Leaf Prime
Word count: 1018
That’s not even counting half a Voyager filk I wrote on the side. I think someone at Boston Common doubts my 1,000 word resolution. The other linked post there says some interesting things about creativity.
Norman Spinrad’s article on style at the end of the July Analog also got me thinking about originality. (The must-read story of the issue, by the way, was “The Empress of Mars.”) He criticizes the “transparent” prose tradition of sci-fi, saying, basically, that alien worlds require unusual styles to convey them. Unfortunately his sample excerpts are of dialogue - I think the issue of suitably original dialogue is less controversial than that of an opaque prose style. Spicing up the dialogue is certainly less work than changing your entire writing style. It’s not clear that the latter is wise, if it’s even possible.
I suspect some people have styles that are like accents. Either you can drop that Boston accent and pronounce your r’s, or you can’t.
July 2nd, 2003 at 8:33 am
Doubt you? No way! I think what you’re doing is admirable. The reason I linked your initial comments with Daniel’s is because he had some interesting things to say about avoiding stagnation - and it seems like that’s something you’re doing as well.