Writing revolutions
Two times in my life a book has completely revolutionized how I thought about modern fiction.
The first was Frank Herbert's Dune. Before discovering it I subsisted on a diet of classic literature spiced with pulp-ish sci-fi. My impression until then was that novels could either be thoughtful or entertaining, not both. Dune proved that wrong. I had never been so enthralled with a piece of fiction.
The world building was so believable, Dune might as well have been a record of our own alternate future. Characters were stiff but complex, revealing inner thoughts that betrayed plots within plots within plots. Individual wants and actions were shadows beneath massive, ancient institutions with their own grand designs. I never knew which struggle would leave which party the victor, or what the long-term outcome would be.
That is the main revolution Herbert gifted to me--fiction can be expansive while remaining rooted in the human. You can tell a story about a person's inner wars and constant struggles with those nearby, and that story can link to something bigger, something that doesn't pay off for 10,000 years. Scope, that's what Dune taught me, along with a deep appreciation for elevating cause and effect over flashy events.
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Second, Gene Wolfe is the kind of author whose fans speak his name with a trailing whisper, as an ancient Egyptian might mention a great pharaoh. It is said you haven't read a Gene Wolfe novel until your second time through, but even then, it's really only your first.
I started my Wolfe journey with Book of the New Sun. My reaction after reading the first chapter of the series: I'm not sure what just happened, but I feel like it was important. This was an author who wrote with words that weren't on the page. A few sentences is all it took to get me intrigued, yet with those sentences it's hard to point to what is so captivating. Nothing happens in Wolfe's books, yet everything is going on.
New Sun excited me, then Soldier of the Mist changed me. This book takes place in a fictionalized ancient Mediterranean and is told by a soldier who must write down his thoughts each day, as his memory dissolves by the next. We're left with a possibly unreliable narrator who doesn't know he's being unreliable, a fact complicated by Wolfe's subtle writing style and sumptuous prose. You have to think about this book to understand it, but you can't let yourself analyze it or you'll lose the trail.
The revolutionary door prop with Gene Wolfe was he gave me permission to write like I wanted to. I had learned that your writing style can be unique, but it must remain clear, approachable, and unfrustrating. Think about the reader and cater your words to make sure they can follow every step your story takes.
But Wolfe, he wrote as if he were there, explaining events as they happened in the only way they could be explained. There is an immediacy and a realness to his works that I quite admire.
(As an aside, Neil Gaiman has an incredible guide on how to read Gene Wolfe.)
These revolutions are on my mind lately, as one of my big efforts is taking a look at my writing style and refining it into whatever comes next. I'm not sure what that will look like, but I have a good idea. I'm sure there will be plenty of false starts, pretentious mis-steps, and epic backslides, but having signposts like the above in my hindsight feels like a good way forward.