FANTASY designates a conscious breaking free from reality. It applies to a work that takes place in a nonexistent and unreal world such as a fairyland, or concerns incredible and unreal characters, or relies on scientific principles not yet discovered or contrary to present experience, as in some science fiction or utopian fiction. FANTASY may be employed merely for whimsical delight or it may be the medium for serious comment on reality.
FANTASY is not my genre, but oh how I loved The Hobbit, one of my favorite books ever. Why is that, fantasy readers? Why would someone who can't stand to get past one chapter of a fantasy book (I only read Harry Potter to see what all the fuss was about), have The Hobbit as one of her favorites? I don't know the answer to that.
(This post has been inspired by and in some instances, directly quoted from A Handbook to Literature, 8th Edition, by William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman)
Showing posts with label fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fantasy. Show all posts
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
D is for Description
DESCRIPTION is one of the four chief types of composition (along with argumentation, exposition and narration) that has as its purpose the picturing of a scene or setting. Although sometimes used for its own sake (as in Poe's Landor's Cottage) it more often is subordinated to one of the other types of writing, especially to narration, with which it most frequently goes hand in hand.
If you write YA, go easy on the DESCRIPTION. Younger readers love dialogue and will avoid a book that has large paragraph blocks describing the environment. Keep your descriptive passages brief and include in the dialogue tags to make your story a fast read.
Some genres are known for fuller use of description, such as fantasy where the readers need to visualize the world created in the story. And literary fiction. In fact, in these particular genres, if the author doesn't utilize DESCRIPTION properly, their readers will feel cheated.
(This post has been inspired by and in some instances, directly quoted from A Handbook to Literature, 8th Edition, by William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman)
If you write YA, go easy on the DESCRIPTION. Younger readers love dialogue and will avoid a book that has large paragraph blocks describing the environment. Keep your descriptive passages brief and include in the dialogue tags to make your story a fast read.
Some genres are known for fuller use of description, such as fantasy where the readers need to visualize the world created in the story. And literary fiction. In fact, in these particular genres, if the author doesn't utilize DESCRIPTION properly, their readers will feel cheated.
(This post has been inspired by and in some instances, directly quoted from A Handbook to Literature, 8th Edition, by William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman)
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