Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Writing Group => Topic started by: EUOL on May 17, 2004, 09:38:15 AM
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I'm not sure exactly what to call them. I'm talking about the short, tangential paragraphs that some authors put at the beginning of each chapter. DUNE is a good example, as are the Ender books by OSC.
I'm thinking of using them in my current book, but I'm a bit torn. The truth is, I usually ignore them when I read books. It's bad of me, I know, and I try to go back and read up on them in-bulk after five chapters or so, but when I'm actually reading I tend to skip over them (poems and songs too) because I want to get on with the story.
So, what about the rest of you. Do you like these things? Do you read them? Do you even care? Should I make the effort to add them?
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I rarely read them if they're longer then a quick quote, much like Mustards book that was the right length for me. Especialy since they usely have very little to do with the book or story its self, and I don't like being destracted from the story (which is why I'd be reading the book). What I hate the most about these is when an author is write a book about another world yet quoteing people like Shakespere or Churchill. I think it's more for Vanity's sake then anything else.
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I really enjoy them, if used well. In Dune, the quotes seriously expanded on the world. In Starship Troopers, they set tone a little, but were kinda in the way. I'd say don't use them as opposed to using them half-heartedly. Then again, I really like them there, sicne it gives me a kind of break from the story at the end of a chapter (a natural break as it is).
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I'd rather have the flow of story myself. It seems if you're world building in the chapter headings, you couldn't work it into the text proper.
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I take it you mean like Robin Hobbs assassin trilogy, where she added world information in half page long italics at the start of each chapter?
I read those. I skip songs and poems, they creep me out.
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So, here's what I'm thinking.
The antagonist in this book is a faceless "Evil Overlord" type who oppresses everyone, but doesn't actually get much screen time. Mid-way through the book, some of the characters find an old journal of his that he wrote in before he became super-overlord-man, and read it to gain some insight to who he is. I currently have three chapters that include several pages of material from this journal, and I've considered starting every chapter off with a brief paragraph from it, to give flavor to his story. It would kind of create a mini first-person narrative going on amongst the third-person novel.
I worry about doing this because:
A) He is supposed to be the bad guy, and I don't know if this logbook humanizes him too much.
B) Like I've said, I don't always read these things at the beginnings of chapters myself.
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What's so wrong with humanizing the bad guy? I can see how it would be a problem if he were not human.
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Nothing's wrong with it in the right story. (Hum. This could be its own thread....)
However, in order to make a bad guy both a good antagonist and sympathetic, I think you have to give them a lot of screen time--perhaps even a viewpoint. I don't have room for that in this particular book, and I think antagonist makes a better 'Sauron' style evil as opposed to a 'Gollum' style evil.
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This why the Sword of Truth series would be helpful right now. Richard had a similar thing happen to him in one (maybe more than one) of the books. He found this guys journal and it was shown that he read it, but only told of the more important parts when he was asked about it, or we were shown his thoughts on it.
I guess it depends on how its used in the story.
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Personally, if you can get them done in good flavor, the journal entries sound like a brilliant idea. Maybe if you put them at the beggining of related chapters, so you don't ALWAYS have a little blurb. That would get annoying, I must admit, like Into the Wild. Just when they are relavent.
And I don't think humanizing a sauron type evil is bad at all. I don't think that just because someone has a deeper insight to the mind of their enemy it means they must show empathy, even for the protagonist. I like the stories where you, as the reader, get to choose whether or not you are empathetic to the villain, so humanizing the villain without necessarily changing the story shouldn't be a huge deal...
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And I don't think humanizing a sauron type evil is bad at all.
Sorry, Gorgon. But I DEFINE Sauron-type evils as ones that are intentionally left vague and inhuman. It's one major form of villian. If you humanize such a villan, you change them into a different category.
It's certainly good to humanize villians sometimes. However, if you do it to an evil like Sauron, I believe it changes the story drastically.
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Yep. Maybe make the journal from the Mouth of Sauron, so to speak. Or Sauron's mom. :)
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Sauron's Mom would be a great name for a band </Dave Barry>
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In answer to your original question, EUOL, I read them as well. I even read the poems and songs, but that's more my personality than a testimony that poems and songs are a good idea to include.
I like David Eddings prologues. The prologues in the Tamuli series are especially humorous. If your novel were divided into parts you might insert a journal entry at the beginning of each part, space them out a bit.
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I usually ignore quotes and stuff at the start of chapters, unless they are written really well and add a lot of ambiance to the story. Kind of like background singers.
As for humanizing your villian. That's rarely a bad thing, unless your villian really is supposed to be a bad since he/she was created kind of villian. Think about all the effort that has gone into humanizing Hitler, Attilla, Ghengis Khan, et cetera. They were human, but they did inhuman acts. Showing that turning point where someone human chooses to be inhuman (subhuman?) is literary gold when done right. When done poorly, it's annoying, trite or just dumb.
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I actually, really like chapter headings that kind of tell a seperate story to go along with the actual story. The same with poems, songs, and stuff. I don't really care for stuff that just seems like filler.
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I tend to read most things at the start of chapters, though poems and songs I don't usually read. I found though that the best length which suited me where the quotes at the starts of chapters from characters from the world ie. 'Elminster, A making of a mage'. They aren't long, but they give the story a flavour and are memorable.