Today I have a book report to share and a favor to ask.
I know several of you follow my blog. I’d like to ask a favor of you. Would you please share with my readers and me one or both of the following?
- sources that you find helpful when you write
- the author you would emulate if you were to write a novel
My responses follow.
I mentioned before that my favorite book on writing is Martha Alderson's Blockbuster Plots Pure & Simple. See my April 1st 2010 post for more about why it is my favorite.
The author I would emulate in my novel is Mary Doria Russell. Her first book, Sparrow, completely blew me away. It is a tale of difficulties, beyond language, that keep Earth scientists and clerics from communicating clearly with two intelligent species coexisting on another planet. The expedition occurs because the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) finally picks up signals alien signals. Scientists and the Roman Catholic Church plan and fund the space trip together.
My book, The Game, also looks at the differences between cultures, a foreign communal group that has recently relocated to Eastern Washington and the local people they meet. My two groups are not different as those in Sparrow, but I hope I can make them both as similar and as distinct.
It’s not that Ms. Russell’s three cultures cannot understand each other. Problems arise when the conclusions they draw from facts and observations are incomplete or incorrect. Assumptions based on those findings bring about totally unexpected results, though everyone is certain relations are caring and peaceful between the people of Earth and the two new cultures.
As a person who learns more from fiction than non-fiction, I appreciate how well Ms. Russell presents the fallacy of believing quantitative information is truth. Not only do facts tell only part of the story, they are necessarily viewed through our cultural sieve, something I want readers of The Game to experience.
Ms. Russell’s story continues in Children of God. The two books excel in creating complex cultures containing complex characters. Hers is not a tale of good and bad guys. Instead, each character has strengths and weaknesses and creates success or chaos depending on the situation. How I would enjoy creating characters as 3-D as hers!
Hopefully I can present your writing and fiction choices in a later blog.
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ReplyDeleteYou asked for (a) sources that I find helpful when I write, and (b) the author I would emulate if I were a writer.
ReplyDelete(a) Aside from the research required to be accurate, you are asking about the act of writing itself, and beneath that, creating. I would recommend The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, with whom I'm sure you are well acquainted. She has other intriguing titles. And don't forget to check out Janet Asimov's How to Enjoy Writing.
(b) Just to pick out one of recent note, I'm fond of Dean Koontz's ability to create real-life characters who have a certain something, an extra quality that makes them special, and who're usually pitted against very evil and/or psychotic bad guys, making for dramatic reading. He mixes in cultural observations, philosophies of life, and tangible descriptions of nature very effectively as well. Anyway, my 2 cents.