I'm not so much enthused by the lyricalness of the prose so much as the craft of the prose. Yes, it asks for a little more work to understand the action, more than is a best practice regardless of genre and age category. More writer work appreciating the audience's capacity to understand would go a long way toward smoothing out issues I see, unsettled narrative distance, everyday conversational voice, albeit less everyday than the others.Sanderling wrote:I find this fascinating, polymath. I loved the lyrical prose of Writecastlesinthesky's piece, but admit it would be the one I'd be the least likely to pick up in a store for exactly the same reason. I don't want a story I have to work too hard to understand, and I find a lot of the more lyrical literary fiction, while beautiful, makes me have to work to understand what's going on more than I'd like. I want to be able to pick up a book and get lost in the story without the prose getting in the way. Maybe that's part of why I gravitate to YA - simple language, simple prose, it's all about the story.
Yes, it's a story but more, plot. Paraphrasing E.M. Forster, The king died and then the queen died, is a story; in other words, a situation. The king died and then out of grief the queen died, is a plot; in other words, a complete dramatic action. The king's death causes the queen's grief, which, in turn, causes her death. Causation in literary terms at its simplest expression, with a begining, middle, and ending. Now, tension and antagonism are other matters. There's causation, tension, and antagonism facets I see in Writecastlesinthesky's piece stronger than the others, albeit asking for more reader work than might be a best practice.