Why do so many perfectly nice people make such pompous asses of themselves when they sit down at a typewriter?-Dean R Koontz.
Even if you’re not a fan of Dean Koontz’s books, I would recommend finding a copy of his book-How To Write Best Selling Fiction. You want find it in book stores. It’s out of print, but it is still one of the best resources for new writers. You would need to check used book stores, or go on line-which is were I found mine. Now back to the pompous asses.
What Mr. Koontz was getting at, was new authors and not so new authors sit down and try to write A Tale Of Two Cities, The Scarlett Letter, or Moby Dick. The idea of sitting down and attempting to write ‘important and lasting literature’ is pretentious and self-defeating. Keep in mind, these books are seldom read these days.
If an author ignores the masses and refuses to a write a novel with popular appeal, if he chooses to live solely or primarily by the grace of academe, then he will die by academe.
What’s the problem with Academe? The standards are considerably less stringent.
- Academe views a plot as having little or no use. It is restrictive, impacting the writers imagination.
- Academe does not worry about pace or filling a story with action.
- Literary novels seldom have genuine heroes and heroines. The characters are almost always weak, flawed and unlikeable.
Charles Dickens was considered a hack in his day. He was paid to thrill the masses by producing melodrama. His stories were entertaining and relatable. They have been kept alive for so long by the masses, that the academe finally had to admit that he was a great writer.
Remember, the masses read storytellers. They don’t read academically oriented novelists. They want stories that speak to them.
When you write to please yourself, you are writing to please and individual. When you write to please an audience, you are writing to please a lot of individuals. When you write to please academe, you are writing to please an institution.
Something to think about.
-Jan R
Don’t you hate it when you’re talking to somebody and they are all wishy washy? Why can’t they just come out and say it? Most of the time you know what they are getting at and want to spit it out for them. Well the same thing goes for writing.
It’s a beautiful day in Raleigh, or perhaps I should say morning. I’ve been waiting all winter for the weather to break and an opportunity to sit on my porch and take in the beauty of my surroundings.
I love reading Jerry Jenkin’s blogs. I always take something away from what he has to say. I don’t know that he offers anything different or new, it’s just the way he says it. I read what he’s written, and a light bulb goes off.
When you’re writing, you need to mix things up. You don’t want to be the one that puts your reader to sleep.
I’ve been taking an on-line course that is suppose to help me become a standout writer. Knowledge is power. I spend as much time reading as I do writing, and I’ve learned a lot. Mainly, I’ve become more aware of my own writing. I also notice things in other peoples writing. I use to enjoy reading for pleasure, and I still do, but I see errors that I never noticed before. I guess I’m turning into an editor 🙂
On more than one occasion I have declared my love affair with the word ‘had’. When you use a word so many times it jumps off the page, you have a problem. It doesn’t matter if the word is used correctly or not. You need to find another way to write the sentence without using ‘the word’. In my case that word is ‘had’.
A while back, I revised my novel and noticed something that should have leaped off the page during past reviews, but didn’t. I was having a love affair with ‘ing’. These ‘ing’ words were all over the place.
As a new writer, you probably have many misconceptions. I’ve been at this for a while now and can only laugh at myself when I think about how naïve I was. One of my favorite sayings is you don’t know what you don’t know.
Writing your first novel-Things you should know 