"Avoid Description"

This is the conclusion of my ideas about the advice on writing in an article in the NYT.

     Two of Elmore Leonard's bits of writing advice in the aforementioned article concern description. One is: "Avoid detailed descriptions of characters." I am terrible with description and am often told by others that I need to add more to my stories. The reason I don't is that in reality, I don't notice physical details very much (possibly unusual for a writer), and I don't like to read them.
     At the beginning of Mr. Leonard's NYT article, there's a quote from John Steinbeck's "Sweet Thursday", in which a character states, "I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks."
     That is exactly how I feel. In fact, I can't be told what characters look like. Whatever the author's description is, my mind creates its own picture of characters. If a person is described as "small and fair", my brain may conjure a picture of a tall brunette. This often leads to confusion when the book refers to the character's blond hair and I think, "Who? What? She has dark hair", because that is the image in my mind when I picture that character.
      I understand that most people are probably not like me and prefer to have characters described. But I also think that readers are a pretty imaginative group and if no details are offered, they can and will very easily fill in an image for themselves. Sometimes certain traits are pertinent to the character  and must be noted. If they are scarred or freakishly tall or alarmingly thin, such things can be relative to the plot.
     The second bit of Leonard's advice is, "Don't go into great detail describing places and things." Everything I've said and think about physical character description applies to this as well. If it's important to the story I'm writing, I will say where the stairs or the door are in a room, but not mention the color of the carpet or the art work displayed unless the choice of decor adds a certain dimension to the character.
      Like all writing advice and instruction, these things fall under what I said in my post, "Conflicting Writing Advice". As a writer, what works for others may or may not work for you. Try new things often and discover new insights.

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A Few Of William Berhardt's "Don'ts"

     Some of the wisdom I shared from William Berhardt in my last post came from part of his presentation he called "10 Wrongs That Don't Make A Writer". These don'ts are some commonly quoted beliefs about writing. A few of them I'm not going to comment on because to me they seem like things only amateurs or non-writers would think.
     Among the notable ideas he refuted were:  "There is a difference between Literary and Genre fiction", "Men can't write woman characters and women can't write men characters", "Fiction is not autobiographical", and "Writing is an art and can't be learned".
     I agree with the simple way Bernhardt addressed the first one. He said, "Literary fiction is a Genre." This is true and while some people will argue that there is a difference between literary and commercial fiction, I think literary can also be seen as a kind of commercial fiction.
     Bernhardt gave several examples of great writers in every genre who created characters that were the opposite gender of themselves very successfully. I think it simply depends on how well the writer can relate to their characters of either gender. I write my Fragments of Daylight stories from the perspectives of various characters in my series; some of them male, some female, some animal.
     On the subject of what part of fiction is autobiographical, Bernhardt said all writing, including all genres of fiction and non-fiction, are in some way autobiographical, because all aspects are "filtered through the mind" of the writer. This includes the bad stuff and the evil villains. How things are presented tells the reader a lot about the writer.
     According to Bernhardt and I'm sure many other people, writing is an art, but it is also a craft and craft can be learned. I personally believe that some art can be learned. Don't artists take classes and lessons on how to create certain works? They learn about different mediums, perspective, and  how to use light and shade. This could be described as the "craft" part of art, but I feel it's much the same thing.
     If you get a chance to view a video of William Bernhardt's seminar, I highly recommend it. We can never stop learning how to improve our writing.

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Language Or Setting Or Dialogue Or...

In my recent effort to discover what parts of a writers work are considered most important, the only thing I found in common among readers was proper writing. (See previous post.) My recent effort in contest judging made me wonder what parts of a story readers ranked higher than others in terms of importance. Outside of the correct grammar/puncuation/spelling issue, I have discovered that everything else is subjective.
     This conclusion was drawn from comments made by many of the judges of the contest I recently participated in as well as a poll of other writers. Some like a lot of description, others take off points for too much detail.  Some think unrealistic dialogue ruins a good story, others think poor dialogue can be ignored if the characters are otherwise believable. Many readers view poetic use of language as more important than a strong plot.  There really was no consensus.
     This suggests that - other than the aformentioned importance of proper writing - no one skill or writing strength that can be considered more significant than others. The ideal would be to strive for excellence in all aspects of writing, building on what you do well and continually working to improve areas where you struggle.

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Pets As Characters

     I had to put my dog to sleep this week. I've had to do this with many pets over the years and it never gets easier. I've had lots of dogs and most of them live (and remain in great health) until they are very old. Then their bodies give out and I have to do what I can to keep them from suffering.
     Tapestry, affectionately know as Pest, was a 10-year-old Irish Wolfhound. He was a rescue dog I adopted from the Irish Wolfhound Association of the Great Smoky Mountains when he was three.
     I have other dogs, dogs I've had longer, ones I have raised since they were puppies, and I love them dearly. But they are not Pest. All of my dogs, horses and cats are individuals, each with a very distinct personality - and lots of it.
     I cannot imagine a life without animals and pets, and I have difficulty imagining a fictional world without them. In my books and stories animals are minor, but important, characters. Even human characters who are not animal-lovers generally live in a world full of pets and pet owners. They have to deal with things like an annoying stray cat, crazy neighbors with weird pets, a dog that runs loose and causes havoc in the community. Fictional pets and animals don't have to be outrageous or even unusual, but I feel they do have to be more than a prop or a part of the setting.
     A book without animals in it  feels as wrong to me as my house or barn without a dog or cat underfoot (or in the bathtub, on the couch or on my keyboard).  When you think about it, animals can add aspects (and dialogue) to a plot that you can't get with other characters, such as: "If you lie on the stairs, we will both get hurt." "Didn't I just feed you twelve hours ago?" or "You don't need a waterbowl; this house has three toilets."
     Pets and animals in fiction can be sidekicks, companions, partners, caretakers, or troublemakers. They can help save the day or add complications or create choas. What they can't be is missing altogether.

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