[stylist] Hemingway quote

[Homme, James]

Hi Chris,
I think this is OK, because it fits into something we use in the software world called "progressive disclosure," which is the art and science of putting controls on the screen only as the customer needs to use them, and leaving those things off the screen until they need them.

Thanks.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Chris Kuell
Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2011 8:55 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Hemingway quote

Hey Brad,

I've heard the gist of that quote before, and now it's got me thinking. I'm
currently winding up a novel about a blind massage therapist caught up in a
sticky love triangle, and after writing the first 5 chapters in third person
POV, I started over again and have been writing it in first person. The
reason for the change was that 1. people generally prefer the stories I've
written in the first person , and 2. I wanted potential readers to be inside
the head of a blind guy. It's been interesting, but very challenging to pull
off an entire novel. I belong to a critique group, and 2 'complaints' I've
received are that I never describe my main character, or my other characters
visually, with the exception of one luscious female, but even then it's a
description of her fabulous body, and the reader, like the character, knows
nothing about her face, eyes, smile, hair, etc... I know all the books about
craft tell you that you need to get in a description of your main characters
early, and I've noticed that most novels do. But, in Hemingway's novel 'For
Whom the Bell Tolls, the main character has a fling with a former female
prisoner, I forget her name but it begins with a P (Pia?), and Hemingway
describes only her short hair and the hat she wore. I've tried the
remembering-a-photograph technique, but it strikes me as awkward and I cut
it out.

The second criticism is that people are interested in technology, or how my
character 'does things. This is where your Hemingway quote came to mind. I
know how Dan, my character does things, and I've mentioned a few, but I
haven't gone into detail, which I feel is appropriate. He's got a computer
with a screen reading program, which I mention in chapter 1 with about that
much detail, and from then on he just uses his computer. I don't mention how
he tells time, or pays his bills, although at one point I say a friend
helped him go through his mail. I say he takes the bus, but I don't say how
he finds the bus or puts his money in the little thingee. He cooks, but I
don't describe how he cooks, etc... In part, I think it's more natural--I
mean, if he wasn't blind and you said he cooked a lasagna, you wouldn't want
to know how. And in part, I just think it's awkward. Several years ago I
read a novel with a blind character. The character lived in Baltimore, and
to the author's credit (it was a sighted writer), she'd obviously done her
research, and showed it off--too much, in my opinion. She stopped the flow
of the story every time she had to take half-a-page to describe how the
blind lady did the mundane things we all do in life.

Anyway, your post made me think of it.

chris



_______________________________________________
Writers Division web site:
http://www.nfb-writers-division.net <http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/>

stylist mailing list
stylist at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for stylist:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/james.homme%40highmark.com

This e-mail and any attachments to it are confidential and are intended solely for use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.  If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and then delete it.  If you are not the intended recipient, you must not keep, use, disclose, copy or distribute this e-mail without the author's prior permission.  The views expressed in this e-mail message do not necessarily represent the views of Highmark Inc., its subsidiaries, or affiliates.