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LOL! DomA Send a noteboard - 26/05/2014 10:03:50 PM

View original postI don't know about you, but to me that contrast is obvious. Nabokov manages to convey quite a bit of information without having to say much at all. Sanderson, by contrast, makes me want to clutch my head and scream out, "Too much description!" It's gross. It's vomited out on the page for people with no imagination. I'm surprised he didn't have Wax's vital statistics in a sidebar so that there would be no ambiguity about exactly how his hero looks.

Another good example of his weakness in this department is how many scenes he needs to write for the little plot development/character progression he must cover.

Jordan had what.. 2 Gawyn POVs in the whole series? And about what...20 scenes in which he appears? Sanderson had a ton of Gawyn chapters, completely useless except to him, because of his own admission he didn't "get" Gawyn, so we were given his "walk through" of trying to make sense of the character. All material which should have been considered "preparatory" and end up in the thrash can once he did "get" the character and was ready to move on.

He does that too in his own novels, a lot. It's very curious that writers from the "multi-tasking" and "fast-paced with lots of ellipses" generation used to TV/movies language very often suffer from this weakness, and seem condemned to a step-by-step pedestrian progression in their storytelling. As for abuses of bland descriptions, that seems to be a flaw inherited from trying to make things "cinematic" rather than literary.

Brandon has fairly little instinct for what needs to be told and what should be cut. That is linked in part with a weakness at handling inner thoughts of his characters, forcing him to have nearly everything happen "on screen" at length, when some things are worth only a brief allusion in later inner thoughts or dialogue. Similarly, he's not very good at showing progression through inner thoughts alone, forcing him to create a lot of unnecessary scenes to show the same.

I said it before: this guy missed his calling: he should be writing screenplays, not novels.



This message last edited by DomA on 26/05/2014 at 10:07:59 PM
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Friendly challenge to Larry and other literary "snobs" on the board..... - 25/05/2014 06:44:34 PM 1049 Views
As it happens, I wrote an example last year. - 25/05/2014 07:13:41 PM 1011 Views
Nice *NM* - 27/05/2014 02:43:53 AM 426 Views
Fair enough, but do you mind me waiting just a little bit? - 26/05/2014 04:57:18 AM 1014 Views
Re: Fair enough, but do you mind me waiting just a little bit? - 26/05/2014 09:10:31 PM 961 Views
I really should read Irving, I see - 27/05/2014 06:10:50 AM 879 Views
Re: I really should read Irving, I see - 28/05/2014 03:01:24 AM 879 Views
Promising opening paragraph, yes, but... - 26/05/2014 10:55:16 PM 774 Views
I think those shifts are part of the character, not something unintentional - 27/05/2014 06:08:44 AM 806 Views
So bad prose is okay if it is intentional? *NM* - 27/05/2014 03:54:34 PM 391 Views
Okay, I do of course miss the perspective of what comes after. - 27/05/2014 06:29:33 PM 704 Views
I proudly claim the title of literary snob, and will provide you with a quick, unscientific example. - 26/05/2014 08:15:04 PM 908 Views
LOL! - 26/05/2014 10:03:50 PM 1011 Views
Huh. Lana Del Rey quotes Nabokov... I had not made that connection. - 26/05/2014 11:17:47 PM 987 Views
That quote from Lolita sounds like it is from a romance novel with Fabio on the cover. - 27/05/2014 03:40:37 AM 801 Views
Bah! - 27/05/2014 07:50:15 PM 859 Views
Alloy of Law was great *NM* - 28/05/2014 08:16:26 PM 408 Views
Hell Yeah! *NM* - 28/05/2014 08:36:40 PM 371 Views
The audiobook was pretty great, as well. *NM* - 29/05/2014 09:19:07 PM 428 Views

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