For once, I'm not actually replying to anyone, but actually using this thread as it was meant to be used. Amazing.
Anyway, I just got finished reading
Dragon Keeper today. I started reading it while waiting for a certain event that never quite came to fruition, and then... well, I just kept reading it. Robin Hobb has a peculiar effect on me when I read her stuff: I tend to gloss over any problems, and thoroughly enjoy myself when I read her books. All of her characters are so
human, or rather, all of her characters are so
lifelike. (I wouldn't describe the animals she writes as humans, they are remarkably animal-like in their psychology) Some are more sympathetic than others, but all of her characters have moments where you want to reach through the pages, and shake them by the necks because they refuse to be anything but people. I know some people would have problems with this style of writing, but I very much enjoy seeing such a great reflection of reality in the midst of a fantastic world. I love to hate it, and this is why I read fantasy. Robin Hobb, and authors like her, are why I read fantasy.
It would stand to reason then, that I would like to
write like her. I would. Actually, being able to write so deeply from another's perspective is a goal of mine. I want to be able to write from the brain of a person who I believe is the deepest scum in the universe, and not make it into a caricature. I want to be able to write their arguments as if they were giving their very best, and the arguments that can't be easily dismissed. Those arguments that I ignore because I know there is truth to them but I don't want to admit that there is any part of them that could be right.
This is not what makes me sad. I can do this already. In fact, I can so thoroughly take on other perspectives that I can lose my own for some time. It's remarkably freeing, and a wonderfully emotional experience that I think everyone should try to experience at least once in their lives. Deep roleplaying is an experience to be savoured. It can also be very painful at times, but I tend to have some emotionally masochistic tendencies.
No, what makes me sad is the OTHER part of my writing. When I'm writing, I have to pull myself out of my great emotional roilings to describe the scene around the characters. My description of actions is well practiced. My description of appearances is somewhat stunted, but I can do some insightful things when the mood hits me. My description of SURROUNDINGS is abysmal. And if I want them to NOT be abysmal, I have to pull myself out of what I really want to be writing about. If you stop and really try to look for places in my writing, you will see that they are often hardly described at all, and if they are, they are only briefly mentioned before I move onto the things that are easier for me to write about. Sometimes,
sometimes, I get a narrative voice that can describe the surroundings well enough that it's passable. I've only written once of surroundings that I am proud of. I've been writing seriously enough for five years (and I've enjoyed writing for well over thirteen years), and this is still a problem for me.
And then I look at how Robin Hobb writes, and I look at how all the other authors I enjoy write... And I don't even compare. Scene setting is important, and I am missing a large part of what can enhance it.
I AM going to try practicing it more, as that's all I can do. This is just my observation that it is something that has made me sad today.