Comments on: Give Me Narrative or Give Me Death

By: S.C. Butler

S.C. Butler — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:19:12 +0000

Adele – I can read badly written sf if the ideas are good (but just barely). Trad fantasy, on the other hand, puts me right to sleep no matter how good the action, if it’s badly written.

By: Adele

Adele — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:18:06 +0000

Action is one of those genres where a mediocre book can still be a lot of fun. Trad fantasy and sci fi, in fact most other genres, if it’s poorly written it’s a really hard slog to read. I find the same with movies, a bad action movie can still be enjoyed on the basis of the action scenes alone, a sci fi that fails to build a believable world throws you out of the mood of the film so often as to be unwatchable. So yes, if you lined up ten really mediocre to poor books in front of me i’d pick action, if they were really good books it wouldn’t get a look in.

By: S.C. Butler

S.C. Butler — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:18:35 +0000

James, Alma, Tim, Memory – “Character is action.” You’re right, it is. Jay and Marie pointed it out too. The question I then find mysef asking is, “Do plotless literary novels therefor have no characters?”

By: S.C. Butler

S.C. Butler — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:08:05 +0000

Megan – Yeah, I want it all too, but I find that, the older I get, the harder it is to find it all. And I agree with you about poetry and music, too.

By: Memory

Memory — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:46:06 +0000

Character, all the way. I’ve often said I’d read a poorly written cereal box if I loved the characters, and I stand by that.

(Of course, I rarely find that I engage with characters who don’t do a durned thing, and good writing generally helps push ‘em along…)

By: Tim of Angle

Tim of Angle — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:59:21 +0000

Interesting characters doing interesting things. Without that: No story.

By: Alma Alexander

Alma Alexander — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:01:49 +0000

A story is a character with a problem. So long as you remember that it should come out okay in the wash…

By: James Enge

James Enge — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:47:01 +0000

I guess I want stuff to happen and the main character(s) to do stuff. It doesn’t have to be explosions and car-chases (or the equivalent for a given genre), but I don’t want to read about them sitting around Being Wonderful or Being Wicked or merely being acted upon by others.

John Hocking puts it well, I think: “Character is action.” (Or maybe it was the other way around.) Characters are what they do–not what people (including the storyteller) say about them.

By: S. Megan Payne

S. Megan Payne — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:35:35 +0000

I’m selfish. I want it all. I want the writing to be beautiful, the characters to be real, the action to be edge of the seat. And most of the time, I get it too! Be discriminating long enough and you tend to find what you want.

However, gun to my head. Action, characters, or language.

If this is a book of prose…

Character! All character, nothing but character, and intense character, if you please. I’ll take it. I can do with relatively actionless stories if something internal is happening instead. It’s got to be deep and real though.

If this is poetry or music…

I’ll take the beauty. Couldn’t care less about anything else.

By: S.C. Butler

S.C. Butler — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:58:51 +0000

Four comments so far, and everyone’s leaning toward character or action. Just what you’d expect at a genre site, right?

Dave – I come from a long line of content providers to vacation photographs myself. Action, action, action!

Jay – I’ve never thought of Conan or Flash Gordon as characters who are separate from their actions. But then, what great characters are? Plot is character, as someone once said.

Adam – I’ve never read the book, thought it’s hard to imagine King writing something where nothing happens.

Marie – Can’t wait to read your post. You’re absolutelu right, of course. See my note to Jay.