fiction writing — TRAVERSING Z

Ozymandias-Watchmen

There was a thread online about villains and tropes relating to such and it prompted me to think of this moment, though I think of it fairly often as it is. I’m old enough that I first read Watchmen when it was in (gasp) issues, this new thing from DC; it came out right when I was starting to look past the oft-predictable adventures of my Marvel and DC staples towards indie comics, the darker X-Men stuff, and soon this new imprint called Vertigo . . . heady times, I tell ya.

I still get residual chills from this panel. Because I had expected it all, you see: the description of the nefarious plan, the fierce fight to stop it that would probably injure or kill one of the “heroes”, and then the return to a world that never knew how close it came to destruction . . . I thought myself above such things, and yet I wholly expected the story to go that way. It was a lesson in how some structures become so deeply ingrained we don’t even realize it; it’s why, I think, I’m hypersensitive to any kind of story “rut” I fall into.

35 minutes. Not even five, or ten. Long enough to exercise, eat something, watch a little television. It’s a long time, 35 minutes.

so with my dfw rant still knocking about in my head a bit, I saw this in the river of text that is twitter:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on-fiction.html

and if i’m reading it correctly, i think it gives some credence to my soapbox demands for richer language. it’s not only that fiction makes you a better person, it’s that the details of fiction are what really engage the brain, that how the story is conveyed is as important (perhaps moreso?) than the tale itself. precise nouns, sensory adjectives, metaphor—all the ways that we can stretch our language past dick and jane are how we reach into our readers’ minds and keep them hooked. plot may keep the conscious mind turning pages, but it’s the language that stimulates the brain and makes the experience enjoyable, even pleasurable. Hurrah for words! Hurrah for detail, for rich prose, for slow fiction!