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My apologies for the missing Writing Wednesday blog. My in-laws from Texas are due to arrive today and I’ve been in a whirlwind of preparation. So today, I thought we’d do something writing related—and for Thrilling Thursday! ;)
Suspense isn’t a natural process for many writers. The act of holding back, of not sharing how important something will be later on, or not giving away the intensity of the climatic moment soon to arrive can be frustrating. The terror of writing a boring novel is not uncommon ;)
Right now, I’m in the scenes that I call “between” in my book School’s Out 4Ever. They are the most difficult to write—because I fear boring the reader, even though I know, for a fact, that they are important scenes and they are what create the emotional connection so the reader might feel the intensity of the climatic moment.
Think of the movie Rocky. If Balboa didn’t have a life outside the ring, if he didn’t try and fail, or if nothing happened to his coach, or if there wasn’t the possibility of losing in the ring—would we really care if he won all that much?
Or imagine how interesting Scarlett O’Hara might have been if she didn’t grumble and complain—letting you know that there would come a time when that grumbling and complaining wouldn’t explode into a highly emotional conflict?
So while Kaylee is dealing with the “not undead” at the school, there’s a constant worry in the back of my head that this is or that is taking too long. The reader wants to get to the juicy (or decaying) stuff and doesn’t want to sit through pages of ‘life’ happening. Yet, that would be like removing Apollo Creed from Rocky or Ashley Wilkes from Gone with the Wind.
However there are some authors that I think can go overboard in these ‘between’ scenes. Anne Rice tends to go on for pages and pages describing something that could have been share in one. Jean Auel is another that I find myself skipping a page here and there—once I know what she’s sharing.
Do you all do this with certain authors or books? Do you skip ahead to the more climatic moments in the book—yet still find yourself a fan of that author? Am I just impatient? (Okay, so yeah, this is a little bit of a survey, as I don’t often get to discuss books with other folks;) )
I would really love to know what you think!!
Warmly,
Jenny:
P.S.
Bella Vida and I are having a blast brainstorming the Saturday Serial and hammering out the details. We'll keep updatng everyone as we get closer to the debut! :)
1 comment:
What a funny baby photo! It made me laugh. :)
As far as writing the "in-between" passages of your book, do not worry. Although you like to get to the meat of the matter when reading Jean Auel or Anne Rice novels, there are plenty of us who love to read the whole day-to-day details of the character's lives.
As long as the writing very good, I won't blame the author. However, if the writing is only so-so and I find I am skipping passages, then I won't ready any more works from that author.
I recently read Atonement by Ian McEwan. This book is written in the literary style where the author writes quite a bit about nothing. I had to skip passages in that book while the characters thoughts rambled on for pages. That doesn't mean that McEwan is a bad writer. In fact, he's an award winning author. I would read another book of his even though I may have to force myself to be patient, because sometimes, it's just worth it.
Your writing is good and I've never felt that I needed to skim over anything you've written. If I find ever do find myself skimming over something you've written, I certainly won't hold it against you. I love reading all those details and those normal day-to-day passages.
:)
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