Blogger: Michelle Ule
Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
This week I’ve talked about how books differ through the years–whether it’s the subject of 1950s Beany Malone, the behavior of 1794 heroines in The Mysteries of Uddolpho, the language of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the challenging subject matter of today’s queries.
How do you, as readers, see the changes in writing styles and in subjects? Do you prefer the current to the past? What types of language usage do you like? And if the story is good, does it really matter?
I read so widely in age, genre and style that I simply look for a good book. I can adjust to any way of storytelling if the premise intrigues me.
I see less omniscient POV, less of the of “said angrily”, and more of the deep POV. I prefer the contemporary writing style.
I think writing style does matter. There are some best selling authors that I cannot read because of the terrific “head hopping”. Even a little “author intrusion” distracts. I may keep reading, but it’s irritating. I just finished a book like this last night. The story was gripping, but how could I recommend it to others with those irritating interruptions?
I have a question for the agents here. Why do the editors of those best-selling authors not edit out those instances of author intrusion in such a book? (That’s a sincere question, not a catty one.)
I share your frustration, Terri.
Some of it may have to do with the thinning of the line editor ranks in publishing houses; editors now have greater responsibilities with more clients. I know we emphasize the need for clean manuscripts from our clients and certainly pause over a submitted proposal with lots of writing problems.
Indeed, POV problems are an immediate no.
Some of it, too, may have to do with the speed best-selling writers are expected to write their books. One of JK Rowling’s manuscripts was turned in the end of March and appeared on the shelves in June. I remember saying at the time there was no way that book could have been properly edited. Upon reading the massive, sprawling book, I could see it wasn’t closely checked.
Rowling later commented that once she finished all the Harry Potters, she hoped to return to them, rewrite and correct all the errors. She, of course, was under enormous pressure to perform fast.
I would agree with Michelle on the reason best-selling authors’ books tend not to be edited well. Everyone in the publishing house is focused on delivering the book to the reading public as fast as possible. That one title goes a long way to keeping the publishing house’s bottomline in the black. A good editing job takes time and many passes through the manuscript.
I read an article once about the speed which contemporary authors need to write their books. The article’s author said that Tolkien took seventeen years to write Lord of the Rings. No way could Rowling have spent that much time between each of her sequels.
I agree, it is frustrating when you read a book and find editing errors.
I love today’s books, but I adore Enid Blyton’s chapter books. They are still on the shelves (reprints) in bookstores in England. They were orginally published in the 1950’s. I like how the characters, mostly children, think, speak and act like children.
I agree with the comments here about the decline of editing. Multiply that a hundredfold for self-published books. I’ve read a few, and they hurt. I know I’m sounding snooty; so be it.
So I’m scratching my head… If publishers no longer a) edit; b) distribute (it’s electronic now); c) market; d) print hardcopy, what’s left? Where’s the value proposition?
Bring back scrolls, I say!
I notice less omniscient as well. I actually love first person. .. seeing that a lot in the books i’m reading (YA paranormal). The younger language is my fav. . . like that found in the YA novels. It’s snarky and fresh. Just what I like.
Hapyp Friday, everyone. Great post.
Thanks for the insight.
Most of the classics would never get published today because they don’t jump into the story, but they’re still fun to read. Well, most of them, anyway. I tried re-reading Ben Hur last year and when I got to page 60 and nothing had happened except a man crossing the desert I gave it up. And some newer books are obviously churned out and not very good. I used to enjoy reading Piers Anthony’s books but after he’d written a lot of them they were all the same and boring. If a story is exciting and the characters are believable it doesn’t matter to me if the books are new or old. A good book is a good book, whatever the style.
“If the story is good, does it really matter?”
I think good words matter. I struggle, no matter what the time period the book is written in, with books that are solely plot driven. If there is no fun with the language then my play time is over. I’m sure there were some plot driven books written way back–but I’d bet that they’ve simply been cast aside over time–gone out of print… I love reading Homer, or Dante, or Twain, or Dickens, because of the word usage… And I love many of today’s books for the same reason. Have you read the Penderwicks? One of my favorite middle grades. The author has such fun with voice and description.
But one of the Twilight books almost had me in tears it was centered so desperately on the plot, and same with the popular DaVinci Code. I read it because of the controversy and it was dreadful.
We won’t publish a Twain, or Dickens, though, these days. Wow, we won’t even publish a picture book that’s more than 1,000 words! (And as an editor for children, I would never take on a picture book project that is much more than that…) I look at it two ways: we have found the necessity to tell our story or point briefly–maybe even more poetically, which is wonderful, because our attention spans are… pathetic. But we still have the old classics on our shelves, so delicious when read aloud; we are fortunate indeed to have so much material to inspire and entertain us!
I expect Twain and Dickens would both write differently today. They were in touch with readers of their times. I usually find that classics are worth the read even if it takes a while to get into them. The one exception I have found is “Last of the Mohicans.” I couldn’t stomach the racism, and the writing wasn’t worth it.
I love contemporary stories and don’t mind omniscient if it’s done well. (I used it for the beginning of one of my novels gradually morphing into third person, but it was written like a fictional biography.)
And I love sagas, but contemporary sagas in CBA don’t exist. They’re these short, staccato series novels where the first one seems like just a setup for the next to follow. Really don’t appreciate that.
I like authors who aren’t afraid to break “the rules”. I like all different kinds of voices and styles. Robotic novels lack passion and rarely move me. It is possible to know and understand “the rules” and simply not like them. The current rules seem like trends more than hard and fast producers of good writing. JMO.
If a story is engagingly written, I can forgive a lot in terms of style. I don’t care for florid Victorian prose so much, but I love Ellis Peters, Georgette Heyer, etc. Somehow Heyer managed to get away with writing paragraphs that were a page long, literally. And her books are still fun.
I question sometimes whether writing trends, such as banning adverbs or “thats,” should be taken very seriously. At some point, these too will go out of fashion, but a beautifully crafted story remains timeless.
Love first person, myself. Very personal, puts me in the story right away! I’ve found that I have to write that way now as well. It’s what comes natural.