Now I’m generally not one to rant on my blog about things. In fact the last time I climbed atop my soapbox and touted accusations was well over a year ago. Last night however, I had a revelation about something that the more I thought about it, the more frustrated I became.
A couple of days ago one of my stories was rejected by a publisher. That’s not new or surprising considering I have more rejections than acceptances under my belt. I did what probably most authors do when they face a rejection. I pouted for awhile, doubted my abilities then moved on to something else. Only this time I couldn’t quite let it go. It was what the editor had said that kept my mind spinning. She’d called the story too narrative, too telly. Now, while I don’t doubt that it was probably more telly in places than I’d like and probably had many other faults that made it unacceptable, I couldn’t help but compare her words to stories of my writing idol, Nora Roberts.
In my humble opinion, Ms Roberts knows how to tell a great story, though I’m sure there are those of you out there who would disagree. Still, as I read and reread her work, I have to wonder if she were starting out today how many rejections she’d receive. Show don’t tell, well, Ms. Roberts can delve into the psyche of a character and bring it to life in a way that you don’t noticed she’d just spent an entire page inside the characters head, telling you the reader exactly what that characters thinking. Don’t head hop. Again, Nora Roberts is the queen of head hopping and she does it with such skill that it’s a pleasure to read. Her stories are based entirely on the emotions of the characters. The physical is secondary and subdued in a way that much is left to the imagination of the reader. She doesn’t need graphic language or raunchy sex to make a story hot. No her stories bring out the love, the heat of passion between two characters simply by conveying their thoughts and emotions. I read her work and I find myself asking where have the days of those type of stories gone?
Too often in today’s writing, the emphasis is on getting the characters together quickly then throwing up some conflict after to keep them apart. And although I love e-books and the future it represents for the book industry as a whole, I can’t help but blame them for the faster, raunchier, more attitude that has overtaken the industry, creating an invisible need to push authors to write faster instead of better. I, unfortunately, have allowed myself to be caught up in this need, thinking that the more books I have in print the better. Well, after thinking long and hard about it, I’ve decided no more. Yes, it’s true if you want to make a living writing e-books, you need to have a backlist of books and the bigger the better, but at what cost to the integrity of the stories themselves? No, I think from here on out my focus will be on making the best story I can and not worrying about the timeframe. I will continue to read Ms. Roberts work with a critical eye and learn from her as only she can teach. If one day I am half as good as she is I’ll be happy and if the editors out there don’t like it, then it will be their loss not mine. I write for the love of writing, not the money.
Stepping down off my soapbox now…
However, her advice can only make the story stronger so when it does get subbed somewhere it will hopefully be accepted too.
