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Do Young Authors Write Differently in a Visual Age?

Meadow337

Meadow337

Former Moderator
I had this thought just now - having just finished Cloud Atlas which was absolutely written in a visual style and thinking of other modern authors I have read (particularly action seems afflicted with it) like Will Adams, Stephen Coonts (who admits to doing it), Simon Toyne, and Thomas Greanias even the Dexter books by Jeff Lindsay who write in a very visual style - it's like writing 101 and movie retelling 101 got confused.

So I wondered if growing up on action movie and video games in a very visual era whether that is affecting how people write? Are we going to be seeing more and more books that are written using movie making cuts aways and shifts in scene and read like some one is telling you the movie?
 
Hi Book and Reader, glad to be here!

I'd have to say that some do, some don't. There are still some very lyrical and descriptive authors coming through, (just look at The Time Traveller's Wife) but also there are many young writers who are embedding their visual language into their stories. I don't think this should put anyone off, however! Remember that many of the classic authors of the Victorian era were considered scandalous and ground-breaking to their time. Particularly Dickens, who wrote to be read aloud and almost acted out by the reader.

Self promo deleted
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi Ian,

:Welcome

Good to have your opinion.

Just a quick note. I deleted the links from your post. You may add a DISCRETE link to your signature (look in the settings menu - click on your name top right of the screen when logged in). I suggest you look at few other users signatures to get an idea of what is acceptable.
 
totally fine but in your signature not in the post otherwise it will be deleted as self promotion :) dems da rules
 
Meadow337 said:
I had this thought just now - having just finished Cloud Atlas which was absolutely written in a visual style and thinking of other modern authors I have read (particularly action seems afflicted with it) like Will Adams, Stephen Coonts (who admits to doing it), Simon Toyne, and Thomas Greanias even the Dexter books by Jeff Lindsay who write in a very visual style - it's like writing 101 and movie retelling 101 got confused.

So I wondered if growing up on action movie and video games in a very visual era whether that is affecting how people write? Are we going to be seeing more and more books that are written using movie making cuts aways and shifts in scene and read like some one is telling you the movie?
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I wish I were familiar with the evolving styles of modern authors [your title asks about young authors] to answer with some precision, but "young" seem to be largely out of my reading stream, and the "modern" ones you mention are largely unknown/unread by me.

However two thoughts are prompted by your question. "Making cuts away and shifts in scene" have been noticeable in avant-garde and post-modern authors for some time -- whether or not that means they have been influenced by thoughts from movie-writing. Second, modern technology has been used in modern literary fiction apart from action stories.

Thomas Pynchon comes to mind for his au courant (and post-modern) writing. although he is by no means young. I have seen favorable comment that he is way ahead of most authors in his understanding and use of technology in his writing. Gravity's Rainbow comes to mind and Bleeding Edge, much more recently. The latter includes a description of one character's immersion into an alternative modern-reality emulation via an interactive digital game-like interface, which is mind-blowingly vivid and out there; something which I would guess that modern games-makers would drool to be able to emulate. Or, just think of hearing of a TOR network for the first time in a novel -- again Bleeding Edge. The title means beyond the "cutting edge," and its technology reads like it.

As a final thought, I would think that any author who was not tilting his writing toward easy adoption by movie makers is marching slower than the crowd, just as any programmer who is not writing apps for hand-held whatever is missing a bet (and may already have missed it).

These are just some thoughts that have been prompted by the tips of technological icebergs that I have noticed here and there in literature.
 
I agree with you, in part, I think though that the technique must complement the narrative flow and not jar you out of it. I also think that it is inevitable that the world influences writing, after all we write out of our experience, but there is still a duty to tell the story in a way that draws the reader in and being too 'MTV' about it is not very comfortable to read.

However in a situation such as you describe when the author is writing about a simulation / emulation of a game, alternate reality, sci-fi type thing - it can enhance the immersive experience.

I think what I'm really complaining about is where it isn't backed by a deeper appreciation for the narrative and has replaced it where it shouldn't.
 
Meadow337 said:
I agree with you, in part, I think though that the technique must complement the narrative flow and not jar you out of it. I also think that it is inevitable that the world influences writing, after all we write out of our experience, but there is still a duty to tell the story in a way that draws the reader in and being too 'MTV' about it is not very comfortable to read.

However in a situation such as you describe when the author is writing about a simulation / emulation of a game, alternate reality, sci-fi type thing - it can enhance the immersive experience.

I think what I'm really complaining about is where it isn't backed by a deeper appreciation for the narrative and has replaced it where it shouldn't.
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Yes, chopped up narratives are confusing to read; Cloud Atlas, the book, being the deliberately prime example. But The Sea by John Banville was another with a very non-linear narrative. I don't know what to say. Some authors just do it (for reasons I don't know), but I thought both of those two books were excellent.
The extreme example I have seen is a book where the pages were to be read in random order, with each page telling you which page number to read next. Now that one did not wiggle me at all. Worse yet, I thought the story was just plain ignorable when all was said and done. A total waste of time and effort.
 
Finally found a passage that illustrated what I mean:

She wanted to turn around but the track was too narrow; and the hillside was too steep and the corners too sharp to make reversing practicable. She pressed on in increasing dismay until she reached a heap of broken rock and loose debris left across the track by a small landslide. She crossed it at crawling speed, leaning almost sideways in her seat. Her relief at making it safely to the other side lasted only to the next hairpin when the track turned back on itself and she reached the place from which the landslide had fallen. The surface was completely gone. There was no possible way forwards. She was trapped.

She gave a yell of frustration. Her cry echoed forlornly. A wild dog barked. Her father and sister were depending upon her, and she was already grotesquely late. She needed to get back to the main road right now. With no way to turn, she had no choice but to try reversing. Negotiating the hairpin backwards was a nightmare. She kept hauling on the hand-brake and leaning out the window to check her wheels weren't over the edge. Even after she’d successfully made it, she still had the buttress of rock to cross. It had been difficult enough going forwards. In reverse it was unbearable. Pebbles cascaded from beneath her wheels, clattering down the steep hillside until they were netted by the undergrowth. Each time she heard another miniature avalanche, her heart leapt. The Jeep was tilted so far over by now that she was pressed against the driver door, could see nothing in her mirrors.

And then, perhaps inevitably, the steady trickle of earth turned to a cascade, and the ground simply sheared away beneath her, and the Jeep began sliding down the hill like a ship launched sideways into the sea.

The whole style is very visual, like you are watching a movie rather than reading a book, but especially in the section I highlighted. The short sentences, it's like reading a movie script.
 
Meadow337 said:
Finally found a passage that illustrated what I mean:
The whole style is very visual, like you are watching a movie rather than reading a book, but especially in the section I highlighted. The short sentences, it's like reading a movie script.
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Ah, now I see your point! That is indeed a brilliant piece of visual writing. And as you say, you can just see the moving images. But, as to your general question, I'm still at a loss for an answer.
 
Peder said:
Ah, now I see your point! That is indeed a brilliant piece of visual writing. And as you say, you can just see the moving images. But, as to your general question, I'm still at a loss for an answer.
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If it was was just action books I could understand and semi-forgive the cross pollination. We don't live a vacuum and action junkies are going to be watching as much as reading and it is natural for the styles to influence each other.

But books like "Cloud Atlas" are not primarily 'action' stories, and that is where I start really going ... hmm not convinced about this.
 
Well, again perhaps tangential, I've just finished reading Madame Bovary, and Flaubert is nothing if not vividly and visually descriptive. But we writes in long sentences and paragraphs, rather than short choppy beats. But I also understand he has been called the father of narrative prose, especially for his care in finding exactly le mot juste and using the "telling detail." I have the feeling that, sentence length apart, he would have admired the action narrative you cited.

In further terms of visual description, I'll also add that Vladimir Nabokov is no slouch, having been called "painterly," but his use is not generally for an "action" purpose. You should read him describing a flower garden, or a static room, or an open meadow. :).
But anyway . . . just thoughts, spread over time.
 
IMO I think that young writers are using this "Movie" style of writing far to much and I have to admit that literature is worse off for it. I also think that there is a huge difference between and descriptive style of writing and this new trend, one brings you into the scene and the other is like someone is hitting to over the head with the words. IMO there is a total lack of grace in the writing. I think that the plots themselves are starting to lack, but that might be another issue. :) but that is just my opinion.
 
Sparhawk said:
IMO there is a total lack of grace in the writing.
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That short choppy style usually turns me off, too, seeming to me like an indicator of immaturity in writing. The emphasis in my schooling was certainly on more fluid and graceful expression of ideas. But in Meadow's example it seems to work.
I've often wondered how to describe writing "style" of various authors, usually when trying to write a review of an author whose style has appealed to me, and I have found that it isn't easy (for me). Meadow's example suggests to me that both style and content can fit together and can produce an impression greater than just the word content. alone. That is an interesting thought. But it is also fair to say that that is the first example of such a style that has impressed me positively.
So, in gereral I agree with you, Sparhawk.
 
Peder said:
I've often wondered how to describe writing "style" of various authors, usually when trying to write a review of an author whose style has appealed to me, and I have found that it isn't easy (for me). Meadow's example suggests to me that both style and content can fit together and can produce an impression greater than just the word content. alone. That is an interesting thought.
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I agree that a writing style can, if used properly, add a depth to a book or a scene in a book. Take the first page of the hobbit for example (something that I am fairly sure we have all read :D ) the way Tolkien describes Bilbos home, along with the style and rhythm of the writing, brings you instantly into the story and in touch with the character.
 
"Don't forget spelling ooops that should be - Don't 4get spelling".
Ha ha ha.
It will be in American rather than English, as that is the nationality of their spell check!
 
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