What would your 10 be?
Somehow I surfed to this link:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/07/how-to-get-from-a-7-to-a-10/.
In it, the author says (paraphrased) "Stuck at a 7? What would a ten be?"
His premise is that 7, or 10, is perception-related, and that if you're not always going for 10 you're allowing yourself to at best stagnate and at worst sink backward.
I found this to be a resonant and interesting thought--not new, by any stretch, but having it presented as such got me thinking. Being (as usual) in a writerly frame of mind, I also got to thinking this might be a profitable discussion to have here.
This is a two-parter, then; what do you consider a "10" to contain, and how do you need to change what you're doing to get your work to that standard?
I'm not saying that everyone's "10" should be the same; quite the opposite, actually. But I'm hoping that through thoughtful discussion of what everyone's "10s" are, we can be exposed to different aspects of the craft, or different facets of the same aspect.
All that said, I'll start, since it's my topic.
For me to consider my work a "10," my work would have to:
+ Regularly contain memorable--even jaw-dropping--images that evoke the emotions in the reader that I want to evoke.
Analysis: I'm too often settling for "good enough" in the images I choose. I need to put more work into the imagination phase of every aspect of my work's imagery -- from setting to character actions to "set pieces" and so on.
+ Contain dialog that readers will remember and quote, not just for its snappiness but for its applicability and timelessness
Analysis: I'm good at naturalistic dialog that communicates ideas, but my characters don't often spout memorable things. In part, I think it's because they're talking about their lives and the story, with limited applicability to the outside world. I'll need to examine my work to see if that's the case. If it is, and if that's the cause of the dialog being immemorable, I'll need to broaden the horizons of at least some characters. I think this might be -a- reason, but not -the- reason; I'll need to look at dialog I consider memorable and figure out what makes it so.
+ Contain characters who attain at worst reality, and at best a sort of hyper-reality, that causes them to live on in reader's minds well after the book is closed.
Analysis: My characters do come off as "real", to an extent. I'll need to sit down and figure out what gives that "hyper-reality" sense, though, in things that I read. My earlier post, on "big" characters, was a first stab at this; I need to continue in that vein. The circumstances in which characters find themselves add to their reality/hyper-reality; I need to figure out how that works.
There's more that I can ramble on with, but I'll leave some for others. Anyone else want to play?
Somehow I surfed to this link:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/07/how-to-get-from-a-7-to-a-10/.
In it, the author says (paraphrased) "Stuck at a 7? What would a ten be?"
His premise is that 7, or 10, is perception-related, and that if you're not always going for 10 you're allowing yourself to at best stagnate and at worst sink backward.
I found this to be a resonant and interesting thought--not new, by any stretch, but having it presented as such got me thinking. Being (as usual) in a writerly frame of mind, I also got to thinking this might be a profitable discussion to have here.
This is a two-parter, then; what do you consider a "10" to contain, and how do you need to change what you're doing to get your work to that standard?
I'm not saying that everyone's "10" should be the same; quite the opposite, actually. But I'm hoping that through thoughtful discussion of what everyone's "10s" are, we can be exposed to different aspects of the craft, or different facets of the same aspect.
All that said, I'll start, since it's my topic.
For me to consider my work a "10," my work would have to:
+ Regularly contain memorable--even jaw-dropping--images that evoke the emotions in the reader that I want to evoke.
Analysis: I'm too often settling for "good enough" in the images I choose. I need to put more work into the imagination phase of every aspect of my work's imagery -- from setting to character actions to "set pieces" and so on.
+ Contain dialog that readers will remember and quote, not just for its snappiness but for its applicability and timelessness
Analysis: I'm good at naturalistic dialog that communicates ideas, but my characters don't often spout memorable things. In part, I think it's because they're talking about their lives and the story, with limited applicability to the outside world. I'll need to examine my work to see if that's the case. If it is, and if that's the cause of the dialog being immemorable, I'll need to broaden the horizons of at least some characters. I think this might be -a- reason, but not -the- reason; I'll need to look at dialog I consider memorable and figure out what makes it so.
+ Contain characters who attain at worst reality, and at best a sort of hyper-reality, that causes them to live on in reader's minds well after the book is closed.
Analysis: My characters do come off as "real", to an extent. I'll need to sit down and figure out what gives that "hyper-reality" sense, though, in things that I read. My earlier post, on "big" characters, was a first stab at this; I need to continue in that vein. The circumstances in which characters find themselves add to their reality/hyper-reality; I need to figure out how that works.
There's more that I can ramble on with, but I'll leave some for others. Anyone else want to play?
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