Alan Moore is considered the best comics writer out there, so what he says bears repeating. Here is an interview so you can see for yourself (occasional swearing):
http://mouches-d-eau.blogspot.com/2008/07/craft.html
And here is a quote, because the interview is reeeeeaaaaally long and even I haven’t read it all:
Now, there should also be what the story is about, which is not the same thing as the plot. What the story is about – what are you trying to say? What kind of shape or impression are you hoping to leave upon the reader? In a sense, the story, or poem or verse or whatever it is you’re writing, you can kind of think of it as a kind of projectile. Imagine it is a kind of projectile which has been specially shaped to be aerodynamic, and that your target is the soft grey putty of the reader’s brain. What kind of shape, what kind of indentation, what kind of lasting scar do you want to leave upon your reader? You design the missile accordingly. What are you trying to convey to them? It’s going to be some kind of information. Now that can be factual information, emotional information, psychological information…it’s gonna be some sort of information…it might be non-linear, it might be more like noise than information…sort of like James Joyce, because actually it’s the noise that holds the most information.
- Interview with Alan Moore by Daniel Whiston, from the site mentioned above.
This is a fascinating way of looking at a story, especially since this was how I designed the one short story I’ve managed to get published. It works because the style it’s written in provokes the emotion as much as the content. It’s something I’m going to have to experiment with again. Soon.
