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Aug. 18th, 2012 06:50 pmI paid for this week most of today. I'm sure I did the regulation whingeing throughout the week so that you knew I was not as comfortable as I should be. I was at the stage yesterday where I kept going back to bed to get the sleep I hadn't had during the nights. I bought more pain relievers. I changed my medication. The latter proved the trick and last night I slept the whole way through. I slept most of today, too. And finally, just in time for dinner, I'm only in moderate pain and I'm wondering if I wasted the whole of the last two days or only chunks of them.
Actually, I did some good work yesterday, in between things. And I shall do some work today, now that my legs have ceased to wobble. Also, I'm finally at the stage with work where everything I read makes sense. Most of today I looked at my computer and wondered what I was seeing. That's when I'd toddle back to bed and sleep a bit more.
I guess the virus isn't gone yet. It's going, though, in its own slow manner.
I'm still looking for those writing techniques, BTW. I wasn't trying to say, "Woe is me, I am under-represented in fiction." Though I am, it is irrelevant. As a writer, I ought to be perfectly capable of writing about my own culture/religion/everything (although publishers might not accept this, and though I may not be a good enough writer yet to do it as well as it should be done), and I am fully aware how many of us do not see ourselves in fiction.
What I want are writing techniques and narrative techniques and modes of explanation that have worked in a novel for individuals when they see a non-mainstream character (especially one that is close to their own personal experience, and especially where said techniques etc are actually effective). I want to know what works from a reader's perspective and from a comfort-zone perspective. I will then analyse this material and apply it in various contexts and writings and work out what it's doing, in cultural terms and with tropes and etc (much etc) and then we can start to talk about changing paradigms.
I'd also love to know if anyone's read anything on this by other writers/critics/thinkers/whoever. In fact, I'd especially love to know. I don't want to reinvent the wheel here, I just want to move away from the angsty "Where is the fiction about these people/our people" zone and into a "This is how we can write good fiction that doesn't other" zone.
Actually, I did some good work yesterday, in between things. And I shall do some work today, now that my legs have ceased to wobble. Also, I'm finally at the stage with work where everything I read makes sense. Most of today I looked at my computer and wondered what I was seeing. That's when I'd toddle back to bed and sleep a bit more.
I guess the virus isn't gone yet. It's going, though, in its own slow manner.
I'm still looking for those writing techniques, BTW. I wasn't trying to say, "Woe is me, I am under-represented in fiction." Though I am, it is irrelevant. As a writer, I ought to be perfectly capable of writing about my own culture/religion/everything (although publishers might not accept this, and though I may not be a good enough writer yet to do it as well as it should be done), and I am fully aware how many of us do not see ourselves in fiction.
What I want are writing techniques and narrative techniques and modes of explanation that have worked in a novel for individuals when they see a non-mainstream character (especially one that is close to their own personal experience, and especially where said techniques etc are actually effective). I want to know what works from a reader's perspective and from a comfort-zone perspective. I will then analyse this material and apply it in various contexts and writings and work out what it's doing, in cultural terms and with tropes and etc (much etc) and then we can start to talk about changing paradigms.
I'd also love to know if anyone's read anything on this by other writers/critics/thinkers/whoever. In fact, I'd especially love to know. I don't want to reinvent the wheel here, I just want to move away from the angsty "Where is the fiction about these people/our people" zone and into a "This is how we can write good fiction that doesn't other" zone.