From My Notebook #1
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Many writers keep a notebook or notebooks. These are something they keep with them at all times where they jot down ideas, observations, and random commentary. I see it as an important tool. It is interesting to look back upon, and to me it seems better than a PDA. I like holding a pen and writing to it...
W. Somerset Maugham even published a book called "A Writer's Notebook"...
occasionally I will enter an entry here...from my own "Writer's Notebook"--
What follows is the 2-20-07 entry:
"Lessons Continue: Sexton's book "Master Class in Fiction Writing" -- shows something I was just aware of. In concentrating upon Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" -- the whole experience (heheheh)--reading it; listening to audio books (CD), and seeing a movie version [reveals]...
As Sexton points out; Austen begins her novel with exposition; not scenes or action, or dialogue.
This is different from almost all modern writers.
I certainly could tell this, when reading the opening of "Sense and Sensibility" [I was immediately struck with a different sense about things]--a lot of exposition there.
Sexton points out that it's wise for modern writers NOT to overuse exposition; especially in openings--and instead to piece it out throughout a work.
Me? I'm happy to learn from this--although I'm a beginner at the art of fiction writing--the lesson is obvious and good.
Writer, beware!"
Comments
Exposition: The difference between LITERATURE *insert snooty british accented voice and upturned nose* and FICTION.
My thoughts on the matter? If anyone writes LITERATURE these days, hardly anyone reads it, and why? Because this is age of cinema. We like things fast... food, stories, reads, speed limit. People don't have patience anymore because we don't have to--and exposition takes patience.