Monday, April 20, 2009

Question. All thoughts would be lovely on the subject.

Each writer has a unique voice and writing style. We all know that.

There are times when I read another author and I think they way they wrote the book was brilliant. Like, Ann Dee Ellis, in This Is What I Did. The way she showed her main character's silence was so cool.

Recently, I found a video segment online where Laurie Halse Anderson is talking about her book Wintergirl (I think that's what it was called anyway). The main character is anorexic and to show her thought process in an artistic and unusual way, Halse types out the first thought like, "Oh, that pizza looks good." and then she'd literally crosses it out and types her character's next thought, "Don't eat. Don't eat." It's published with the crossed out thought in the book. Does that make sense? It's hard to explain.

Well, when I was listening to Halse speak about it I realized that would be such a fun thing to do with my character. A traumatic event happened to her when she was 10 and since then she has disappeared into herself. But she still has real thoughts. So, can I use Halse's idea of crossing out thoughts? Or is that stepping on another author's geniusness? I totally don't want to look like I'm copying the idea (even though I would be), I just think it totally rocks. Opinions?

And I totally won't take offense if people are like, "Heck No! You can't do that." I just need to know some thoughts.

Ashley

5 comments:

  1. Ashley, I've seen the crossing out lines in many books. It's okay. =)

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  2. It's not plagiarism, and it's a brilliant idea that I've seen a number of times. I don't see any problem with drawing inspiration from other people's writing styles. In Ann Dee's book, I LOVED when she would write

    Me:

    And then nothing. Profound and genius!!

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  3. Hi Ashley,

    I found you through Don's blog.

    It was great to meet you at the conference. I thought you were very articulate and had great insights into writing. Good luck with your projects!!

    -Jewel

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  4. Hello Ashley,

    I second what Jewel said--you are very articulate and everything you said at the critique table was right on target. It was a pleasure to meet you. I've added a link to your blog from mine.

    Best,

    Lori

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