[stylist] visual description was Re: Hemingway quote

[Homme, James]

Hi Brenda,
I think this is less of a big deal than you may think.

I am probably the least well read "writer" in this group, so take this for what it's worth. When you pick up your next book, ask yourself whether the author describes the visual stuff fully or hints at them. I think that you will probably find that the author leaves some visual things  to the reader's imagination. This would seem to mean that you can do your best to find out the visuals, hint at what you know, and probably run your stuff by someone you trust who is sighted to see if it works for them.  What do the real writers in the group think?

Thanks.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Brenda
Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2011 10:02 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: [stylist] visual description was Re: Hemingway quote

Hi chris and list

Your comments about the lack of visual description is one I have been
thinking about.

When I read your story about your quest to become a writer I found it
very visually descriptive and wondered how you did that.  Now you
mention critique because your current work is not descriptive enough.
Is it possible that because you are blind your group notices the lack of
visual description more then they would if a sighted person such as
hemingway in your example did the same thing?

My other question is just simply how does a blind writer include visual
description?  Do people get a sighted person to describe things so they
can be included in a story or article?

Brenda



On 10/9/2011 8:55 PM, Chris Kuell wrote:
> 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
>
>
>
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