Martin's Vow by Jason Atwood

Tell us what you thought about the September/October 2010 issue!
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Lester Curtis
Long Fiction Editor
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Martin's Vow by Jason Atwood

Post by Lester Curtis »

Creepy stuff . . . I could tell something ugly was going to happen at the end, but it was worse than I expected. Not bad.
I was raised by humans. What's your excuse?
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Lester Curtis
Long Fiction Editor
Posts: 2736
Joined: January 11, 2010, 12:03:56 AM
Location: by the time you read this, I'll be somewhere else

Post by Lester Curtis »

Welcome to the forum, aphesis -- and thanks for the new vocabulary word (peripety -- I had to look it up).
I was raised by humans. What's your excuse?
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Lester Curtis
Long Fiction Editor
Posts: 2736
Joined: January 11, 2010, 12:03:56 AM
Location: by the time you read this, I'll be somewhere else

Post by Lester Curtis »

1. Some people like very detailed descriptions of characters and settings. I'm not one of them. I think they bog down stories unless something mentioned in the description is an important plot element. The stories I enjoy reading rarely contain such long descriptions. I like that because I can use my imagination to fill in the blanks left by the author, and this more fully engages me in the story. It's more of a personal preference, but it wouldn't hurt to work on adding more description in such a way that it doesn't slow things down too much.
It seems that the amount of descriptive detail is a matter of preference with both the writer and the reader.

Your above quote makes me feel better about my current project -- I'm only including the sparsest detail so far, and I keep thinking, "I'm so lousy on setting; I need to fill in some stuff." But I haven't yet, and if I do, I think it will only be a word or two here and there. I'll find out when it happens -- or doesn't.

Oh -- and bottomdweller is a lady, FYI.
I was raised by humans. What's your excuse?
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