I think that's better than the opposite, Wolfram. Sometimes the story gets lost in the descriptive detail.
Paraphrasing Amadeus, "Too many words!"
I do like writers who go for more senses than sight and sound, however. In my opinion, nothing grounds fiction more than the temperature, density, moisture content of air moving on skin, texture, and the scents your characters identify and what those evoke.
"The hot, dry air scorched as his lungs sucked it in, and leached moisture from him as it was pushed out again. His throat felt scraped and raw. The dumpster behind him was due for collection: a fine old stew of human leavings percolated in the heat, but underneath that aroma was oil, grease, engine lube and solvent.
"His thin t-shirt was soaked and sucked at his skin, chafing, especially beneath the shoulder rig."
Tell me what's going on there. No action, no visual or auditory description. You know nothing about the POV character except gender and he's wearing a gun. But are you in the scene? Can you feel the heat, the sweat, the dry mouth? These are the things I look for. Don't tell me, put me there.
But that's just me.
Damn that's good writing. Will have to practice some of that.
Pfft. That, and world building, character defining, are what I can do fairly well. But I can't find a story to tell, or sustain one.
Heh. DH, reading over my shoulder, "You always were a method actor."
That, and world building, character defining, are what I can do fairly well. But I can't find a story to tell, or sustain one.
I suffer from this syndrome as well. We should start a support group.
Heh, and now I'm looking for that corner. The one where the guy in the Sesame Street trenchcoat hangs out, "Psst. Hey kid! Wanna buy a story?"
Didn't
The Believer
(another one of the McSweeney's magazines) have a section for a while of orphan stories? Plot bunnies that various authors had running around in the hutches in the backs of their brains that they knew they'd never have the time or energy to attend to, so they were putting them up for adoption? I've been seriously thinking about rooting back through the archives, because some of those orphaned bunnies were kind of appealing.
I think Dead Alice may be a character bunny. I mean I think the piece stands alone as a piece of Flash Fiction. (That may be ego talking.) But I really like her as a character, and would love a better fiction writer to adapt her and do something with her.
From wayyyyy back:
Teppy:
I don't believe for a second that she misspoke, just as I don't believe that Obama misspoke back when he made that sexist "periodically when she's feeling down" comment about her.
I seem to recall that this was actually not his comment. That he said, "periodically, when she's down...." and he meant "down in the polls". I shall run off and try to find evidence of this as context. I could be wrong, though!
