Life in progress

Tag Archives: opinions wanted


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Readers and Writers: Opinions Wanted

I had an idea: I doubt it’s a unique idea, which is why I one of my questions to you, dear readers and writers of fiction, is whether or not you’ve ever seen this done before.

Imagine being able to have a conversation with Anne Rice’s Lestat, Stephenie Meyer’s Edward Cullen, Stephen King’s Annie Wilkes, or J.R.R. Tolkien’s Galadriel. Would you want to? If an author gave voice to one of his or her characters in an interactive medium, would it be just plain weird for that character to be removed from the world the author created for them? Or would it be a thrill-ride to be able to ask all the questions you have about their lives before they showed up in the story you love? Would you enjoy flirting with your favourite fictional character? Would you like to get more insight on a villain’s inner thoughts?

I’ve seen blog posts where authors interview their characters, but to let them out in public–to relinquish control over what they might have to reveal–is a different scenario.

So I ask you, apart from the question have you seen it done before, would you want it? Or is it better to let them stay put in their story?


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Am I wrong?

When I write short fiction, I like people to have to think about what they’ve read. I tend not to over-explain things – I think of short fiction the way I think of a joke. If you have to explain it, it loses something.

My father had a very dry sense of humour. Think John Cleese, and you’ll have an idea of what my dad was like. For years I didn’t “get” his jokes – say from the ages of 0 to 4. After that I learned to think about what I was being told, and to this day I prefer dry humour over any other kind. So my fiction – at least anything shorter than a novel – leans that way, especially the funny fiction. It’s different with longer works. I know when I don’t understand a novel I usually end up putting it down because it only gets worse.

But I often wonder if I’m being too obscure. Take the little story I wrote yesterday. It makes sense if you can figure out what I’ve done with it… but I have no idea if anyone who read it, did.  If you’d like to humour me and give it a read, it’s only about 100 words long. Here it is: http://lindaghillfiction.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/fishin-pole-blues/

Otherwise, I’d like to hear from you. What do you prefer? Do you like to think about what you read in fiction? Or do you prefer to have it all laid out?

 


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Z is for … Zed

I was going to write about sleep today, but since seeing two other people I follow with “Zzz” for today’s title, I decided to change my mind. I hate being unoriginal. So, zed it is.

But what does it mean?

For any of my American friends who might not know, “zed” is how we Canadians, and those in the U.K. and I believe Australia and New Zealand too (please correct me if I’m wrong), pronounce the last letter of the alphabet.  Here we don’t go as far as to call a zebra and zedbra, but I have an aunt in England who does. We do call a spiffed-up Camero a Zed-28 however.

What does this have to do with writing?

It’s all tied in with spelling, and the way we do things differently. “Colour” and “color” are pronounced the same, but I have a hard time keeping the “u” out of my words. You may have noticed this about me. But what is the preference when writing a novel I know I’d like to sell south of the border? I believe most Canadian authors resort to the U.S. spellings. Still, I wonder how much it throws my American friends off to see all our added letters in words?

I’d love to hear from you.

 

For the final chapter in the saga of Jupiter and Xavier – and Zach and Erin – click here: http://lindaghillfiction.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/z-is-for-zach-and-aarin-the-topless-pirate/

Hope you enjoyed it. 🙂