Did you flinch? Did you do a quick perimeter scan of the room to make sure there wasn't one? Did you tear out of the house screaming bloody murder at the mere mention of the word? Disclaimer: if you were buck naked at the time and the cops hauled you in for indecent exposure, you may not sue me.
Words are powerful creatures, able to incite rage or passion or fear. Messing with readers' emotions is one of the perks of being a writer. It's also one of the hardest skills to master.
Case in point...the other day I picked up a book from my TBR pile and chucked it into my gym bag. I do most of my reading while on a treadmill so that I don't have to think about the way my thighs are smoking. After 2 chapters, the only emotion I was feeling was death by exercise because the story did nothing to incite anything else in me. Granted, it was written by a newbie author and later books will probably be better, but honestly, I'm not going to finish this one.
If writing doesn't grab a reader by the throat and shake out a laugh, tears, or a belch of some kind, then the author needs to go back to the drawing board and start over. Yes, it's a long process. Yes, it takes editing and re-editing and, you got it, re-re-editing. But that's the writing game, folks.
Think about some of your best loved books. Go ahead. I'll wait. And I'll bet five bucks some kind of emotional cage bars are rattled as you think. That, my friends, is the sign of a good writer.
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8 comments:
Very true, Michelle, some books CAPTURE you, others make you YAWN....The spider didn't make me run, but I did read the post quickly, so that I could scroll down a bit. :)
Yeah, there's a reason I didn't put up a centipede instead. CREEPY!
I hear you, Michelle! I'm reading two books right now--well-written books by good authors--but I can easily set them down, and I don't think about them until I'm ready to read again. I'm pretty forgiving for the first half of the book (especially if its a new author), but if I'm still "meh" about the characters' plight by that point, its time to move on.
Great advice! Love your site.
Gwen...agreed. Meh is never worth finishing.
Ionia...thanks for stopping by!
I probably have half a dozen books on my nightstand right now that were too blah to finish. Had to force myself to finish the last one. I'm not sure why. Several times, I picked it up and thought, "Haven't I finished this book yet?" That's never good.
Part of the reason I stuck with it was because I couldn't figure out why it was so boring, but your post, Michelle, made it clear: I didn't feel anything, good or bad. I didn't laugh or cry. Though the characters faced harrowing situations, I just didn't care. The main female character was pathetic and whiny, even though everything worked out for her in every area but one. She was almost killed in the end and I still didn't care. Probably because I knew she'd be fine.
But it wasn't by a new author so clearly plenty of people like her work, so that's good.
Superb blog!!!!!! Really excellent blog..... Great writing efforts are going well & really truthful..... Super Thought.....
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~sharyn...I hear ya. I just counted 5 on my nightstand.
Anitha... Thanks for stopping by!
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