Comments on What's Wrong With Serious Writers?

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I agree, Mae
Conflict, to me, is the most important part of characteration. ., which is the most important part of almost any story (or article.)

posted by Joe_Love on August 11, 2005 at 3:27 PM | link to this | reply

There has to be conflict to create the questions that bring a reader
through the story.  But it gets tiresome when the conflict is always the same,  when it never becomes more sophisticated than Good Guys and Bad Guys.  I find much more interest in the conflicts between man and nature, order vs chaos, old vs new...  Conflict in which no one is the clear Good Guy or Bad Guy, where evil is not the enemy, but something more specific, like The Perfect Storm, for instance.  Or a story in which the suspense is not about who will win in the end, but how will the tension be released, and the conflict resolved?

posted by Ciel on August 11, 2005 at 9:14 AM | link to this | reply

I think a writer can be serious...
No matter the genre... humor or horror. One must be serious about their craft first of all... the rest will follow.

posted by Transcendental_Child on August 9, 2005 at 2:38 PM | link to this | reply

Good advice I will take heed.

posted by SomeoneElse on August 9, 2005 at 1:52 PM | link to this | reply

Nothing like a bit of knicker-twisting is there Renigade3?

posted by Azur on August 9, 2005 at 1:40 PM | link to this | reply

Let's argue about it...

posted by Renigade on August 9, 2005 at 1:37 PM | link to this | reply

I think...
it's actually conflict that propels the plot.  Otherwise, the story is a little dead in the water, and runs the risk of being boring.  Conflict can be subtle and inward, or it can be downright explosive.  But conflict is important and is what elicits the necessary changes/growth in key characters, and it makes a story interesting.  Just my two cents.

posted by SilverMoon7 on August 9, 2005 at 9:26 AM | link to this | reply

Sounds like good fun. The book writing part I mean.
Good luck with the stuff you have to do now. Thanks for the tip. I should really get serious about writing - as in put in more time than I currently do.

posted by word.smith on August 9, 2005 at 9:25 AM | link to this | reply

NCWriter, the writer who gave the tip has written about some things that were all too 'real'

posted by Azur on August 9, 2005 at 7:48 AM | link to this | reply

I think
if writers allow themselves to write 'real' they won't be able to avoid conflict. It's a part of life. Any writer trying to avoid it, isn't a real writer...

posted by NCwriter on August 9, 2005 at 7:43 AM | link to this | reply

Dave Cryer, I should have been an official blogger for that festival. The one they had was lousy -- gushy with no good info.

posted by Azur on August 9, 2005 at 7:38 AM | link to this | reply

That festival has given you plenty of food for thought. Yes, conflict. I agree.

posted by _dave_says_ack_ on August 9, 2005 at 7:35 AM | link to this | reply