Recently, some events have come together like planets aligning (or the Confluence of the Three Moons – see Sword & Illusion – 31 May), and these things have gotten me to thinking about the difference between good storytelling and good writing. Which is more important?
I read the Twilight
I will admit that I read books these days like a writer, critiquing as I go, but also, later I kind of analyze what I’ve read. There are many times I ask myself where the author’s critique partners were when books were in their formative stages. What about all the things I’ve learned in all the conferences I’ve attended?
Why is it that some authors can seemingly break all the rules, or at least the big ones, and yet their books not only get published but are wildly successful?
Bella was not a great heroine. She has no wants, needs or desires of her own other than getting Edward. She wasn’t really complete person, and we never got any sense that she had a life before she stepped onto the first page of the book.
I could go on, as I’ve thought a lot about this, but that’s not the point of this post.
Those books were amazingly successful and they do generate discussion, especially among writers. There are people who love the series and others who cringe whenever they’re mentioned.
Regardless of your feelings about them, the author has to be thrilled. They sold, they have rabid fans of all ages, and they have become a cultural phenomenon. What more could an author dream of?
But most of us struggle to hone our craft, attending workshops, reading technical articles, polishing, critiquing, submitting, polishing more. We work hard every day to have our books be the best they can be, to make them shine, sparkle and sing, and yet we collect rejection after rejection, while books that seemingly never saw a critique or an editor’s red pencil soar to the top of the bestseller charts.
There’s a new series out now that is creating the kind of love it or hate it vibe that the Twilight series had. I haven’t read this “book everyone is talking about” except for the first chapter, and again, the writing isn’t great.
Last night, I went to a meeting of the Vacation Bible School committee at our church, and several of the women there – devout Catholic women – were talking about these books. Not just talking, but RAVING about them. One of them even said, “She’s such a good writer.”
I cringed. An author I admire has been doing a chapter by chapter critique of these books over at Goodreads and her post are hilarious.
Even with the not so good writing, the books are selling.
Why? Why do some of us struggle for years to make our work the best it can be and never succeed while someone can write a book riddled with cliches, inconsistencies and characters no one likes and the books soar?
I can’t figure it out. Do some books touch a nerve in readers that have nothing to do with tight, polished writing? Is it that the story hits the target market at exactly the right time? Is it that some stories are so new/timely/primal that they fill a need in their readers’ soul/unconscious/subconscious/some undefinable thing?
If you have any thoughts on the matter, I’d love to hear them. Also, have you read “The book everyone is talking about”? Did you like it? Why? Why not?
Does it have 50 in the title? Haven read it…them. Just didn’t interest me.
I think a good way of looking at this is Lucasfilm’s approach to recruiting. When they’re looking for storyboarders, they don’t look at drawing ability, which on the surface is kind of silly. Their primary job will be drawing, right? No, says Lucas. Their job is to tell a story within frames. If you can illustrate the important points, dialog, camera angles, transitions while using amorphous blobs as characters…they want you.
As for Twillight…i think the author caught the right agent, with the right pitch, on the right day.
Like you, I didn’t like Twilight. And I’ve read the first couple of chapters of the latest rage and found the writing not to my taste. I’ve never been a fan of present tense writing – it feels grammatically incorrect to me – like a 6-year-old is telling me about her day. But in this case I forced myself into chapter two hoping to find something to hook me enough so the present tense style didn’t grate on my nerves. I found nothing. I’ve read other books with similar content that I find much more entertaining because they’re well-written, so the fact that these books are not to my taste is not because of the subject matter. I saw a snippet of an interview with the author and she admitted outright that she’s a disorganized writer – my first thought was a very sarcastic “really.” I think in a lot of cases, it’s simply about timing and filling a niche, maybe catching the attention of the right person at the right time and finding the perfect marketing guru – and then I’ve seen the hype build over the flurry of bad reviews and people rushing to find out what everyone’s talking about. I’m both a writer and an editor. As a writer, I try to “get it right” for the perfect mix of story and writing. As an editor, I much prefer editing a good story that is also well-written. As a reader, I’m kind of demanding that it be both. Sadly, I’m convinced the books in question don’t fall into the good writing category, and I’m not sure they actually fall into a good story – at least I don’t feel they don’t fall into any sort of original story.
Yeah, I read the first Twillght and liked it. But not enough to read the other books in the series. Bella depressed me a bit.
I haven’t read 50 Shades of Gray but I hear the story is good but the writing is not.
Who know what will strike a chord with the average reader? It’s a crapshoot. But very frustrating for writers and agents 🙂
You know Simon and Garfunkle’s Sound of Silence? The people in the streetlights and damp were all worshiping that blaring light…I look at mysteries of Phenom Anomaly Miracle (PAM) or how some terrible book/plotline/author accidentally makes it to the top for no reason the same way Garfunkle looked at the light.
My ADD jumped to questions like “What does the light look like? Is it placed on a high building so people can see? What color is it? Where did the light come from? Who lives behind the light?” What most people ask is ‘What does the sign say?” And thankfully, Garfunkle says the ‘Words of the Prophets are written on the subway walls…’ which I think is the common author who works harder than anyone to tell their story and make it great only to be rejected kindly by people looking for the next big light.
We see the mysteries that others miss.
General public readers don’t pick up on the grit and stamina it takes to make an author with staying power. I think you have to be a great storyteller to be a good writer. I know you have to be a great writer to publish without a PAM happening. What makes a book great may never be solved. What makes a song or author or plotline hit the timeline just at the right time eludes me every time. But what the sign says…what the purchase of blaring light titles say about society and where it’s going…that might be better grappled with.
Which direction are we moving? What are we missing? What echo lies beneath? Perhaps our answer is staring into the light. Studying why the masses move can sometimes paint interesting images.
The aqusition of skill aiding talent allows for the breaking of rules. A writer can get away with breaking almost any if not all of the usual accepted rules of writing, as long as that writer does it in a consistant and uniform manner, and still rewards the reader.
I am no personal fan of the Twilight series, but I suspect that the key to thier success is that the writing in them is uniformally consistant, and that the story being told still rewards the audience.
By the way, look forward to attending Deep South Con in Huntsville with you, am reading your submittal on ‘Pigsty Princess’ now, and hope to have a pile of comments for you….
Scott H.
I never read the Twilight series…not really interested. When I was at the RT convention, everyone was talking about 50 Shades of Gray (which I haven’t read either)…All the editors and agents were saying that they would not have picked that book up, because it was so poorly written. But, I guess it has become wildly successful too. So, who knows the magic formula – but I think the twilight and 5 shades are just anomalies. I think you have to be a good writer and a good storyteller to make this a viable business for yourself. Great post!