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Reading
Jun 22, 2009 19:04:30 GMT -5
Post by Juxapose on Jun 22, 2009 19:04:30 GMT -5
Lately during my off time at my job, I have been reading a book titled "Life is short but wide". It's not the best book in the world IMO, but it entertains me for the moment.
The point of this topic is to ask a question to everyone. In the last forum I have attended (HMOtaku.com), my fanfics were pretty hated because they claim that my fics lacked sufficient details. But as I picked up the book written by J. California Cooper (Apparently, a famous author since she wrote some bestsellers, and this book is a recommended read by the Essence Book Club), I noticed that her descriptions are lacking greatly.
I mean, with the exception of skin color, eye color, and some clothing descriptions every now and then, I have NO IDEA what any of the characters looks like in the story. Not only that, the story skips many details over and over, and over, I hardly know where I am half the time. in one paragraph, 5 years suddenly skip, and I ask, "Hello? WTF happened? One sentence, the couple get married. Then all of the sudden, the couple have kids, and are now in junior high school. Then the next thing I knew, the couple are dead? This author uses the least amount of description possible!!"
So I ask, what was wrong with my writing? I mean, I agree, I do sometimes skip descriptions of Harvest Moon characters, and what the village looks like. But that's because we are Harvest Moon Fans, and we all should know what everything/everyone looks like by default! (Unless we add new characters, or we would like to keep a mystery on which characters are present at a certain time.)
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Reading
Jun 24, 2009 4:32:06 GMT -5
Post by Pickle on Jun 24, 2009 4:32:06 GMT -5
I never found a problem with your writing.
I actually re-read your name twice, just to make sure that it was you and not someone else.
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Reading
Jun 24, 2009 17:35:47 GMT -5
Post by Butterscotch on Jun 24, 2009 17:35:47 GMT -5
I've always thought you found a good balance in describing the appearances of the HM characters and locations. Like you said, most people reading a HM fanfic know what they look like already. Even in orginal writing too many details can be boring. And in fanfics, when I get a detailed account Muffy's hair color, hair style, eye color, dress color and style, her shoes, her makeup, her perfume...my eyes glaze over. When I read your RF2 fic a while back, even though I hadn't played RF2, I was able to get a good idea of what people looked like, even without highly-detailed descriptions. The only thing I've noticed where you lack detail is describing emotions. You sometimes tend to tell us how they feel, rather than show us. Like, you'll write something like "Popuri felt sad", when something like "Popuri began to cry" conveys the same emotion and offers some description. "Show, don't tell" is hard to do, though. But that's the only thing I can think of when people say your fics aren't detailed enough. I think you've found that happy medium of character descriptions. Because of lack of detail? You have original ideas, your characterization is usually spot-on. Your stories are enjoyable.
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Reading
Jun 24, 2009 17:45:38 GMT -5
Post by Snake on Jun 24, 2009 17:45:38 GMT -5
I like your stories because your writing style is unique and the characterizations are good, so I can't imagine why they'd be hated. Did those posters say what they meant by details? The only thing I noticed is what Butters said about the emotions, but aside from that more description isn't really needed because it will just slow down a story.
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