Thank you for highlighting the often pages long acknowledgements that CONSISTENTLY prove writing is not and never has been a solitary endeavor.
Re: The emotional journey. It's weird that this sound so radical when applied to genre in books when it's SO obvious when it comes to visual media. I don't watch Ted Lasso or Sort Of because "I like sitcoms" (I definitely don't like sitcoms) but because they are guaranteed to be heartwarming and leave me feeling good. I avoid watching horror because I don't need more anxiety than my brain already gives me. But I *can* watch very cheesy, bad horror because it's goofy and that makes me laugh and feel good. I generally hate romcoms because they're almost always a reflection of the worst things about straight culture, but you give me an indie lesbian romcom and I am entranced by the familiarity.
So yeah. The emotional journey is core to why I like to watch the things I watch and obviously is also core to why I like to read the things I read. And when a book I'm reading isn't working for me, it's often because the emotional journey isn't vibing or is taking me to emotions I don't want to be feeling when reading is something I do for pleasure.
It's so...instinctual, right? When I first heard about the genre-as-emotional journeys theory my first thought was that thing I do when I want to feel my own emotions more strongly so I go watch a movie. Like if I have a sad and I want to move through it, I watch a movie that I know will make me cry (why does The Last Unicorn always make me cry....). Which, as you pointed out, makes it all the weirder when we don't center that as writers.
It *does* seem weird until one considers how often writing advice is coming from cis men who have been trained from a very early age to squash any emotion that isn't anger. Then it makes a LOT OF SENSE.
Oooof, that is a really good point. It's a really good point especially because a lot of the advice is from 30-50 years ago, well before society at large was starting to question that training. It's a really good point because a lot of the craft books I have read are written by Americans, and we are culturally shit at dealing with or even recognizing emotions at all. In that light, you are so right. It makes a lot of sense.
"Comparatively, as I write this essay, I know you are there."
🙏😍
I am. We are.
Lovely and thought provoking (as always). For me, good fiction writing and storytelling is all about the feels and emotion. I want to go on a journey, yes, but I want to be moved, to feel something, to fall for the characters, to be there *with* them and hurt with them and be in awe as they are in awe.
Thank you! And yes, there is another important dimension of the feels we want as readers--to fall in love with the characters. I wonder if loving the characters comes as part-and-parcel of loving the emotional journey, or if those feelings can be separated? 🤔 Either way, yes, I can't believe I didn't really "get" the emotional angle as part of a storyteller's role when it seems so obvious as a reader! And I'm hoping that the other technical parts of writing become easier if I can get this fundamental bit right.
A good question. Hmm. I think it can come directly from the character and simply how they speak/think/act (and how their voice is portrayed in the prose), though seeing and being with them through their journey must have a big impact in the emotional attachment.
It's interesting, until I met my wife I never thought about any aspects of breaking down scripts/dialogue/cinematography/exposition etc in film, but she's an actor and has studied a lot of that and it massively changed view and interpretation of film and, ultimately, my appreciation of film. I think it was only once I started to think about writing that I began to analyse writing and style/voice/character etc that much more in books. I don't think I'm any good at vocalising those thoughts haha, but it's impossible for me to read books now without that layer of critique and appreciation.
No, I think what you are saying makes sense. I recently read a blog post that encouraged authors to take acting classes to practice getting into the headspace of a character better. I'm starting to realize there is a lot more we can learn about writing beyond the "basics." Lucky you to have a partner in crime for story analysis! 😊
Thanks for reading! 😄 Acknowledging that makes me feel better!! Jeff VanderMeer's Wonderbook has come up in a few writerly conversations that I've had lately--it's brilliant because it lays out a ton of different ideas about how to think about story, but it's also overwhelming and confounding because it lays out a ton of different ideas about how to think about story. On one hand I am convinced there has to be a way to see clearly to the simple heart of story craft, but on the other, the more I look at it the more it seems like a story is really a magic spell concocted by lifting pieces from a dozen different hedge witch cantrips and just hoping you won't accidentally blow your arm off when you cast it.
Thank you for sharing! 💖 It's been almost 20 years since I read King's On Writing, and I remember enjoying reading it but not finding it helpful. But I don't remember the bit about the Ideal Reader, so maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to receive it back then! I'll have to remember that. And I love Ursula's fiction, this is the first time I'm trying her craft books. I'm doing more writing exercises, which is why I went for Steering the Craft, but I'll put Conversations on my list for sure!
Re: it feels like it was simple for the writer: I have been wondering lately if knowing too much theory unwinds one's writing intuition just enough to get in the way until we can decontextualize all the knowledge as background process instead of foreground mania. Sort of how learning a skill feels like the long hard way around if you already knew it instinctually first....
Re: On Writing: Right?? To refer to what I was just saying, I feel like King happily writes instinctually and doesn't find much point in waxing intellectual about it, so his book felt nice and generally supportive but not groundbreakingly helpful. But at least you got a Thing out of it, which I will happily steal. 😊
Yes!!! N.K. Jemisin's Masterclass was the entire reason I splurged on Masterclass at all, and it was pretty great. Her world building process is nicely comprehensive while keeping one from going way too overboard. (Roxane Gay's Masterclass was also amazing!)
I'm starting very slowly to have an inkling that there might not be enough theory about ALL the aspects of writing, and WAY too much theory about a small subset of the aspects of writing. And then I'm also realizing that we writers are getting taught the tools of story analysis, and those tools might not be the best tools for story creation.
But of course, you are also right that no one path is right for all writers. I seem to be afflicted with having to know the why behind everything before I can apply theory to practice. I very much envy those who can go off and experiment on their own, and those who can follow a formula.
My week is getting better, thank you! I hope yours is lovely. 😊
Thank you for highlighting the often pages long acknowledgements that CONSISTENTLY prove writing is not and never has been a solitary endeavor.
Re: The emotional journey. It's weird that this sound so radical when applied to genre in books when it's SO obvious when it comes to visual media. I don't watch Ted Lasso or Sort Of because "I like sitcoms" (I definitely don't like sitcoms) but because they are guaranteed to be heartwarming and leave me feeling good. I avoid watching horror because I don't need more anxiety than my brain already gives me. But I *can* watch very cheesy, bad horror because it's goofy and that makes me laugh and feel good. I generally hate romcoms because they're almost always a reflection of the worst things about straight culture, but you give me an indie lesbian romcom and I am entranced by the familiarity.
So yeah. The emotional journey is core to why I like to watch the things I watch and obviously is also core to why I like to read the things I read. And when a book I'm reading isn't working for me, it's often because the emotional journey isn't vibing or is taking me to emotions I don't want to be feeling when reading is something I do for pleasure.
It's so...instinctual, right? When I first heard about the genre-as-emotional journeys theory my first thought was that thing I do when I want to feel my own emotions more strongly so I go watch a movie. Like if I have a sad and I want to move through it, I watch a movie that I know will make me cry (why does The Last Unicorn always make me cry....). Which, as you pointed out, makes it all the weirder when we don't center that as writers.
It *does* seem weird until one considers how often writing advice is coming from cis men who have been trained from a very early age to squash any emotion that isn't anger. Then it makes a LOT OF SENSE.
Oooof, that is a really good point. It's a really good point especially because a lot of the advice is from 30-50 years ago, well before society at large was starting to question that training. It's a really good point because a lot of the craft books I have read are written by Americans, and we are culturally shit at dealing with or even recognizing emotions at all. In that light, you are so right. It makes a lot of sense.
"Comparatively, as I write this essay, I know you are there."
🙏😍
I am. We are.
Lovely and thought provoking (as always). For me, good fiction writing and storytelling is all about the feels and emotion. I want to go on a journey, yes, but I want to be moved, to feel something, to fall for the characters, to be there *with* them and hurt with them and be in awe as they are in awe.
Thank you! And yes, there is another important dimension of the feels we want as readers--to fall in love with the characters. I wonder if loving the characters comes as part-and-parcel of loving the emotional journey, or if those feelings can be separated? 🤔 Either way, yes, I can't believe I didn't really "get" the emotional angle as part of a storyteller's role when it seems so obvious as a reader! And I'm hoping that the other technical parts of writing become easier if I can get this fundamental bit right.
A good question. Hmm. I think it can come directly from the character and simply how they speak/think/act (and how their voice is portrayed in the prose), though seeing and being with them through their journey must have a big impact in the emotional attachment.
It's interesting, until I met my wife I never thought about any aspects of breaking down scripts/dialogue/cinematography/exposition etc in film, but she's an actor and has studied a lot of that and it massively changed view and interpretation of film and, ultimately, my appreciation of film. I think it was only once I started to think about writing that I began to analyse writing and style/voice/character etc that much more in books. I don't think I'm any good at vocalising those thoughts haha, but it's impossible for me to read books now without that layer of critique and appreciation.
No, I think what you are saying makes sense. I recently read a blog post that encouraged authors to take acting classes to practice getting into the headspace of a character better. I'm starting to realize there is a lot more we can learn about writing beyond the "basics." Lucky you to have a partner in crime for story analysis! 😊
Thanks for reading! 😄 Acknowledging that makes me feel better!! Jeff VanderMeer's Wonderbook has come up in a few writerly conversations that I've had lately--it's brilliant because it lays out a ton of different ideas about how to think about story, but it's also overwhelming and confounding because it lays out a ton of different ideas about how to think about story. On one hand I am convinced there has to be a way to see clearly to the simple heart of story craft, but on the other, the more I look at it the more it seems like a story is really a magic spell concocted by lifting pieces from a dozen different hedge witch cantrips and just hoping you won't accidentally blow your arm off when you cast it.
Thank you for sharing! 💖 It's been almost 20 years since I read King's On Writing, and I remember enjoying reading it but not finding it helpful. But I don't remember the bit about the Ideal Reader, so maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to receive it back then! I'll have to remember that. And I love Ursula's fiction, this is the first time I'm trying her craft books. I'm doing more writing exercises, which is why I went for Steering the Craft, but I'll put Conversations on my list for sure!
Re: it feels like it was simple for the writer: I have been wondering lately if knowing too much theory unwinds one's writing intuition just enough to get in the way until we can decontextualize all the knowledge as background process instead of foreground mania. Sort of how learning a skill feels like the long hard way around if you already knew it instinctually first....
Re: On Writing: Right?? To refer to what I was just saying, I feel like King happily writes instinctually and doesn't find much point in waxing intellectual about it, so his book felt nice and generally supportive but not groundbreakingly helpful. But at least you got a Thing out of it, which I will happily steal. 😊
Yes!!! N.K. Jemisin's Masterclass was the entire reason I splurged on Masterclass at all, and it was pretty great. Her world building process is nicely comprehensive while keeping one from going way too overboard. (Roxane Gay's Masterclass was also amazing!)
I'm starting very slowly to have an inkling that there might not be enough theory about ALL the aspects of writing, and WAY too much theory about a small subset of the aspects of writing. And then I'm also realizing that we writers are getting taught the tools of story analysis, and those tools might not be the best tools for story creation.
But of course, you are also right that no one path is right for all writers. I seem to be afflicted with having to know the why behind everything before I can apply theory to practice. I very much envy those who can go off and experiment on their own, and those who can follow a formula.
My week is getting better, thank you! I hope yours is lovely. 😊