.dunganbooks.com |
Claudia Turner VanLydegraf
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2805
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 09, 2006 - 11:25 pm: | |
I have always loved Melville's works...... like you so aptly stated he has a depth and quality to his writings that still remains today, so many years after the works were published. He will always be one of my favorites.
Claudia
MINDSIGHT MODERATOR
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Jackie Grant Miller
Awareness Member
Post Number:
34
Registered: 04-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 06:24 am: | |
Thanks for that link Fred! That was a good read but...
To me, it seemed to be a action/adventure story that got bogged down with to much detail and thus dragged the story out. Some readers like that...some don't. His detailed style of writing is one of the types to aspire one's own writing skills after but still for this story, good description bulked into to much detail. I'll have to read it again since my book was given the same outlook about the history of Martial Arts but I feel I have balanced off the detailed info with Action!
I guess I am bias as I feel that action/adventure stories need just that! More ACTION/ADVENTURE words of narration and dialog so that the detailed and sometimes boring part of the descriptive narration(s) are more accepted and desired by the reader ( I feel ).
As a newly published writer and avid reader, I like books like Mr Melville's but I am looking to take a chance on giving this genre a not-so-different different shot in the arm but still; a needed one!
Peace & Good Writing
www.KeeperoftheArts.com
Jackie Grant Miller
ISBN 141207782-2
Trafford Publishing |
Pacwriter
Unity Member
Post Number:
2482
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 07:53 am: | |
I was astounded when an editor compared one of my books to Melville's Moby Dick. "The action was akin to Melville's Moby Dick."
Not much but I thought very high praise.
If you have read Douglas Reeman(pen name Alexander kent) you see the same pattern of over-writing with details. Action/adventure, in my opinion, needs to move at breakneck pace and not be slowed by excessive detail.
CS Forester (Hownblower) paces the action quite well and lends detail in abundance away from action sequences. His character development is excellent so when the action starts it is easy to visualize what is taking place without slowing details.
http://www.perrycomer.com
http://www.blogger.com/publish.g?blogID=20779252&inprogress=true
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Jackie Grant Miller
Awareness Member
Post Number:
36
Registered: 04-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 12:02 pm: | |
I'll take a look at those authors & books Pacwriter except for "Hornblower" (read). Your opinion is the same outlook I am taking with my Martial Arts Fiction Books/Writing.
Action - Suspense - Drama - Adventure - and taking the narration to explain the various movements, techniques, beliefs...as a moment to breath before getting back to the action.
When I've had my fill of action/adventure ( I don't think that will happen), maybe I'll do a romance novel. By that time, I'll have a shyt load of book published!
PEACE!
www.KeeperoftheArts.com
Jackie Grant Miller
ISBN 141207782-2
Trafford Publishing |
Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number:
1842
Registered: 10-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 12:05 am: | |
Accustomed to instant gratification supplied in abundance by action-packed television, we so very rarely pause to savor the flavor of a well-written book. I suppose the Bronte sisters are much too slow for modern readers. What's so special about the English lake country, anyway? Who needs all those details? Why have romance and foreplay? Why not just get down and do it in the dirt?
http://www.fdungan.com/heights.htm |
Jackie Grant Miller
Awareness Member
Post Number:
37
Registered: 04-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 07:58 am: | |
Thank goodness Fred...there are enough readers to go around. If romance is your genre then by all means, give up all the details. Since I am into action and adventure fiction then that is what I will deliver to the reader. That type of read still requires a certain degree of description that won't always need a lake and trees with butterflies, flying in what ever direction, to be describe.
Besides, these threads have just turned into a action/adventure discussion.
lolol
Peace & Good Writing
www.KeeperoftheArts.com
Jackie Grant Miller
ISBN 141207782-2
Trafford Publishing |
Pacwriter
Unity Member
Post Number:
2483
Registered: 04-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 08:17 am: | |
People read for different reasons. A well developed with with intricate sub-plots and visual imagery is for the purpose of taking the reader into another, time, place and world. It is where the reader wants to go.
Personally, I like sea novels - not just for the action and adventure but to go to that place, that time with those people.
Readers want to be involved. They want to care about the characters. And, they want to think.
sure, I agree jackie - let's run down some alley in San Francisco, sweating profusly as blowgun darts whisk past our ears and overhead an ugly man wearing a yellow suit with pink tie drops posion water-balloons from an ultralight. Kick ass time
What I learned from reading thousands of Westerns (good and bad) was that if you don't care what happens about the main character, you won't finish the book no matter how much action takes place.
Anybody read THE EXECUTIONER (mack Bolan)?? It got boring about about number 27. I lost interest in the character and the action seemed to repeat.
http://www.perrycomer.com
http://www.blogger.com/publish.g?blogID=20779252&inprogress=true
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Stephen Lodge
Wandering Member
Post Number:
184
Registered: 06-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 09:39 am: | |
"if you don't care what happens about the main character, you won't finish the book no matter how much action takes place."
No truer words have ever been spoken. I just put down a book for that very reason.
Novels by Stephen Lodge:
"Shadows of Eagles"
"Charley Sunday's Texas Outfit!"
"Nickel-Plated Dream"
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Dennis Collins
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
2004
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 10:36 am: | |
I once read a book all the way to the final chapter before setting it aside in my own silent protest. There were four main chatracters and I just couldn't put a face on any one of them.
I originally picked up the book because I had read the author in the past and considered (still do) his other book to be possibly the best book I've ever read.
It was Mario Puzo.
Dennis Collins
Moderator
www.theunrealmccoy.com |
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