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There is a cost to your choices.
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THEN ...
There is the cost of what you choose to do with your life ...
Few actors go to the movies. For one thing ... like seamtresses, they can see the seams in each part of what makes up the movie.
In like manner, writers tend to see the seams, too.
I've been reading Jim Butcher's GHOST STORY ... and I'm seeing the seams.
He wanted to write epic S.F. and Space Fantasy. He backed into Harry Dresden.
I think he wants out, just wrapping up loose ends and going through the motions. But when a great writer goes through the motions, he can still tell a great story.
The seams just show.
In the beginning, you can see him pushing against the inertia of his heart not being in the novel :
He stretches the beginning as if forcing himself to write.
He introduces new characters, putting off bringing in the family of characters that the reader has been worried about since the cliff-hanger ending of the last novel.
He's almost a fourth of the way into the book, and he is just now getting to the stuff loyal fans have been waiting to find out.
You lose readers like that.
Eric, a friend at work, tossed the book, saying, "He's lost it. He's just writing to fulfil a contract."
GHOST STORY took months and months longer than was promised. I can see why. The fire is gone.
The story is building momentum finally. But I feel like I've been pushing a stalled car with Jim.
Have you ever felt like that with a writer? Has your enjoyment of the read been spoiled by spotting the seams, by being chilled by the lost fire of the author?
That has been said of Charlaine Harris. I gave up on the Sookie Stackhouse books a few titles ago.
Tell me of your similar experiences.
***
I often wonder if there are authors who really want to write something completely different but are victims of their own success. I've stopped reading a few authors because it seems though 'the story remains the same, only the names and places have been changed'.
ReplyDeleteId like to invite you folks to come to Amish Stories for a recipe for "Famous Pennsylvania Dutch Sticky Cinnamon Buns" along with a book signing schedule for Amish fiction writer Wanda Brunstetter for Pennsylvania and Ohio as well as a contest to meet her. I hope everyone so far is having a great weekend. Thanks everyone. Richard from Amish Stories.
ReplyDeleteI think publishers and their want of a sure thing really cause a lot of this. Though i think writers sometimes bite off more than they can chew, too--JK Rowling said Goblet of Fire just about killed her because it was so hard to push out, and while it is a pivotal book in that series, I think even there, you feel a little of that pain... she had to force in so many things to set up the rest of the series... the series she was excited about again by OoP.
ReplyDeleteI notice a lot more as a reader than I used to, but i think the thing for ME that really points this out is when well known authors are finally allowed to break genre. Ken Follet wrote very good spy novels--I think Eye of the Needle made his career... and he wrote and he wrote and he wrote... and they were always pretty good. But then he wrote Pillars of the Earth--a book of shattering BRILLIANCE--so powerful (the sequel is not its equal, by the way)--because i think he finally convinced them to let him write what he WANTED.
Grisham, too--I love his legal thrillers, but they really all feel very similar. And I don't think any of them is beautiful like A Painted House--his first genre breaker, and a truly moving book with real heart.
Sarah :
ReplyDeleteLike you I have stopped reading authors who have lost their fire. I never started Anita Baker's series because I heard her books became less R and more X.
Amish Stories :
I don't mind you asking folks to read your work. After all, I kind of would like it if they read mine -- just say a word or two about my post while you're at it -- so my friends don't feel like the airwaves have been taken over by the resistance as in THEY LIVE. :)
Hart :
I believe you're right. The publishers are living on the edge right now. They Need, not just want, to have their books make large dollars.
You're right, too, about Ken Follet and Grisham. It's like kisses -- the lips may be there, but if the heart isn't -- you know it! LOL. Roland
Terry Brooks' books became repetitive after a while. You can tell when an author is just fulfilling a contract.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for Underworld IV!
Alex :
ReplyDeleteIt's sad when an author becomes repetitive. And I can't wait for UNDERWORLD IV either!
THE COLORADO KID disappointed me, but I am looking forward to Stephen King's 11/22/63 about a high school teacer going back in time to stop the JFK assination.
Dan Brown's last book was a huge disappointment. I gave up after only a few pages!!
ReplyDeleteHi Roland, I've missed you! that rebel, Olivia