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Overall, this edition seems to be better. Random comments on each article:
I don't really see the point of the editorial. Um... is it supposed to convince me that the approaches to storytelling are important? Is it trying to introduce the subject of different storytelling approaches? Is it summarising the gist of the articles? It just seems to be a piece with 6 paragraphs of fluff and generalizations about the role of storytelling in civilization, and not much meaningful substance. It's like... an opinion piece where the opinion is that no one's opinion matters. Balance between two clearly-stated contrasting points of view is one thing. This sounds more like verbose indecisiveness.
Review is okay. Haven't played The Boy who loved Crows, but the review of it at least gave me some idea about the writer's feelings. Would have been nice to have a summary or blurb about what the VN was about, though.
I liked mikey's article. It has a lot of insights into the nature of the reader's perspective, and I find it quite true as well - at least in my own experience. People develop certain tastes for styles of storytelling (usually specific to a particular genre), and these tastes can vary over time. I don't fully agree with his idea that these tastes are naturally limited to a fixed number, though. I find my tastes getting broader without dimming my appreciation for earlier styles of storytelling that I liked. But perhaps this conclusion was reached based on the opposite styles of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. I would imagine that appreciation of opposite styles would induce a lack of appreciation in the former style. But storytelling styles that do not contradict each other can be appreciated without diminishing appreciation for other styles. (Alternatively, perhaps I just have a huge number of style slots, so I haven't reached my limit yet...)
Somehow, the presentation of Super Network Wars struck me as very disjointed. Couldn't get into it much. Possibly the two-column magazine format doesn't work well with the screenplay style of writing dialogue. Or maybe it's just the writing itself that was disorienting.
Interview with Katy Towell was well-done, though I personally didn't get much out of it. Perhaps more open-ended questions might have provided more chance for her to give interesting insights. (There were a lot of questions that started with "Do" or "Is"... which lead to Yes or No answers, generally...)
Hime's article was okay. More of a personal sharing than anything else, so perhaps not as interesting / useful to anyone other than Hime or those interested in Hime. While I agree with her insight and approach of putting yourself into what you write, that holds true for only certain types of writing. Magazine articles are generally not one of them. Here I think you should definitely follow the old approach of writing for the audience. But hey, I could be wrong. There may be others who find that personal sharing useful and meaningful to them too... most likely new writers who are trying to figure out how to write their second story (to be better than their first one).
I found Taleweaver's interview the most interesting of all (but I'm probably biased, as I have a very similar point of view). Definitely agree with plot-centric approach. I find that a lot of new VN writers focus on characters, which I personally disagree with. Theme and plot, not characters, are what drives a story. The character-driven approach that many EVNs seem to adopt probably sprang up from the dating-sim genre, where you're deliberately pursuing a "character" to date, so details about that character matter. But in terms of telling a story, the situations that the characters find themselves in are more important than information about the characters themselves. Details about the characters only matter insofar as they are relevant to the plot. Extra details (like shoe size, eye-colour, etc.) have no business being in a story (unless somehow the story is about a shoemaker, or eye-colour symbology). Those details are only useful for artists, not useful for readers (and I would argue, not even that useful for artists, either). The ideas notebook and detailed research approach is also one I find very useful in practice. And the writing stories that you loved to read as a child is also something I agree with strongly.
-Dizzy-
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A smart man follows the rules, a dumb man breaks them. A great man bends the rules and thus creates them.
Website. Fanfiction.net Profile.
Writer and director of Wedding Vows (finished 2009).
Creator of Lakeside Sunset (finished 2006).
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