They can't all be zingers!

Book Review: Dean Spanley (2008)

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Paul Whybrow

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Jun 20, 2015
Cornwall, UK
It’s a tough truth to acknowledge that not everything we write is excellent. If you’ve done any querying at all, then you’ll begin to wonder if anything that you’ve written has any merit, as the form rejection emails clutter your inbox! :(

We write because we’re compelled to write. Getting ideas out there is better than keeping them prisoner inside your imagination. Remember, that no writer has ever created something that was perfect first time. To me, the process of writing resembles mining—you get the raw material out, but then it takes processing to extract the ore from the rock—you might throw away a lot of useless rubble, yet still find bright gleanings that can be used in projects apart from your WIP. Keep them in an ideas folder, for when your creative powers are waning.

I’ve previously sounded off about the current requirement for a story that you’re querying with to fire like a flaming missile from page one. I’ve read several novels recently that had tacked-on zingers at the beginning to grab dozy readers’ attention. Certainly, there has to be something to intrigue the reader, but there’s such a thing at setting a scene...honouring the reader’s intelligence to be patient. Also, however gripping your tale is, there are still occasions where pedestrian writing is needed to keep your protagonist and antagonist rooted in reality.

I’ve been mulling over such thoughts for the last month while creating the second audiobook in my Cornish Detective series. The Perfect Murderer was the first story I wrote but became Book 2 when I realised it was way too long. I’d made the beginner’s mistake of not sticking to the recommended word length for a debut novel by an unknown author in the Crime genre. My initial manuscript was 140,00 words long, though I later cropped 40,000 words. Narrating it, I’ve been lamenting how long it still is, as my voice dries to a croak! It’s the most complicated plot I’ve written, and I think that it works as a story, but it rumbles along over red herrings, rather than crackling with instant gratification.

Maybe I’m more of a fan of slow writing that can be savoured. The three novels I recently recommended all meander seductively, bonding the reader with the protagonist and her predicament. Nonetheless, these stories are slow-burning zingers.

What do you think?

Do you need immediate and regular fizz in what you read and what you write?

Or, do you like being drawn into an unexpected scene that clobbers you as a reader and which makes you wonder as a writer, can I get away with this?

iu









 
I like both, but if a book is going to take a while to get to the excitement, I need to love the characters. A book with a ripping plot line can carry me past the initial disinterest in people I don't know, but if they're doing nothing interesting, the characters themselves have to intrigue me from the outset.
 
If the writing itself is engaging, I'm happy to go with the flow as long as I have some hint of where the story is going. If I'm dropped in media res at the start but don't know who/what/why (which happens), I'm more likely to get frustrated than a slow beginning that provides an emotional link with the character.
 
Pace isn't what holds me, nor meandering. The words need to be specific to the underlying context, usually an emotional hint of what's to follow.
Jodi Picoult is an example of what appears to be slow writing, but the subtext is compelling. It may be that I'm part of the target audience, but I find I'm intrigued by the end of the first sentence.
"The centre squatted ... like an old bulldog ... guarding it's territory."
She's talking about a building, but using those words to describe the POV character's perception of it is what hooked me to read further because I think:
Why does she think of this building as if it's on guard? What gives it the feel of squatted? I want to know how this building is going to make pain for the POV, because that's how I read it -- the building is going to spring up and bite. It's the use of the specific words to create that subtext that is powerful. I know a lot of people who read that introduction to the story and roll their eyes and go to the next book, but look carefully to see the power underlying hooks, and that seemingly slow entry isn't slow at all.
The other stories that seem slow but hook you in may have similar constructs, or use of specific words to imply something.
 
This is one of my own bugbears, Paul. The need (apparently) for crash, bang wallop out of the starting blocks seems really odd to me.

I checked to make sure that I wasn't going mad and many of my favourite books (many too many to mention) do not begin with an atom bomb being dropped on page one paragraph one. Most draw in, set the scene, introduce characters and then build the story organically.

One of my absolute favourites - The Van by Roddy Doyle - builds slowly and the man thrust of it doesn't really appear until around page 80. It was a blockbusting, Booker-nominated best seller made into a movie (although the movie wasn't a patch on the book but still good).

It's what @Hannah F said. If the writing is compelling and engaging that works for me. I'll read almost anything if those boxes are ticked. I trust the author that he / she will introduce some kind of conflict or else what's the point in writing a story. I have never read a book where nothing happened.

I agree with the view that it's to do a lot with how modern media audiences consume their stories (books included). There are so many serials to follow on Netflix and Amazon Prime that are fast action-led, then it's almost become a prerequisite for buyers / readers to demand action - action -action. CRASH-BANG-WALLOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! from the get-go. ;)
 
I find books that start with a bang often fizzle out rather disappointingly. For me, it’s all about the characters. Even if the writing is good, if I don’t like or haven’t engaged with any of the characters then I just don’t care what happens. I may still read to the end of a book if it’s well written but I feel a sense of relief when I finally finish it and wouldn’t be inclined to read anything else from that author.
 
This is one of my own bugbears, Paul. The need (apparently) for crash, bang wallop out of the starting blocks seems really odd to me.

I checked to make sure that I wasn't going mad and many of my favourite books (many too many to mention) do not begin with an atom bomb being dropped on page one paragraph one. Most draw in, set the scene, introduce characters and then build the story organically.

One of my absolute favourites - The Van by Roddy Doyle - builds slowly and the man thrust of it doesn't really appear until around page 80. It was a blockbusting, Booker-nominated best seller made into a movie (although the movie wasn't a patch on the book but still good).

It's what @Hannah F said. If the writing is compelling and engaging that works for me. I'll read almost anything if those boxes are ticked. I trust the author that he / she will introduce some kind of conflict or else what's the point in writing a story. I have never read a book where nothing happened.

I agree with the view that it's to do a lot with how modern media audiences consume their stories (books included). There are so many serials to follow on Netflix and Amazon Prime that are fast action-led, then it's almost become a prerequisite for buyers / readers to demand action - action -action. CRASH-BANG-WALLOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! from the get-go. ;)
I think that the main reason we, as unknown authors, are compelled to open our stories in a dramatic way, is to grab the interest of overworked literary agents. They may profess to care about high quality writing, but what they demand is a sight of the hook, some crash, bang, wallop that they can flog to publishers.
Several times, I've considered writing a false start to my crime novels, one which is overdramatic but attention grabbing.
 
I think that the main reason we, as unknown authors, are compelled to open our stories in a dramatic way, is to grab the interest of overworked literary agents. They may profess to care about high quality writing, but what they demand is a sight of the hook, some crash, bang, wallop that they can flog to publishers.
Several times, I've considered writing a false start to my crime novels, one which is overdramatic but attention grabbing.
According to the iwriterly blog, agents don't like false starts either. They can see right through them.
 
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Book Review: Dean Spanley (2008)

Some Good News

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