Lately, I’ve been trying to identify where my writing really differs from the stuff that’s great, great writing. There are a hell of a lot of places, but I’ve fixated for a while now on this concept of richness.
The stories that *really* blow me away exude information and confidence. They are full of a richness of detail that is boggling. Telling details show up in nearly every sentence. The entire story works to convince you of this place, these characters, these events.
A great example of a story with amazing richness was David Moles’ “Finnisterra.” I think China Mieville’s novels demonstrate it pretty well too. I see it in many of the stories I have read by Gord Sellar as well. Basically, I see richness as one of the defining qualities of award-winning writing.
The rich telling details are rarely fabricated whole cloth. They’re believable because they draw from some real world knowledge. David uses multiple languages and cultures effortlessly because he knows them intimately. China writes about cities because he dwells in them completely. London is not so different from his fantastical cities. And Gord is so immersed in Korean culture it can’t help but ooze onto the page in a totally engaging way.
I struggle with richness in particular because I’m not sure there’s any way to learn richness other than to immerse yourself in a subject like they do. I think the reason many new writers work fall flat for me is because the only thing they are immersing themselves in is writing and SF/F. The mark of someone who really wants to get out there seems to be someone who takes passion for something else and really drives that home in a story.
There may be veins of richness to tap into from my life, but I’m not sure. It leaves me wishing I could pack up and do some foreign travel for six months all while reading travelogues and history books. I feel like I just don’t have enough packed into my brain that isn’t about computers and web design that can be used to enrich my work.
So that’s the next big thing I’m working on in improving my writing. What’s yours?
Richness, as you put it, is something that comes from being passionate about something, about seeking diverse experiences, about learning and asking questions, about not simply asking “what if ___” but running with that question beyond the realm of the reasonble and into something that’s extrodinary and fantastic.
And we see that a lot in people who get to travel to strange new places, in people who have exciting lives, and experiences of which we are envious. But I don’t think passion and curiosity, and imaginations are functions of the privlidge to travel, or the good fortune to live in exciting times. Indeed traveling and exiciting times are sometimes very much a product of having that kind of imagination, rather than the other way around.
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The other thing, that I think happens is that we see richness and literary merit in other people’s work and don’t really see that sort of thing in our own work, but I think a big part of this is that literary merit is something that gets determined by other people. Richness is something that we see when another writer gives us a glimpse into their heads. We don’t get to determine the literary merit of our own work, and we’re already in our own heads…
This post really struck a nerve with me. I’m in the planning stages of my next novel, and have chosen a story idea that has been banging about in my head for a long time. One of the main characters is a juggler, among other things, and some scenes necessarily take place at a juggling event. As it happens, I’m a juggler. I have been juggling for 18 years, and I’ve been involved in the juggling sub-culture for about 10.
So many people say “write what you know,” but as you say, “I think the reason many new writers work fall flat for me is because the only thing they are immersing themselves in is writing and SF/F.”
How many people are interested in reading about juggling? I’ve no idea. But I’m in a privileged position here! I can take the most interesting characters and events and places and people and sights and smells and feelings from a decade of my life and share them. Fictionalized, of course, but the richness, as you say, is something I wanted to get.
Other elements I hope will be rich:
– one character’s back story is similar to my father’s, so I’ll be taking stories he told me of his days in the army. Again, not the actual stories, but the feel of them. The richness.
– the same character also gets involved with religion. My own upbringing in a fundamentalist christian family should help with this aspect.
As I said, your post provides exactly the confidence boost about these creative/worldbuilding decisions that I need right now.
PS (after reading the above comment): I travel a lot, but never really think about incorporating those places into my work as locations. I should!
Thanks, Jer. Good to know it’s coming through.
But I feel honor-bound to point out that you live in one of the most beautiful and, from the point of view of much of the world, exotic places in the Northern Hemisphere, filled with some of the world’s most beautiful and exotic creatures, and you spend your spare time looking at it / them very, very, very closely. We all tend to discount our advantages — but there’s got to be something you can work with, there.
Thanks, David. You have a good point. COlorado’s beautiful and all, but it doesn’t seem to inspire me to write so far.