21.10.2025 (1): Missing Something
Oct. 21st, 2025 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunshowerdandelionI wonder why my writing feels unknit, missing something final. Most of the published works I've read have had that missing something (meticulous editing? A plot flourish?). Maybe it's just direction - something less arbitrary, or a very tightly pruned chapter. Whatever it is, I am hunting rather desperately for it. There is something that I'm missing that makes my prose fall flat and makes my chapters inert. Maybe it's just that they've been written by native English speakers who've gotten criticism for their writing.
Reading: Last of Her Kind. The style is rather loose and not showy at all. There's a lot of back and forth and jagged paragraphs but the author does a very nice job at keeping things connected. The narrator - George - is genial enough to gently lead the reader. Ann is of course fascinating and I am very attracted to her genuine crusading.
Maybe the missing thing is function, and I guess my prose is guilty of wandering and meandering. Maybe a clarity of function, only seen after the fact of the draft chapter, and only achievable after much winnowing and fridging of my darlings. Goodness.
Reading: Last of Her Kind. The style is rather loose and not showy at all. There's a lot of back and forth and jagged paragraphs but the author does a very nice job at keeping things connected. The narrator - George - is genial enough to gently lead the reader. Ann is of course fascinating and I am very attracted to her genuine crusading.
Maybe the missing thing is function, and I guess my prose is guilty of wandering and meandering. Maybe a clarity of function, only seen after the fact of the draft chapter, and only achievable after much winnowing and fridging of my darlings. Goodness.
