It’s not often - in fact I think this is the first time - that I actually write about writing, except when updating you on my works in progress. But some recent discussions over on Goodreads about a book I’ve reviewed have got me thinking about writing in general, and specifically the state of writing in today’s increasingly ebook-dominated world.
Since making the switch to reading ebooks more than six months ago, I’ve been doing a lot more reading. One of the things I’ve noted is that a lot of ebooks are novella length or shorter. Many are under 40,000 words, while a full novel of 200 pages or more will be over 80,000 words. Now, I’m not arguing that longer is inherently better, I’ve read some very well constructed short novellas. Solace by Scarlet Blackwell would be a recent example. It’s not great literature and it didn’t move me, but it’s well written and complete for what it is, at just around 20,000 word.
But - and this is the thing - at the end of a lot of these shorter works I’m left feeling that the writer didn’t finish the job. They may have started with a good idea and some great scenes, but then they left big holes in the plot and / or time line. In more and more cases we’re even being given two or three short stories about the same characters, totally disconnected from each other.
Here again, there’s nothing wrong with creating a series of short stories around the same characters. I have read books where that works, but even in the better ones, the characters are little more than stick figures in the set piece the writer constructs. They’re never multi-dimensional people that you fall in love with.
As a reader, one of the things that’s been driven home to me in the last few months is that the difference between a good read and a really great one is usually the “stuff in-between”, the text that connects the big scenes, which adds dimension to the characters and the background of the story. It’s what makes you fall in love with the characters and truly care about them.
Of course, as a writer, I know how difficult it is to write that part of a story. It’s excruciating at times, at least for me. That’s why “Journey’s End” is currently stuck. I’ve got some great scenes written and a solid story line, but getting the characters from ‘A’ to ‘B’ was getting a little too dull. I’ll figure it out eventually. I always do. But it gives me a great deal of respect for authors who do such a great job on the little details that make for a great read.
So, when a writer - especially one who writes well - short-changes us on the details, or worse, leaves them out entirely by deciding to make their work a collection of short stories, I start to think they’re getting lazy. And that’s exactly what I accused one author of doing, in a public discussion board no less. Okay, that was rude, but I really was disappointed in the author, from whom I expected better. The author quite understandably got a bit defensive, but I thought his explanations were a bit disingenuous. Both he and another reader suggested he was leaving things to the reader’s imagination.
Well, that’s all very well and good, but you need to fuel the imagination. When you introduce characters in one story, and then in the next one have them doing something that seems very unlikely given what you’ve just told me about them, I’m afraid my imagination doesn’t have anywhere to go, or has too many places since you haven’t given me any clue for the sudden change of heart. The best books do let your imagination fly, sometimes even literally. The book which I’m still surprised and even a little embarrassed to say affected me most in the last few months was Kim Dare’s Duck! I was actually rather depressed for a few weeks after reading it, because I wanted to be Ori so badly. The book is rich in lots of little details that let you imagine just how Ori feels, and it all happens between the really big scenes, of which there are actually quite few.
I want every book to move me the way Duck! did, but I know that’s asking too much - and I probably couldn’t stand to be on that kind of emotional roller-coaster all the time anyway. I do want the whole story, though, with three-dimensional characters I can relate to.
I understand the financial motivation behind shorts. In the ebook world, like the web, quantity is an important success factor. The more books you pump out, the more likely it is you’ll have one that sounds like it matches what a reader is looking for. However, call me old-fashioned, but I like to think that quality still counts for something. Pumping out lots of short novellas may get you a lot of new first-time readers, but if you leave them unsatisfied they won’t be coming back for more.
This is, of course, all just my opinion. Judging by the rave reviews some of these books are getting, my views are definitely in the minority. I know I’m not the target market for these books anyway. I’m probably too old - meaning I have an attention span - and I’m definitely the wrong gender. I just think readers deserve better. I know I do.
Since I’ve talked about my experience as a writer, I think I should clarify a few things about that. Since I’ve only recently involved myself in groups like Goodreads, because I’ve only recently self-published my own books, people have naturally assumed I’m a newbie writer. They’re not entirely wrong, but they’re not right either.
I’ve been involved, in one way or another, with writing, editing and publishing since I was at university. That was long enough ago that I’m intimately familiar with typewriters and these things called mimeograph machines, which I’m sure are now only found in museums. The only computer I had access to required punch cards. I’m not kidding.
I’ve had a few different careers since college. All of them have involved writing to some degree. I started my current life as a travel writer more than ten years ago, and I’m proud to say that I now make a living, albeit a modest one, at it, which isn’t something a lot of writers of any kind can say. Last year, my travel guides were used by more than 1 Million people. Granted, there’s a difference between travel writing (well, my kind anyway) and fiction. Fiction is a lot harder, although I believe that’s only because I haven’t done as much of it. The more I write, it seems, the easier it gets.
I’ve been writing fiction since I was in my 20s. It started out as mostly short stories, but as I got older the pieces got longer. I never really thought about publishing them, although some of the later works I’ve put on my travel journal. I wrote mainly for my own amusement, and by and large I still do, which I suspect is true for most writers. I started on my longest book, Journey to Angkor, a few years ago. I had a vague notion when I started that I might seek out a publisher for it, but by the time I finished, ebooks had really taken off and sites like Smashwords made it easy to join the revolution.
While self-publishing has its drawbacks, the concept definitely appeals to me. I don’t have to meet any deadlines. I don’t have to work with editors-from-hell (been there, done that, ain’t going to do it again.) I can publish books only when I’m happy with them. I don’t have a big marketing machine behind me, promoting the books, but I can live without that, for now at least. I can continue to refine my voice and find my market, without any pressure to produce. If it all becomes too much like work, as it does from time to time, I can put it aside for a while and do something else.
So, I think I know enough about the craft and the business of writing to comment on whether or not a writer is “phoning it in”. It’s just my opinion anyway, even if it’s not a popular one.
