Comments on: A little writing advice.

By: Scarlet Y Wharton

Scarlet Y Wharton — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:03:25 +0000

I just bought a well loved author of mine who writes really well, I love her historicals, however this last one fell so flat…I was actually rereading chapters to see if some pages were stuck together and I had missed something. I don’t need the people to marry every time either, I just want real characters a story line that you can believe and follow…. along with the strength to carry the scenes smoothly from one to the next with words you would expect to come out of those characters mouths instead of something so out of left feild your researching the last 150 pages! Sorry, but it would be better to skip a book than to force it out onto a unsuspecting fan, that has grown to love your work because of the depth you normally take to keep your characters alive enough in us to want to meet them again. Make sense?

By: Saskia

Saskia — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:58:12 +0000

And I’m sad to say, I’m not enjoying the majority of what I read.

That’s not good… are you reading outside your genre, or mostly inside it? It’s hard, I find, not to dissect when it’s what we do.

By: Amie Stuart

Amie Stuart — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:05:20 +0000

So Sasha what’cha been reading? LOL but seriously you don’t have to tell us which work(ed) and which don’t.

I have to agree w/Vanessa to a point. I can overlook the flaws (and for me it’s usually the writing) if the storytelling is there. If I can SEE the writing though…fugeduabdit.

Funny enough, cuz you know I’m all about breaking rules *cough*, I recently had someone read something and she said something along the lines of, “It’s all in third person! Which is fine. You do it very well, but it’s all in third person!”

LOL uh yeah….so for me, writing in all third WAS breaking the rule.

By: Sasha

Sasha — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:14:18 +0000

Exactly. And it disappoints me when I’m so looking forward to a book, only to be left feeling like something was missing.

By: raine

raine — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:18:45 +0000

To me, the magic of the a good story comes from the heart of the storyteller, not the mechanics of a story.

True, true.
Agree with both you and Vanessa.
The worst to me are the ones that seem to follow a tried-and-true formula, again and again. Yes, it’s worked for others, and yes, it may sell. But if it doesn’t have the heart of the author to make it real, or the voice of the author to make it distinctive, it’s just another book.

By: vanessa jaye

vanessa jaye — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 23:24:47 +0000

I’ve said time and again, I will ignore that big ole plot hole, big enough to drive a bus through, if I love an author’s voice. Voice trumps all for me. There are many writers out there who I think their technique/craft is amazing–I can actually see/feel the care they’ve put into each sentence.

And they leave me cold. Can’t read’em.

It’s a mistake to let craft subsume voice, jmho.