Barbara Hambly wrote Children
of the Jedi in 1995 and was my first exposure to a visceral writing
style. Though intended for a
younger audience (considering I was 10 at the time, it may have actually been
intended for an older audience) it has stuck with me as an striking example of
how to make your reader feel just as miserable as the protagonist. It came in short and broken bursts and
the details are rather fuzzy, but the generalizations are still there.
Later in life, the same thing was accomplished by watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. More than once I had to stop watching
because I felt physically ill.
Great writers beget great writing, so I’ve always tried to emulate that
response from readers in the same fashion.
Some of the criticism I’ve received or have seen tossed at
other writers is the argument of ‘You’ve never ____ so how do you know that’s
how it would be?’ Well, that’s a
fair enough contention, and strong writers get to bypass that by virtue of
being strong writers. I, on the
other hand, do not get that luxury.
Trader, as it has been established, grew up in an
unspecified coastal town. Having
done the same, one of the observations I’ve been able to make with a fair
amount of consistency, is that kids who grow up at the beach move on to be
adults that are both respectful and not scared of nature. When you see the vastness of ocean and
understand the terrors that it holds and then make the conscious decision to
continue swimming despite them, there isn’t much left in the way of fearing
wildlife.
And you can put a shark juxtapose to an alligator or a giant
venomous snake and it’s about the same thing. Leave it alone, don’t show fear, move away, then
congratulations you’re still alive.
The ocean also removes the fear of the unknown. You know just past the breakers there’s
SOMETHING lurking. It isn’t that
you’re unwary, it’s that at some point, you just don’t care. The main difference between
country/ocean folk and city folk is that the former generally fair much better
lost in the jungle than the latter.
If you don’t believe me, ask anyone in the Army that’s done a land nav
course at night.
Trader isn’t a violent man by nature (necessity, yes) but he
is resilient. I’ve been lost in
the woods and in swamps and jungles and rainforests and scrub, covered in bees
and spiders, I’ve seen the reflections of thousands of hungry eyes at
night. I’ve been afraid but like
Trader, I’m resilient. You hit a
point, about 5 hours in or when exhaustion sets in, where spider webs are less
an impromptu karate lesson and more annoying scenery. Fortunately I’ve never been shot, unfortunately I know
plenty of people that have. So, I’m
not a strong writer, but I do have a superb memory.
Hopefully I’ll become a better writer, thus negating the
need for blunt force experience. I’m
getting too old for that shit.
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