I loved this. Thank you! I'd be interested to learn more of your thoughts about how to edit description. There's presence, there's essence, but then there's also probably a lot of...other stuff. One thing that good description does well is gives you just enough. How do you establish that balance?
This is a really good question. One filter is "need" vs "could." As in: there's a lot a reader could know about a place in a give narrative moment but what do they *need* to know in order for the right mood to be evoked, or for an event to land? VanderMeer does a great job of this: we learn a lot more about Area X as the novel progresses but at this stage what we NEED is a sense of the topography (tower, ocean, etc) and also a sense that the landscape is dense and inscrutable and somehow wrong. There is much much more we could know about Area X, and will come to learn later, but this is what we need to know at this point.
“Presence and essence”!! Yes!! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. Sorry I’m too far from Oblong. Hope there will be other events more south! ❤️
Beautiful essay. I lost a contact rolling jiu-jitsu one day and crawled around the mat, hands spread before me, trying to find it. the guy I was rolling with said it looked like I was begging some god for forgiveness.
I loved this. Thank you! I'd be interested to learn more of your thoughts about how to edit description. There's presence, there's essence, but then there's also probably a lot of...other stuff. One thing that good description does well is gives you just enough. How do you establish that balance?
This is a really good question. One filter is "need" vs "could." As in: there's a lot a reader could know about a place in a give narrative moment but what do they *need* to know in order for the right mood to be evoked, or for an event to land? VanderMeer does a great job of this: we learn a lot more about Area X as the novel progresses but at this stage what we NEED is a sense of the topography (tower, ocean, etc) and also a sense that the landscape is dense and inscrutable and somehow wrong. There is much much more we could know about Area X, and will come to learn later, but this is what we need to know at this point.
“Presence and essence”!! Yes!! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. Sorry I’m too far from Oblong. Hope there will be other events more south! ❤️
So great, so helpful. I shared it with my morning writing group!
Thank you!
Beautiful essay. I lost a contact rolling jiu-jitsu one day and crawled around the mat, hands spread before me, trying to find it. the guy I was rolling with said it looked like I was begging some god for forgiveness.
What a totally amazing image!
Laura, this was so good and so beautiful.
Thank you so much!!