Kerry Allen's Blog

Jun 16 2008

Sweetness and Light, That’s Me

Tag: Writing — Kerry Allen @ 1:00 am

I think I’m bitter and frustrated… until I visit places where other unpubbeds congregate, and then I realize I’m Suzy Frickin’ Sunshine.

There’s a post about “bad” books at Bookends. Most of the comments consist of “it’s bad because I’ve been told I’m not allowed to do that because it’s against The Rules.” (*cough* 99 percent of how-to-write advice sucks *cough*)

A great many authors who don’t follow “The Rules” have a rockstar-like following. Even die-hard fans may admit the work has gone south, but they keep buying every installment. Whatever their flaws, the books of those authors fly off the shelves and never go out of print.

Here’s a crazy thought: Instead of slagging on published authors who have the nerve to be more successful than thou, try to identify and emulate that elusive “something” that inspires reader loyalty. I’ll even give you a hint to get you started. Contrary to one commenter’s assertion, most people read fiction to be ENTERTAINED. Technical perfection can’t save BORING from the trash bin.

Or hang onto all that smug superiority. That and 50 cents will buy you a stamp so you can send fan mail to yourself.

Suzy out, off to sprinkle sugar and potpourri on the sour and odorous elsewhere…

3 Responses to “Sweetness and Light, That’s Me”

  1. K@ is SO pretty.
    June 16th, 2008 at 3:59 am

    I recently joined a crit group, and their first comments on my (first) MS were “ACK! too much info!” and then “You use *way* too many tags.”

    …yesterday I started re-reading the Harry Potter series. Tags and narration galore.

    :futile:

    +1 for this post.

  2. Kerry Allen is SO pretty.
    June 16th, 2008 at 6:13 am

    Perfect example. Oh, how J.K. Rowling is reviled by writers everywhere. The adverbs! The infodumping! The fill-in-the-blank!

    J.K. Rowling now has a net worth in excess of a billion dollars and lives in a bloody castle, courtesy of Harry and Co.

    That hack.

    All that woeful technical imperfection, and yet she managed to create a global phenomenon because she knows how to tell a damn good story.

    I would never suggest a writer doesn’t need a grasp of basic public-school-education grammar, spelling, and punctuation skills. (Standardization of how words appear in print makes reading them a whole lot easier. Nobody wants to work at deciphering a 300-page run-on sentence that scorns the letter E.) I’m not advocating ignorance of the business aspects of writing. (Don’t print your manuscript in purple crayon on 5×7 pink paper and hand-deliver it to an agent or editor while they’re on the toilet at a conference. That’ll make you stand out, all right, but not in a good way.)

    But it pains me to see over and over again writers who are so consumed with the affronts of -ly words and terminal prepositions and sentence fragments that they have lost sight of the importance of STORYTELLING in all its disheveled, fanciful, imperfect glory.

    There was one commenter on the Bookends thread who criticized agents and editors for reading like, um, readers. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t readers the target consumers of books? Isn’t the objective, therefore, to write a book that appeals to readers?

    But what do I know.

  3. Kerry Allen is SO pretty.
    June 16th, 2008 at 7:25 am

    And here’s a Lilith Saintcrow rant that expresses my feelings on the subject far better than I ever could, and with more credibility because she’s, you know, getting paid for it.

    Understandable. Not boring. Fun.

    What a concept.

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