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icepixieETA: Let's see if this works right this time...
This is just something I've been thinking about lately. Also, I've never done a poll before. Fanfic applies to both questions if you want it to.
[Poll #525641]
Please elaborate in comments if you want. I'm interested in anything you have to say relating to these questions.
For me, about four out of five times, my first inking of a piece of writing will come in the form of a location to set it. I usually tend to draw these locations from real life. Whether they're from RL or purely imaginative, I know everything about how it feels to be in that place, from the exact location on a map to the air temperature to the background sounds and smells. Not all of this information makes it into the description of the place, but it helps me form the action that happens and the characters that would be found there. The other times are divided between a character--including fanfic explorations of characters seen on TV--and a "hey, wouldn't it be cool if" kind of plot. But mostly it's location: I'll think, I want to write a scene that takes place at a fireworks store, in a cornfield, on the front porch of a 1920s bungalow near a speedway on a summer night, on a snowy day in Atlantis, whatever. Everything else just falls into place after that. Of course, this tends to lead to fragmentary writing; once that scene is over, what do I do? Ideas where the character or plot come first aren't as rich in detail, but they seem to carry me through longer stretches of writing and larger goals.
Similarly, I enjoy pieces that make good use of descriptive language to really pull the reader into a scene. Thomas Hardy, my perennial favorite Victorian soap opera novelist, is a great example of this. In fact, when we were reading some Hardy stories in the Kenyon Seminar this semester, we had a brief discussion about descriptive language in novels. Matz suggested that some people "do the work" of imagining everything that is described as far as location, objects, etc., while others just skim to get to the action. I was somewhat astonished that anyone could not see everything as it was described. It's not a conscious decision for me; when I read, my mind pretty much translates it into a movie in my head. I take the description of the setting, realize it it full color, add any details that are lacking to make it cohesive, and then the action just takes place there like it would on a TV screen. After a while, I can't tell you the words I just read; I can tell you what the scene looks like in my mind, with my own words, but I probably couldn't repeat any of the sentences used by the original author. Maybe this comes from watching too much television as a small child, but I think even if I had no idea what movies or TV were, I'd still do this. Maybe not as well, but I think that's still how I would read.
This is just something I've been thinking about lately. Also, I've never done a poll before. Fanfic applies to both questions if you want it to.
[Poll #525641]
Please elaborate in comments if you want. I'm interested in anything you have to say relating to these questions.
For me, about four out of five times, my first inking of a piece of writing will come in the form of a location to set it. I usually tend to draw these locations from real life. Whether they're from RL or purely imaginative, I know everything about how it feels to be in that place, from the exact location on a map to the air temperature to the background sounds and smells. Not all of this information makes it into the description of the place, but it helps me form the action that happens and the characters that would be found there. The other times are divided between a character--including fanfic explorations of characters seen on TV--and a "hey, wouldn't it be cool if" kind of plot. But mostly it's location: I'll think, I want to write a scene that takes place at a fireworks store, in a cornfield, on the front porch of a 1920s bungalow near a speedway on a summer night, on a snowy day in Atlantis, whatever. Everything else just falls into place after that. Of course, this tends to lead to fragmentary writing; once that scene is over, what do I do? Ideas where the character or plot come first aren't as rich in detail, but they seem to carry me through longer stretches of writing and larger goals.
Similarly, I enjoy pieces that make good use of descriptive language to really pull the reader into a scene. Thomas Hardy, my perennial favorite Victorian soap opera novelist, is a great example of this. In fact, when we were reading some Hardy stories in the Kenyon Seminar this semester, we had a brief discussion about descriptive language in novels. Matz suggested that some people "do the work" of imagining everything that is described as far as location, objects, etc., while others just skim to get to the action. I was somewhat astonished that anyone could not see everything as it was described. It's not a conscious decision for me; when I read, my mind pretty much translates it into a movie in my head. I take the description of the setting, realize it it full color, add any details that are lacking to make it cohesive, and then the action just takes place there like it would on a TV screen. After a while, I can't tell you the words I just read; I can tell you what the scene looks like in my mind, with my own words, but I probably couldn't repeat any of the sentences used by the original author. Maybe this comes from watching too much television as a small child, but I think even if I had no idea what movies or TV were, I'd still do this. Maybe not as well, but I think that's still how I would read.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-04 01:41 am (UTC)Like if you were reading about a roller coaster ride, you might get the impression of being on one?
Are you more of an audio person? Do you hear the words being repeated in your head, maybe? Sometimes if a passage really isn't working for me, I'll have that...my mental voice reciting the words, but no imaginative comprehension.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-04 02:46 am (UTC)Definitely more of an auditory reader here. I tend to hear what I'm reading a lot, and then remember it down the line even when I don't realize I've memorized it. It probably makes me a better reader than writer.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-04 05:29 am (UTC)If I want to memorize something, I almost always have to write it down. That's the only thing that got me through monologues in drama class in high school.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-04 08:29 pm (UTC)It's funny, because in terms of all those learning-style tests they give you (or at least they gave us) in elementary school, I am not at all an auditory learner--it's supposed to be my unconscious learning style. But I figure that's why sometimes music or poetry really gets under my skin and sticks; it gets embedded in the unconscious or something.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-05 01:55 pm (UTC)I am not at all an auditory learner--it's supposed to be my unconscious learning style.
Hmmm. Maybe reading and writing are closer to the unconscious than we (or I) intuitively suspect. There's that thing where you can come up with a better take on an essay if you sleep on it...