Sympathy and empathy. Central to good writing?

[Pan]

Hello all,

I am a serious dabbler in this, and have a whole bundle of stuff in a drawer!

I ask the above question following a reading of "The Quickening Maze" and immediately before that "In the Kitchen" by Monica Ali. The two are opposites.

MA is 'technichally' excellent - perfectly drawn similies, metaphors etc. (I want to circle parts in red pen and write in the margin "tick. Well done!")

Adam Foulds in The Quickening Maze does it all naturally. His description of the poet Clare spending a night in a gypsy camp is utterly authentic.

Soo, I re-read by various bits, and am ok with them by this criterion.

Do we think that 'good writing' needs sympthy and empathy with characters and circumstance? ..or...is being 'clever' with technique' enough? Really curious..

any thoughts?

btw my next door neighbour went to school wit hMA and says she is as sharp as a whippet - and a bit fearsome!

yes hoochie, I agree, just am not entirely sure! Someone who writes from a basis of attachment ( which is a biggie for me), has a certain authority, which gets conveyed in their writing. It doesn't mean you have to 'like' your characters at all. But you must understand them.

Monica to me, was a fine example of how I don't write. I knew nothing about her people apart from what they looked like, what they thought about certain things, a bit of personal history, and not a great deal else. All a bit 2-dimensional.

and yes I am NOT an expert on creative writing, but have some values which I think are important in telling a story.

I have been writing a novel over the past 7 or 8 months (have got to about 70,000 words so far) and did do a bit of character plotting before I started - where they come from, what age they are, past career etc. But as I write I have found they have mostly developed a life of their own, the pen (ok, keyboard) has flowed freely and almost all my characters seem to be writing their own story.

Strangely enough, the one I feel is the most stilted is the one who is most like me - the protaganist if you wish. Perhaps I am most awkward with her because I don't want her to be me, so am almost self conscious about her. Whereas with the others - especially the male characters, I feel I have complete free rein.

Sorry not sure if that answers your question, but I feel intuitive writing, writing from the heart, makes a better read than technically clever writing. The latter might win more awards though.

stranded - noo..DO give yourself to her, the protagenist! The best writing is about what you know and understand. The marvellous exception. which almost proves the rule is the Brontes, who wrote about circumstances over which they had little no experience.

Oddly, as a bloke. I write much more freely about female characters. That could be an arrogance of mine, I am not sure.