On Writing in General

On some of the message boards I've been frequenting, I've been talking about my opinions on writing. This should show the type of writer I am working towards being. As they also form some of the basis for how I judge certain entertainments, I figured it could double as a start for the previously promised standards of review.

Every writer, no matter the field, promises to divert, to inform, or to provide some combination of the two. Failure to deliver on this promise leads to an unsatisfactory reading experience. Whether or not a story, poem, or essay fails is not always up to the writer. No matter how well a piece is written, there will be some people left cold by what they've read. Worse, there will be people who'll be infuriated.

The only thing a writer can do is write the best, truest way possible. Which means make sure facts are straight, dates are right, and the last sentence written really says what it's supposed to say. Clarity is a virtue, not a sin.

The fiction writer has additional concerns. The characters should behave in a believable way. For instance, the kindly family dog shouldn't turn into a killer for no reason; there has to be a cause for the effect. The dog has gone rabid, or has been mistreat. Something like that.

On this, the story should continue on it way in an equally believable fashion. Cheats such as a deus ex machina (the gods rescuing the good guys) or a diabolus ex machina (the other team rescuing the bad guys) should be avoided like a hungry tiger searching for a little breakfast. When the story ends, whether with the protagonist in triumph or failure, the reader should be able to look back at what was read and say, "I believe that could happen."

Now, I don't believe that any of this is engraved in stone. One can be long winded and not bore and audience; one can lower the gods from on high for a last ditch rescue and not alienate the audience. It's just risky to do so. One would have to really know their stuff to get away with it, or be lucky enough to catch the reader in a good mood.

The next couple of days, I think I'm going to go into the subject of writing a little bit more. In and amidst that, I'm going to say what I think makes a good ending and a bad ending, my opinion on the nature of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and just why I call myself a Writer of the Fantastic. There is also a chance of Short Story and more bad poetry, with even more tweeking of the site and adding of pictures of dubious artistic worth.

Hopefully with a loose schedule of things to do, I'll cut back on the frothy posts and seem a little more like a man of 30+ and less like a teenager new at the whole writing gig. Not that that's a bad thing.

Entirely.