Comments on: Memory Sticks (2/9)

By: Wood

Wood — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:05:44 +0000

Since you’re the friend I stole the dashes from, that amuses me.

By: Miss Monica

Miss Monica — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:30:20 +0000

- Miss Monica was totally crucified for using conversational dashes by a recent writing teacher she had emphasis on past and tense. She still prefers dashes, however.

By: Chuck Wendig

Chuck Wendig — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:00:52 +0000

At least I didn’t take off my pants. I’ll do that.

By: Wood

Wood — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:13:12 +0000

Chuck, you have the enviable ability to make even the most innocuous praise seem utterly obscene.

By: Chuck Wendig

Chuck Wendig — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:40:21 +0000

First, present tense? I used to hate it. But now I love it. I love it so much, it’s been the voice in my last several projects — I’m revivifying a novel I sputtered out on, and bringing it forth into the present tense has given it a kidney punch.

Second, the dashes for dialogue. I’m generally not a fan of dialogue written out of the standard fiction style; I keep trying to read Charlie Huston’s “The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death,” and the unattributed dialogue drives me nuts.

Here, it works. Maybe because it’s sci-fi, maybe because it reads so cleanly online. I dunno.

But, you deserve kudos for creating success with often unsuccessful elements. Seriously. That alone makes Memory Sticks a big fat waggling thumbs-up.

– c.

By: Wilson A.

Wilson A. — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:03:51 +0000

This story is starting to draw me in. I can’t wait to see where it heads next.

The dashes for the dialogue is an interesting choice. If this were any other sort of a story I’m not sure how well it would work. To me it made me feel like I was reading a chat window or something. It enhanced the technological side of the story to me. Keep up the good work.

By: Wood

Wood — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:20:52 +0000

1. Present tense. I like the present. Mainly because it never works for me when I do it in the past.

2. The dashes, well. I stole that from a friend. It seems more immediate as well. More audible. If that makes sense.

By: Will

Will — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:19:13 +0000

This is where it starts to really pick up for me, Wood. You’ve got this great momentum in here, where we’re hearing these lines go by instead of reading them. It works.

Questions, though:

1. Why present tense? I’m using it more and more lately, and I know why I do it, but I’m curious why you’re doing it.

2. The dashes for dialogue. It feels more like inputs, then, and I like that, but is that why you chose to use them? I associate them with either old-fashioned fiction or somewhat detached fiction (like Paul LaFarge’s Artist of the Missing). Why’d you go with them?