▣ Changes to my website
0 Comments added to this post
I finally figured out how to make changes to my website which was badly in need of updating this morning. It now reflects where I am on my writing journey, at least as regards my novels. It doesn't mention other things I'm doing in the writing field however. One of those things is a workshop I'm giving with David Bell on the 25th of January at Franklinton library. It will be from 3:00 to 6:00 and I'll be talking about characters and how they affect voice and how their backstory affects them.
For my memoirs writers: It's snowing outside and although it's not a blizzard, it could become one, I guess. Where were you during the blizzard of...what was it? 1976... What happened? Were you able to get to work, school. How did it affect your family?
Why have we become addicted to blood and gore so that the most popular shows on tv are CSI and shows that show graffic violence and a lot of gruesome stuff? I've been thinking about that and I believe it's because in this modern world we've become addicted to constant entertainment and in order to hold our attention it needs to be constantly shocking. In the past, if a person saw two or three plays a year or gained access to five or six novels, he was lucky. The dearth of material to entertain him left him satisfied with what he got. However now the sheer number of movies, TV, books and all the other stories available has left us jaded and dissatisfied with a normal story and we seek greater and greater thrills.
Also, we learn to become numb to violence, blood and gore from having seen it so much. Therefore, in order to engage our feelings it must become worse and worse. Children today are not interested in the cowboy shoot em ups that the older generation loved. The action is too slow for kids who live in a world of fast and constant movement.
What is the answer? I don't know. Maybe the pendulum will swing back on this as it often does on styles and tastes but I doubt it. It's an ADD world now and our attention flits away too fast from normal life.