tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post4055784838733599317..comments2023-10-22T05:06:12.331-07:00Comments on Elizabeth Bradley Fiction - Bits & Bytes: Where Am I? And What Do You Look Like?Elizabeth Bradleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03150221675618198674noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-39991923328911705042009-10-30T14:59:59.872-07:002009-10-30T14:59:59.872-07:00This is fantastic Elizabeth! I know it is going t...This is fantastic Elizabeth! I know it is going to sound kind of strange but now that I am writing so much more fiction I have actually started reading more as well. Surprised I wasn't a reader all along? Well for me reading is very slow and my ADD tends to distract me so much I end up never finishing. Now that we are watching far less tv in this house and got library cards its on. Well, as soon as NaNoWriMo is over (yikes!). I am a chick who likes to live in the fantasy in her own head so I suppose reading that genre will be where I begin :-]CSD Faux Finishinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05947691876538206892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-77052705346338941312009-10-29T08:57:59.930-07:002009-10-29T08:57:59.930-07:00Great post about a great subject. I tend to over-d...Great post about a great subject. I tend to over-describe, but I suppose that goes along with being a Cajun. One of my favorite descriptive writers is James Lee Burke, who is also from Cajun Country. Coincidence or not, I love his writing!Margueritehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15846051579802335412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-85087493042193428632009-10-28T13:49:21.496-07:002009-10-28T13:49:21.496-07:00John Steinbeck's description of the turtle cro...John Steinbeck's description of the turtle crossing the road in The Grapes of Wrath is absolutely brilliant and classic...but of course, it isn't about a protagonist, but holds symbolic significance to the novel as a whole!!! These are inspiring examples of description, Elizabeth!!! Fabulous set of authors which you highlight here!!! I am inspired! You really make me think deep about the writing craft! Love it! ~Janine XOSniffles and Smileshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10073156486641622612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-71544401856374346232009-10-28T10:36:32.558-07:002009-10-28T10:36:32.558-07:00I love the grandmother in Flannery O'Connor...I love the grandmother in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find." She is so completely real and so completely obnoxious. O'Connor describes the daughter-in-law's face as "simple and innocent as a cabbage." <br /><br />Such common words, yet so powerful.Anne Spollenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12915171740680350711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-84465277412297729532009-10-28T09:08:34.882-07:002009-10-28T09:08:34.882-07:00"His mouth was glued to a half-smoked cigar t..."His mouth was glued to a half-smoked cigar that seemed to grow out of his mustache. It was hard to tell whether he was asleep or awake, because he breathed like most people snore."--- Shadow of the Wind. :)<br /><br />Great post, Elizabeth! I'm not good with description, but you're inspiring me.<br /><br />Elizabeth<br /><a href="http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow"> Mystery Writing is Murder</a>Elizabeth Spann Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15625595247828274405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-70084492466857675072009-10-28T08:51:34.984-07:002009-10-28T08:51:34.984-07:00Wow, I loved all of your choices! I really need to...Wow, I loved all of your choices! I really need to read all of those books.Nancyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13178290697351352495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-48449660170757018082009-10-28T07:21:02.838-07:002009-10-28T07:21:02.838-07:00Love the topic, Elizabeth! I tend to lean on the ...Love the topic, Elizabeth! I tend to lean on the spare side when it comes to physical description. But I'm still learning. :)<br /><br />I'm going to have to do a little digging to find some great examples to share...the previous comments are fascinating!Stacy Posthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06173884527586018375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-51813406528658841372009-10-28T05:34:02.410-07:002009-10-28T05:34:02.410-07:00I love this post because it reminds me of why I co...I love this post because it reminds me of why I could never be an author. I don't have the attention span. Too many decisions. Too many rules. But I have a great respect and love for literature. A great respect and love for you!<br /><br />Here's an amazing piece of writing... can you guess whose?<br /><br /><i>"Grandma won't talk to Mam anymore because of what I did with God in her backyard. Mam doesn't talk to her sister, Aunt Aggie, or her brother Uncle Tom. Dad doesn't talk to anyone in Mam's family and they don't talk to him because he's from the North and he has the odd manner. No one talks to Uncle Tom's wife, Jane, because she's from Galway and she has the look of a Spaniard. Everyone talks to Mam's brother Uncle Pat, because he was dropped on his head, he's simple, and he sells newspapers. Everybody calls him The Abbot or Ab Sheehan and no one knows why. Everyone talks to Uncle Pa Keating because he was gassed in the war and married Aunt Aggie and if they didn't talk to him he wouldn't give a fiddler's fart anyway and that's why the men in South's pub call him the gas man."</i><br /><br /><i><b>Angela's Ashes</b></i> by Frank McCourt<br />Chapter V, page 132<br /><br />But my favorite book of all time is <i><b>The Giving Tree</b></i> by Shel Silverstein. A children's book, perhaps, but with a gigantic universal message.<br /><br />Thanks for another fabulous post.Boozy Toothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10765083787738573580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-43024334901629319282009-10-27T18:10:50.547-07:002009-10-27T18:10:50.547-07:00I tend to like concise descriptions. They don'...I tend to like concise descriptions. They don't go on and on, but the words used are so visual that you can see the character and even understand their thinking.<br /><br />Helen<br /><a href="http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Straight From Hel</a>Helen Gingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09794759602654727110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-26587753699505464662009-10-27T17:30:36.004-07:002009-10-27T17:30:36.004-07:00I'm learning to thread description in through ...I'm learning to thread description in through my characters actions and emotions, even conversation. <br /><br />Hard lesson to learn.Tamika:https://www.blogger.com/profile/04874834971492028558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-14910660209997659662009-10-27T17:24:37.329-07:002009-10-27T17:24:37.329-07:00I'm new at writing fiction. When I envision a ...I'm new at writing fiction. When I envision a character I concentrate on his/her needs and passion that will eventually be his downfall too. I'm a minimalist when it comes to description, just the basics.Rosaria Williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03133147851332084180noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-12347901315569729662009-10-27T17:14:05.989-07:002009-10-27T17:14:05.989-07:00I'm with Stacey, I loved the description of Eu...I'm with Stacey, I loved the description of Eustacia Vye. Oddly, that didn't turn out to be one of my more favorite Hardy novels, but E.V. was so clear and striking. <br /><br />Given the choice, I want the chiclit descriptions. I need to know what she's wearingggg, tyvm. <br /><br />Another description I loved was in Vernon Lee's novella "Amour Dure." of the unforgettable Madea da Carpi, seen in a portrait:<br /><br />"(Her)lips give a strange air of refinement,at the same time, an air of mystery, a somewhat sinister seductiveness; they seem to take, but not to give. The mouth with a kind of childish pout, looks as if it could bite or suck like a leech. The complexion is dazzlingly fair, the perfect transparent roset lily of a red-haired beauty; the head, with hair elaborately curledplaited close to it,adorned with pearls, sits like that of the antique Arethusa on a long, supple swan-like neck."<br /><br />The story is so ponderously written in the beginning, that I nearly gave up any number of times. But in the end, it ended up being worth the early effort. I think Madea da Carpi is one of the most unforgettable women in all of fiction.Fireblossomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07040525704916368792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-15274304185644618932009-10-27T16:45:26.768-07:002009-10-27T16:45:26.768-07:00Oh boy - isn't it all description of some sort...Oh boy - isn't it all description of some sort! Spare or lush as long as it transports me. I still remember reading a 007 at the age of 12 and rhapsodizing over the description of Bond sucking a sea urchin spine out of a woman's arch. oooooh! <br />Here's a bit from the first chapter of Barbara Gowdy's Mr. Sandman:<br />"To be fair, though, there was something unearthly about Joan. She was born with those pale green eyes, and the hair on her head, when it finally grew in, was like milkweed tuft. That fine, that white. And look how tiny she was! Nobody in the family was tiny. Nobody in the family was anything like her, her real parents least of all. Sonja was fat, and had dark brown corkscrew hair and brown eyes. The real father was an orange-haired giant, eyes a flat creamy blue like seat-cover plastic." <br />I love it!Jan Morrisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01771180344305042855noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-25888162495121415552009-10-27T16:19:01.849-07:002009-10-27T16:19:01.849-07:00Here's one of my favorites, of place ...
&quo...Here's one of my favorites, of place ...<br /><br />"Sometimes on a sunny day it began even to be pleasant and genial, and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps."<br /><br />The gardens at Lowood, from Jane Eyre.Joannehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03972054718663959694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-11432863277833669222009-10-27T15:43:17.936-07:002009-10-27T15:43:17.936-07:00I don't write with a lot of description myself...I don't write with a lot of description myself. I like giving tidbits, but not whole bits :)<br /><br />One of my favourite descriptions off the top of my head is the 1st paragraph of Farenheit 451. Love the description of the fire, the hose, the burning. Very powerful stuff.Jemi Fraserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02214408467456320167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-43384330735543744012009-10-27T15:27:38.065-07:002009-10-27T15:27:38.065-07:00I am such the wrong person to ask because I only r...I am such the wrong person to ask because I only read magazines like Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly. But when I do break down and read a book the one author I have read repeatedly is Jon Krakauer and I enjoy his books. I have his new book about Pat Tillman and look forward to taking some time to read it. My favorite book of all time is "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas.Mr. Shifehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07061232966394052314noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-71076628571615423872009-10-27T14:35:52.921-07:002009-10-27T14:35:52.921-07:00I remember loving the description of Eustacia Vye ...I remember loving the description of Eustacia Vye in RETURN OF THE NATIVE by Thomas Hardy...<br /><br />I wanted to be her, or maybe I am her...<br /><br />much loveStacey J. Warnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08059617724860253448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-54482508179556471062009-10-27T14:32:10.918-07:002009-10-27T14:32:10.918-07:00Here goes: Colette's "Cheri"..
He w...Here goes: Colette's "Cheri"..<br /><br />He was standing in front of a pier-glass framed in the space between two windows, gazing at the reflection of a very youthful, very good-looking young man, neither too short nor too tall, hair with the blue sheen of a blackbird's plumage. He unbuttoned his pajamas, displaying a hard, darkish chest, curved like a shield; and the whites of his dark eyes, his teeth, and the pearls of the necklace gleamed in the over-all rosy glow of the room. <br /><br />Later, there is relentless discussions, and rewinds about the description of both lovers, over and over as they each race to age; She had a healthy head start.<br /><br />I am afraid that I tend not to share enough details, and so the vision I hold in my head may differ greatly from the one I am offering.TERI REES WANGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14948438335395055496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6981771317071817483.post-9846200533253577122009-10-27T13:38:19.312-07:002009-10-27T13:38:19.312-07:00Some aspiring writers just bury the narrative thre...Some aspiring writers just bury the narrative thread in so much detail and description that it is a chore to wade through it.<br />I like spare with deep echoes. My novel "Aloha Where You Like Go" is a mere 140 pages. I'd rather entice and tickle than overhwelm!<br /><br />Aloha, Friend!<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://comfortspiral.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Comfort Spiral</a>Cloudiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05853753108637831069noreply@blogger.com