tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post8513796667532490604..comments2024-03-08T00:13:07.673-08:00Comments on Nancy's Blog: Descriptionadminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11442349453021015062noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-4426129006794848892009-07-28T04:20:26.592-07:002009-07-28T04:20:26.592-07:00Thank you, Mike -- I never had a song written for ...Thank you, Mike -- I never had a song written for me before!Nancy Kresshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09834410304227906387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-42758107809568898402009-07-27T14:28:00.810-07:002009-07-27T14:28:00.810-07:00The shadow book I almost wrote
It might have been ...The shadow book I almost wrote<br />It might have been my best<br />The shadow book I almost wrote<br />Just might have been my best<br />But like a child who learns to talk too slow<br />I keep it close to my breastbluesman miike Lindnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00730308789066832084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-64382188792028961952009-07-27T13:05:52.559-07:002009-07-27T13:05:52.559-07:00The great (and I do mean great) songwriter Jimmy W...The great (and I do mean great) songwriter Jimmy Webb said, "I wrote over a hundred songs before I realized I could leave things to the listener's imagination."bluesman miike Lindnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00730308789066832084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-25216621504206712052009-07-26T13:49:30.313-07:002009-07-26T13:49:30.313-07:00That's awesome, Mike. I'll have to steal i...That's awesome, Mike. I'll have to steal it!José Iriartehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03653811568201804995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-60972208599887832872009-07-25T13:08:48.775-07:002009-07-25T13:08:48.775-07:00The shadow book I almost wrote.
That is most exce...<i>The shadow book I almost wrote.</i><br /><br />That is most excellently said. <br /><br />+ + +<br />John Dunning, a mystery novelist [that is, one who writes novels of mystery, rather than a masked writer who surreptitiously... oh, never mind] once said that the trick of description is to <b>"describe the thumb so well that the reader thinks he has seen the entire hand."</b> <br /><br />He was likely quoting someone else, but the advice stands.TheOFloinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14756711106266484327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-20666746817100188612009-07-24T14:57:50.767-07:002009-07-24T14:57:50.767-07:00Thank you for sharing this, Nancy. It's reassu...Thank you for sharing this, Nancy. It's reassuring to know that authors I admire struggle with the same issues as I do. That means my lack of definitive answers won't be what keeps me from ever getting published.José Iriartehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03653811568201804995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695280310697378421.post-63668393048167363932009-07-24T14:31:29.530-07:002009-07-24T14:31:29.530-07:00This latter is why abstracts are bad; "beauty...<i>This latter is why abstracts are bad; "beauty" can mean different things to different people, but a "red vase of yellow dahlias" has a better chance of jumping the gap between my mind and yours</i><br /><br />This raises a question I've sometimes pondered, which is one of literal precision vs emotional subjective construction. Describing flowers as merely "beautiful" will necessarily invoke very different images in different minds. A "red vase of yellow dahlias" is more literally precise, but will inevitably still invoke differing images, though presumably somewhat less so. But I actually have no idea what a dahlia looks like, so that image of the flowers is probably no more precise for me than if you had just written "yellow flowers".<br /><br />Unless the species was somehow important, I might write something like "a sunburst of flowers", which implies the yellow as well as pressing associative buttons that the reader will automatically complete. I don't care if they see the same flowers I do, as long as they take away the same feeling I want the flowers to invoke.<br /><br />Or maybe the species isn't important, but "drooping dahlias" or "half-fallen tulips" gives me a reason to note the flowers, other than that they are there in a more or less Platonic, static state.<br /><br />But what do I know, I'm not (yet!) published. :)Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17710199217121149910noreply@blogger.com