Short Story Reader

The reader for this Short Story unit is starting to annoy me. I'm used to it being badly cut and pasted, but the bullet lists turning into n list n list n list does make it a bit harder to read. The complete lack of sources for vast chunks of it does not seem like a great example. Perhaps the teacher wrote it all herself and simply forgot there were no first three chapters to refer back to, you never know. And the wrong page numbering, and simple wrong pages, repeats of pages, pages that actually belong at the end of a previous chapter and just interrupt instead of ending this chapter, they could all be printer errors, except for where it happens in the middle of a sentence where it's probably cut and pastes fault again. And the copy of a copy of a copy thing is pretty inevitable, so wanting things to be legible and printed in larger than six point font is just me being picky. But add them all together and I end up wondering why I bother.

Also it just used a story as an example of omniscient narrator that I can't see as anything other than tight third person. It only goes into one persons head, the motives and history of all the others are a mystery to him and the reader, we only see what he is looking at right then. That's not omni.

I realise I've been studying how to write for years and have shelves full of how to write books. And I have read the ones in the college library. And the university library. or at least carted them home and skimmed through them while feeling virtuous about it. It would help if I remembered which about all of them. But. My point is, I know I've been studying writing for years, so a second year course knowing less than me isn't surprising. But it is frustrating.

And I'm still not sure I'm going to be able to write the assignment right. One thousand words only. Something that fits the teacher's theories about the genre. Explaining my creative choices.

Some of my creative choices are scriptwriter habits. Like, smells and tastes are only relevant if someone speaks about them, but I can tell all about the visuals and sounds. Unless I've listened to a lot of audios, then the visuals have to wait on speaking too. But I do not like going and writing about people's thoughts. You can't see people's thoughts. You can't guess them. You're only directly acquainted with your own, and even then most of your brain doesn't tell you what it's doing. ( Read more... )

You can know the stuff that goes in scripts, the stuff you can see and hear, plus the taste and smell and touch stuff. So I want to write those things, and leave it to readers to figure it out, and know it's a puzzle. Like real.

I know I'm being weird. ( Read more... )

Okay, so now I'm working up to my sulk about what are stories really for, how can they ever achieve it, why do I bother anyway. :eyeroll:

:-p to me. I shall go read stories I like and make stuff up and not sulk about reality not matching. Stories are more fun anyway.