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More details! The address of the Tangled Web is 7709 Germantown Avenue. The festival will have books there to purchase and sign. The plan is mostly just to sit and chat with folks, but I'll bring a bit of the short story to read if people want to gather and sit for a while. The 23 bus stops right in front if you are coming by public transportation. That area of Chestnut Hill, besides being full of writers that day, also has lots of charming shops and places to eat, so it will be a fun day. | |
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Went to the Peter Nero/Philly Pops concert in front of Independence Hall last night--lots of Aaron Copland and patriotic songs and "Sing, Sing, Sing" with the most amazing clarinet section--Benny Goodman, so yeah, of course there is one, but man, the guy last night was amazing. I am not a fan of big band music generally, but I think this is one of the most amazing pieces of musc ever. The link is to a Benny Goodman version because that is the famous one. Our drummer was, frankly, not as good as in the clip, but the piece overall was still pretty amazing. Once again missed fireworks--didn 't realize they were doing them over the bridge and I could walk down to the river and watch them, so Barb and I went off for gelato afterward instead. Not a bad choice between them, really. Hope all my American friendsd have a great fourth. | |
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In my last post, I said "And did I mention plot? I only read the good ones--I stop pretty quickly if they don't start to take me somewhere " and Rhymy asked:
What do you mean by pretty quickly? Can you work out where the plot is going in your head by the first chapter or so? Do you abandon a fic if you're not "drawn in" right away? I'd like to get your take on this.
I thought this was a pretty interesting question, so I moved it up to a post!
I do make some pretty quick decisions. For me, it is a two step process.
ETA: IT IS actually a three-step process. But a truly abysmal story usually reveals itself in the first paragraph or two, though I may give it a page just in the "I can't believe it will really be that bad, that clunky, that boringly put together all in the passive voice (and why did she think that was a good artistic choice?)" way.
Stories that are plotty may have any one of a variety of tempos that set the mood, but the pacing has a trajectory and you can tell pretty quickly that they are going somewhere. If a story goes for more than a page or two with a lot of petty details of daily life--got up, went to the bathroom, made coffee, drank coffee, brushed teeth, and nothing else is going on.... There may be a plot coming, eventually, but I won't hang around to find out. I'll be gone before he gets to his pants. Too static, and I am not, myself, that enamored of an excess of the quotidian in my fiction.
I like the scene sketched in, the telling detail, then we're off--plot, character, plot plot character, more characterplot. Catch me with a description of the color of his pants, maybe, if it is significant to the plot or an insight to the character or tells me something about the setting. Let me catch the mis en scene as we go.
Once I'm tooling along, the plot still has to be satisfying. It has to reasonably well written--glowing prose is great, but if it isn't going for style, it should at least not distract me with clunk (but I'll accept the occasional broken edit or correct the occasional minor error in my head if I really like the story). We've established that it has to move, and really, pacing is probably the most important thing to me. I have to be convinced--that character, in that situation, would do exactly that. I have to believe in the character in that story. I don't read Mpreg or stories that rely on characters suddenly acting stupid (unless stupidity is a character trait) or out of character for the plot to work because they offend my suspension of disbelief. I'll read stories about things I don't generally care about if you can convince me that a character I like does care. But the parts have to click--pacing, the logic of story and the logic of the heart. I'll read as long as I care what happens to those people, but I'll jump ship if you don't keep me caring or you get so tangled in a backwater of "then he put his right shoe on, then he put on the left, and then he..." that i get tired of waiting for you to pick up the plot and gallop again.
Sometimes I will come back to a story I dropped before and like it just fine-- a momentary distraction may have kept me from forming a proper attachment to the character the first time. But some things are pretty clearly not a good fit from the start.
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So I made resolution about ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) spn_j2_bigbang. I would read the kind of stories I like--with plots, gen and het and OMC slash, and J-squared AUs that are not about two actors on SPN. And did I mention plot? I only read the good ones--I stop pretty quickly if they don't start to take me somewhere pretty quickly. I almost always skip the sex scenes, so I bail on stories that spend too many words on the hot and heavy. I didn't figure there'd be that much left to interest me, really. So I thought the second part of my resolution--to read them in order as they came on the community side--would not be a problem. But it turns out that there are tons of wonderful stories and I have fallen behind, and some of the authors I really love have been popping up and I haven't had a chance to read them yet. But I will. I will catch up, honest. (No, I won't. They land on the comm faster than I can read them, but I will catch up to this week's by next week!) So far, the one that comes to mind after settling in a while in my head is The Accompanist. The story suffers from a lack of female characters, which is common in SPN but you'd think a writer that good would consider the other 50% of the universe. But, author made me cry like a fool and not in the obvious places. | |
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On July 11th, from noon until 2:00, I will be at the Book Festival in Chestnut Hill. I'm scheduled for the Tangled Web on Germantown Avenue. I don't have the particulars yet, but I'll let you know as I get them. Anybody else from the Philly contingent going to be there? | |
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Another message, crossposting to LJ. I am not sure what to do about the crossposting. I am not ready to give up LJ, but I hate to clutter everybody's mailbox with a million duplicate messages.
Meanwhile, back from DC, where I visited family and saw the National Symphony perform a little Delius and a lot of Richard Strauss. Very nice evening, which included a blinding rainstorm with high winds, hail, and lightning that struck a tree outside the Kennedy Center. Fortunately we were cozy inside, snacking at the cafe at the time, safe and dry with a ringside seat. | |
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This is my first entry on Dreamwidth. I am starting to explore--please let me know where to find you so I can friend my friends! And, btw, can you tell me where the SPN is!
My name on dreamwidth is Camille_Bacon_Smith. I think. I put a hyphen in my last name, but I think Dreamwidth turned it into an underscore. | |
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The movie was filming down the street was "The Best and the Brightest," which I think is a comedy about the competition for kindergarten set in New York. They have headed off to New York now. Our brush with fame is over! | |
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Went pavement diving on my way back from lunch today. Talk about taking it on the chin! Tripped on a slightly raised bit of pavement and went flying. Bashed my knee, both hands, and my chin. I was walking too fast, not paying enough attention, and I think, maybe, my left leg was dragging a little. It does that sometimes, because of my back. If I pay attention, I'm fin, but it is easy to trip at those times if I am not careful. And, unfortunately, I am never careful. Hoping it feels better tomorrow.
on the other hand, lunch at the Union Trust was really good. I had a rib-eye sandwich with swiss chard instead of fries. Yum.
In other news, somebody is making a movie around the corner, and there are paper signs all over --"set" pointing to the street, and "Holding" pointing at what was an empty store in our shopping plaza. They've been here for a week already, so I am guessing that the street will show up a lot in whatever it is. There are a ton of trucks and equipment out there and I am wondering if I should hang out and see who shows up. Does anybody know how to find out who's shooting in a given location?
In yet more not really news, So You Think You Can Dance is on--love this show!
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If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal. | |
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