Blogger: Michelle Ule
Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
One of the first pieces of advice would-be writers receive is to examine the market–read what is selling. We’re cautioned to read current popular novels, not old ones, because what worked in the past may not be suitable for the present. That’s true, particularly, of language usage.
I read several old books over the holiday season and was surprised at how “clunky” they read. Time and again, I shook my head. “This would never sell now, the writing doesn’t work.”
Am I allowed to say that about Mark Twain?
Slugging my way through Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to help Giovanna, our foreign exchange student, with the story, I could appreciate the clever language usage but it felt so dense. And why was he taking us off on such tangents when the storyline moved in a different direction? The dialect made it nearly impossible for Giovanna to understand anything, and while I laughed when Huck described the king as needing “a valley,” she never understood the joke at all–much less the missing concept of a valet.
What is popular in writing now? Simpler and shorter sentences (which speed up the read), short paragraphs, fewer adverbs and adjectives. A generation of “google heads,” folks with short reading attention spans, often isn’t interested in full, dense, rich, detailed description–at least not in popular fiction.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Name of the Rose, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and “more literary” books of this sort, will always find an audience of people who appreciate demanding literature, philosophical ideas, and wallowing in velvet-rich descriptions.
But for the more casual reader looking for a mere story, stick with the simple and the quick.
You know, the type of book Huck would read–if he ever got around to it.
It’s the sign of the the times with texting and everything. I think we lost something down this technilogical road.
Thanks for pointing out the difference in writing styles from years past to now. Are there certain genres that defy the short and punchy, or is it really across the board right now?
Excellent post. I was just thinking about the difficulty of writing in dialect the other day. Conversely, I couldn’t imagine trying to read a whole book written in text language. 4 me wld b dffclt. :o)
Good question, Cat. I would say literary fiction provides the opportunity to use multi-syllabic words and flourishing descriptions. That was my reference to the current The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Readers of such literature are looking for a good long soak in language, imagery and concept.
For the general market, however, simple is better. You certainly can, and should, choose your verbs carefully–to give them more power and punch in their delivery. Being careful to avoid overusing forms of “to be” is a good example of that–though obviously not in this sentence. 🙂
Noah Lukeman’s book A Dash of Style covers punctuation in glorious detail while discussing the affect on your story by the type of sentences you write. I also love The Flip Dictionary for vocabulary assistance.
I’m so glad to hear someone else say this! My husband’s been working through a collection of the classics of literature and every time he reads me a snippet I think “That would never make it in today’s market!” I’ve had the same thought about many older kids novels too.
When writing a historical fiction, (mg) set in another country, should you keep true to the dialect and spellings of that country and period? I, recently, read a beginning chapter book about the Blitz in London during WWII. The language and spellings were not English at all. The children didn’t sound English, let alone children in the 1940’s.
Wow, Sharon. I’m impressed you can hit several of my pet peeves in one question!
You don’t want to overdo dialect and unusual spelling but certainly want to add them to underscore a novel’s setting. Same Kind of Different as Me bounces between two characters–a tony Houston international art dealer and an illiterate poor man from Skid Row. Hall, Moore and Vincent use the different way they speak to differentiate them in the telling of the story. It works and I didn’t keep tripping on Moore’s dialect.
But I read a novel over the weekend that was so determined to make me feel I was in a foreign country, I wanted to wave my hand and say, “I get it. Can we just tell the story now?”
They say if you want to know the political history of a place, read a history book. But if you want to know the social history and how people actually lived, read an historical novel.
Elswyth Thane’s novel Homingabout England during the early days of the blitz, noted when the weather forecast was broadcast for the last time. A piece of information like that has stayed with me for 20 years, and underscored the poignancy and horror that we, the readers, knew was coming while underscoring the setting.
What I cannot stand is reading about heroines with 21th century attitudes in historical fiction. Women in the past didn’t think about their circumstances the same way I do, and it’s wrong to imply they all did. I think that bothers me more than unreasonable use of dialect!
Michelle,
Thanks for validating my thought process. I’ve been working on a pb and a mg about WWII evacuees. I want them both to be authentic, but was worried that using correct (English) spelling and period appropriate dialogue would be undesirable to US agents or editors. I think children will enjoy the differences.
Have a wonderful 2010.