[stylist] Writing from a blind perspective

Tue Oct 11 01:46:26 UTC 2011

hmm. That book was mentioned several times. I think I'll read it. What is 
Old man of the sea about?

-----Original Message----- 
From: Brad Dunse'
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2011 5:51 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Writing from a blind perspective

I didn't know that was French Bridgit? Been taking Rosetta Stone have
you? I also didn't know my dad was quite fluent in it  lol. I guess
it doesn't need to be italicized since, though French, we're all
familiar with it haha. I agree with your points. Anything can be over
done, and to a point where it discredits a character. Too much
imagery minus any other type of descriptions doesn't lead to a full
emotional grasp either. As mentioned Old Man of the Sea   didn't have
tons of visuals in it. It  mentioned the glow of Havanah, but it
didn't go over the top describing it. Same goes for the dolphins,
Flying Fish, or anything,but  we get it just fine and we're in the
skiff harpooninng sharks and tired from lack of sleep just as the
character. I can see how some could get hung up on "How's the blind
guy going to write visuals?" And once that is established it now
becomes a focal point at every critique where it isn't so for
critiques of other's work. If someone were to  say to me at a
songwriting meeting "Brad? Why is  I just noticed everytime you come
to the meeting with a song, when you sing it you close your eyes and
tap your feet off time to the the song. Why is that anyway? Do you
not have a sense of time?" I'd be like, "What? Umm I don't know."

So what do you think people will do next time I walk in with a song
to be critiqued? The jig is up and the inquiring eyes want to know,
Is he going to tap off time like so and so said?

If how someone writes, touches people and holds them, it doesn't
matter how they wrote it. Their job is being done. I don't mean not
to explore and learn new things, but if it works, it works.

Brad

On 10/10/2011  04:15 PM Bridgit Pollpeter said...
>Chris and others,
>
>That's bullshit- pardon the French. Smile. That others would tell you
>your story has holes because of a lack of visual descriptions is just
>stupid, and much like in our real lives, people are only focusing on the
>blindness and nothing else about a person, or in this case a character.
>
>Sensory descriptions are not just visual. As we know in real life,
>nonvisual means exist to do many, many things, yet so many question how
>anything can be done without sight. It's the same when providing sensory
>descriptions in a story. It can be done, and done quite well, without
>actually giving visual details.
>
>In my classes, we were expected to provide details beyond visual ones so
>readers had a full sensory experience. As a sighted writer, it will
>usually be natural to write more visual descriptions, but at least we
>were encouraged to seek new perspectives. In a poetry workshop, we had
>to write a poem about a piece of art but not to give any visual details.
>At first, most of the class found it difficult, but the poems turned out
>really good. It was quite the learning experience, even for me.
>
>To be honest, I rarely write blind characters- oddly enough, I find it
>difficult. Even though I'm totally blind, I was sighted before, which I
>know many of us were, but I still am extremely visual. I have visual
>memories now of things I can't "see," and though I can't say how
>accurate my memories are, nonetheless, the memories are there. So when I
>write, it's natural to include visual details. However, I've been
>working on writing other sensory descriptions because I don't want to
>end up in a rut unable to rely on other descriptions beyond the visual.
>
>One way, Chris, you can try to provide more detail about how your
>character goes about something is to use descriptive language when they
>do something. For example, not that this will be a good one, but you
>could try something like, "The electronic voice droned from the speakers
>as he paid bills online." Or, "The mailbox clanged as he tapped his cane
>against it. Sliding the back of his hand along the top, he found the
>handle, opened the door and dropped his letter into the depths of the
>mailbox." Or, "Her sultry voice suggested a matching body. I moved
>closer picking up a hint of jasmine. Grabbing her hand, I weaved my
>fingers through her slender ones. She leaned against my chest, and I
>felt the weight of her breast as images scorched my mind."
>
>You don't necessarily have to describe exactly how things are done, or
>provide the inner workings of things, but add a few verbs and details
>that signify what the character is doing. And I don't think it has to be
>written in first person to accomplish this. That's obviously a choice
>you make, but don't let others dictate that choice. I know we have to be
>mindful of how readers perceive our plots and characters, but at some
>point we also have to stay true to what we believe are the right
>choices. To me, this sounds like a case of people focusing on one aspect
>of a character, refusing to look deeper.
>
>Also, a story is about perspective. If a character is blind it stands to
>reason that we will "see" the story from the perspective of a blind
>person. Actually, in an open, or omniscient perspective, you can pan out
>providing descriptions even if characters can't see since it doesn't
>have to be the blind characters narrating, but if you limit the POV to
>that blind character, regardless of first or third person, you'd still
>want to remain in that nonvisual world. It's insane that anyone would
>suggest a story told from the POV of a blind character should have
>visual descriptions. Unless you have a omniscient POV, it makes sense
>the story would lack visuals, though have other sensory details to make
>up for it. A limited POV doesn't divulge certain information like what
>other characters think or do unless in the presence of the POV
>character, so if they're blind, the story would be in this perspective
>if told in a limited POV.
>
>During my first convention, while attending a Writers' Division event, a
>young girl asked how to write visual descriptions. She was blind from
>birth, but was always told her stories were lacking because no visual
>details were present. This was just ludacris to me. Her perspective was
>different, and she should celebrate it. Certainly one can learn to write
>visually, but as a writer, you also want to find a unique voice. If you
>can't describe something visually, why do it? Use what senses you have
>to paint a picture, or maybe, rather, record a song. Smile. Perspective
>is what creates a story full of depth. If your perspective is a
>nonvisual one, there is nothing wrong with that. We're always told how
>we're "lacking experiences," or slightly inferior because we can't see.
>I get sick of this. I certainly don't feel lacking in experiences or
>anything else. The same goes for our writing if we write from a
>nonvisual perspective. And just a side note, if you aren't providing
>enough, or good enough, sensory descriptions, you probably wouldn't give
>great visual descriptions either. I just realized how this sounds- I'm
>not meaning you, Chris. Smile.
>
>You have to make any description germane to the story, which includes
>visual descriptions along with other sensory details. Just as it doesn't
>make sense to constantly drop in how-to descriptions for every action a
>blind character takes, it also doesn't make sense to give visual details
>that the character wouldn't see. It would go against the perspective of
>the story.
>
>Sincerely,
>Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
>Read my blog at:
>http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
>
>"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
>The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan
>
>Message: 3
>Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2011 20:55:21 -0400
>From: "Chris Kuell" <ckuell at comcast.net>
>To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
>Subject: Re: [stylist] Hemingway quote
>Message-ID: <5A8AA93EAB9A441695CDB7DCBC00FC4F at ChrisPC>
>Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
>         reply-type=response
>
>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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Brad Dunse

This world is but a canvas to our imaginations

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