Playing with Form
"This book is all over the place," I say.
The Calligrapher says, "That is because you are writing it correctly. It is not a straight narrative. It is a refreshment story."
"A what?" I ask.
"A refreshment story," the Calligrapher says. "A long narrative that often changes pace or style, and is told in... segments, usually themed."
"Like chapters," I say.
He says, "Somewhat. More tightly written than your chapters, which often seem to start and end in an arbitrary way."
I eye him. "I didn't really want to play with narrative forms in this novel."
He smiles. "No... but you knew you were telling it wrong, didn't you."
I sigh. "I didn't know Shame wrote poetry."
"I am glad you parse it correctly as poetry, and not as prose," the Calligrapher says.
"Even an alien gets it, sometimes," I say. And then, a little mournfully, "But you know we don't have "refreshment stories." This is going to make your book more difficult to sell."
He looks at the manuscripts the agent hasn't sold yet.
"Right," I say. "I shouldn't worry about that. I should worry about re-writing the beginning to be more thematic and encapsulated. Like a chapter, but not."
"The theme is paisath," the Calligrapher agrees. "Which you have mis-translated as a life-altering event. It is closer to an inevitability that happens to you because you are meant to change in some way."
"Paisath," I agree, and get to work.
***
I note that Monday April 23rd is International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, in which you give away a free piece of writing. I'd like to give away another incense story (for those of you who don't read on weekends, I posted one Sunday)... but not sure what about. What would you like to know more about? Or what would you like to feel?
Stardancer Home.
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haikujaguar) wrote,
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