I haven’t put much thought into this- I’ll be honest- this is me shooting from the hip. I recently finished an excellent adventure story by John C. Wright titled The Terrors of Pangaea, and let me tell you it was gripping. Thanks Greg for that awesome birthday gift. It wasn’t your typical adventure tale, it was very much a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy meets Star Wars (the original series, not this crap that Disney is peddling now- yes, I know, it’s clear where I sit on that issue).
If you haven’t discovered John C. Wright you should go check out his website, he has a very stellar post on the subjectivity and objectivity and the responsibility we as individuals have to own our opinions as just that and to correct our errors, i.e. what we hold as truth subjectively which is not truth if it’s subjective. I like to think however, that it’s still truth even if it’s subjective if it’s also objective, but that’s a conversation that requires a nice bowl of tobacco and a very large glass of beer.
Besides, I’m digressing from the conversation here. He wrote an incredibly good sci-fi novel with Terrors. I’m eager to get the other two books to see how he wrapped up the tale, which I won’t spoil. The character reveal (I hesitate to use development since the protagonist is a full grown man), is exceedingly well done as is the reveal of the mysteries of this world that we find our hero in. There’s a natural subtlety to the story. It’s at sometimes predictable and at other surprising, and yet the story is always refreshing.
As I was reading the book I was thinking about the first time I read the Lord of the Rings, or the first time I read The Lord of the Flies for that matter. It was fascinating. Writing a good story has that real world fascination. Are some things fantastical and unrealistic? Sure, but the characters and circumstances are at least relatable to some degree. Can magic rings make you disappear? No, but trinkets can hold an overwhelming control over our lives and our lives can turn into a worship of material things. It’s hard to define what writing a good story is, but we all know it when we see it and read it.
While writing a good story is difficult and seems to be the Golden Fleece of all authors, reading a good story is something entirely different and achievable that we should all strive for.
I like to read aloud at times to provide the auditory stimulus necessary to express certain parts of a story, or even just to remember parts of a story. People tell me that I am a fast reader, and it’s true, but I don’t consider that a virtue, personally. It’s only an acceptable thing if you can remember and sometimes decipher the meaning of the story and its key parts. It’s like knowing the power of King Caspian’s sword. It wasn’t just the sword, but the fact that it was the king’s sword that made it so important in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
When an author paints a picture he is giving you an insight into his mind’s eye, but that’s not the gift. The gift is the power to be able to construct the author’s world with your own imagination. I hardly pictured Sean Bean when I first read Tolkien’s description of Boromir, nor did I picture Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, or Cate Blanchett in their respective roles. Oddly enough, my image of Samwise was not far off, but I had watched a fair number of Sean Astin films growing up.
While an author does need to paint a good picture for you with his or her words, anyone can take the slightest bit of information and draw an incredible picture with their mind. Reading a good story, thinking about the different elements of a story, and developing your reading mind is not a difficult thing to do, but it does take conscious effort. I need to slow myself down to not read as fast so I remember details, my imagination is just fine. For other people, maybe they have other things on their mind- take a few deep breaths before you start a story.
As an budding author, I’m beginning to understand how important it is to provide my readers with a good story. Think about your responsibility to yourself as a reader. This isn’t adding pressure, if anything I’m attempting to encourage you to clear your mind, slow your thinking, refocus you distracted thoughts and find a good book to read and to stimulate your imagination. When I was in my MS program a few years ago I had to read because it was relaxing and stress relieving. It can and should be that for all of us.
This poor attempt at encouragement is my way of saying, you owe it to yourself, to your stress, to your mind, and your heart to slow down, read more and let that imagination run wild in a good book. Trust me, you’ll thank yourself.
Excellent! 🙂