posted
I have a quick exercise that'll require nothing more than a post in response to this thread.
The other day I decided that any time I read or listened(audio books are great for long commutes) to a story I thought was exceptional, I would jot down what I felt I could learn as a writer from the story.
I decided to do this after listening to Frederik Pohl's "Ferme and Frost." Though I haven't been reading short stories for that long, this one takes the #1 spot in my book.
What I learned from it was that if the story is written with a strong sense of focus, remaining on point from start to end, it will keep the reader riveted.
Anyone else care to share a favorite short (or novel) and what they learned from it as a writer?
posted
Ever read "The Voice from the Curious Cube" by Nelson S. Bond? It completely showed to me why not everything can be a movie or visual, that writing really can do things that are impossible in a visual medium.
Posts: 823 | Registered: May 2009
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posted
From Cordwainer Smith's "Scanners Live in Vain," I learned that technological advances are likely to make the future a truly alien place, beyond our ability to understand it unless we've lived through it. I've tried to incorporate some of that in my own work, but, really, only with stop-and-go success.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I just reread Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air" this morning. (It's in a new "Selected Stories" collection---get one!) I may have learned a philosophical point from it---certainly I picked up on it this time. Without revealing the plot, I can say that the lesson I learned is this: no matter how hopeless things are, you go on.
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posted
Sounds like a lesson is to be learned. I need to find all these stories and read them so I can learn the lessons you both did.
Posts: 1043 | Registered: Jul 2010
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