the X is the Y

[adelaidesean]

"The work shapes the method. That is an insight I would put in the Common Book of Prayer right below what the very wise Gerald F. Reidenbaugh, Drama Department Chairman at Syracuse, said to the Shubert Fellow in September 1964 on the heart of playwriting: 'The structure is the vision.'"

(Barry Malzberg, "The Resnick/Malzberg Dialogues, XXXIV: Collaborations - Practice", The Bulletin of the SFWA)

Someone asked me just recently how I structure my novels. I struggled as always to give him a coherent answer. I wish now I'd had this quote to hand. While it usually takes me a while to feel that I have an idea (or vision) of the novel as a single piece, as opposed to a bunch of disconnected fragments, once I have that vision the structure is automatically there. It doesn't need to be imposed. Tweaked, maybe, sometimes, but never built from scratch.

I am a structure freak. If anyone has any good quotes on this subject, I'd love to hear them.

Comments

[satimaflavell.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wish my disconnected fragments would add up to a structure. Plotting and structure are major stumbling blocks for me.

Of course, that's one of the reasons you're published and woolly-minded flimmerers like me are not:-)

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

I had a story that wanted to be an opera once. That was the form the story wanted to be. It was a pretty slight story, but as an opera it wouldn't have been bad.There's a synopsis and part of a libretto around somewhere...

Ever considered writing a science fiction opera?

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Does this (http://ladnews.livejournal.com/tag/soap+bubble) count? :-)

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Possibly, but I'm thinking real singers, real sets and costumes. The Soap Bubble strikes me as more of a musical. Sorry. Talking of which, is there a recording?

I blogged about this a few weeks ago. I was wondering if Doris Lessing is the only Nobel Prize for Literature winner that has had her work made into an opera. Philip Glass has done two operas based on Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos series.

Here is the article I found
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction_operas

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Wikipedia link. There are plenty there I haven't heard of.

I'd include Jesus Christ Superstar, but maybe that counts more as fantasy. :-)

No recording exists of The Soap Bubble, that I'm aware of. It was supposed to be taped, but that never seems to have eventuated. Sigh.