tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957720453833964079.post6385843296662700079..comments2023-08-24T09:20:50.033-07:00Comments on Long Pine Limited: Updike’s “A Constellation of Events”Philip Deaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08332104632865537879noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957720453833964079.post-26501105043534728702009-01-08T08:03:00.000-08:002009-01-08T08:03:00.000-08:00So pleasing to hear from a couple of writers I'm c...So pleasing to hear from a couple of writers I'm crazy about. And I recognize, Ellie what you say about how the manuscript seems to go dim as we, the authors, the variable in the mix (the manuscript just sits there without us!), evolve. Novels are a huge thing. Your "While in Darkness There is Light," nonfiction though it is, is a great model for me, quite moving and very well-written, so I know your novel will turn out right, know it, know it.<BR/><BR/>Chris, a strange thing about the art of fiction for me, and I think you, too, is that all elements of the craft seem to, as you say, "grow out of the story itself" -- voice, characters, point of view even. Which is the revelation for me of thinking of point of view as style. There is no fact in any of this, actually, but only working theories and fresh angles of approach to the craft, ways of looking at it to keep us working at it. In fact, art is as amorphous as clouds and starts with character, honesty, courage, and a work ethic in the artist himself, and that, my friend, is you.<BR/><BR/>Thanks to you both for jumping in. Come again.Philip Deaverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08332104632865537879noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957720453833964079.post-82199408211523547282009-01-06T17:57:00.000-08:002009-01-06T17:57:00.000-08:00Funnily...and I don't much like that word, but it ...Funnily...and I don't much like that word, but it fits here...I turn my head to the right and there on top of a stack of literary mags still in their plastic wrappings and a well read copy of the Oct. 8 2008 New Yorker lies How Fiction Works by James Wood, borrowed from a friend and by me unopened for the past three weeks. And now she wants it back, just as you've enticed me to dig in. Well. Perhaps I need to own it. Mark it up and dogear it. So we can talk further. <BR/><BR/>As far as style, I've just today gone back to my moldering novel and find that the style has somehow gone from being brilliantly lyrical to absolutely trite. And that happened, somehow, without my touching it. Explain that, if you will. So, there is much work to do, and you have peeled the onionskin from my eyes to help me see the long road ahead. Thanks.Louella Bryanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01869785479821057602noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957720453833964079.post-85607234156651352292009-01-06T10:11:00.000-08:002009-01-06T10:11:00.000-08:00It is an interesting way of looking at POV choice ...It is an interesting way of looking at POV choice as a function of style. For me, style is a natural function of the emotional context of the piece. My style grows out of the story itself, primarily the characters. I don't put much thought into style as I draft, because it seems to arise naturally. Revision involves maximizing the emotional effect. From this the style is further refined.<BR/><BR/>An agent once told me she "didn't fall in love with my style" regarding a novel manuscript. I had not intended to wow her with stylistic pyrotechnics, rather to present sympathetic characters in unusual and painful situations, in a narrative that would engage her heart regarding the characters themselves. I don't concern myself too much with style for its own sake. For me, it has to serve the narrative.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, that's my take on it, for what it's worth.Chris McClellandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06433955287128215940noreply@blogger.com