There’s your problem

[pjthompson]

The current novel, The Numberless Stars, may be doomed in today’s market.  (The story of my life.)  I seem to be writing a female POV picaresque fantasy novel, and I don’t believe there’s any tolerance for that sort of thing in today’s instant gratification climate.

Of course, at this stage of the game the novel sucks (it’s a barely there first draft), so perhaps it isn’t a valid test of the viability of the picaresque, fantasy or otherwise.  It’s too twee, too infodumpy, too lacking in immediate and identifiable conflict.  Maybe the fault, dear Brutus, is not with the genre but with myself, my execution of said genre.  A story which wanders hither and yon and uses satire to point out a society’s flaws may indeed have some place in today’s world, but a wandering story which doesn’t engage the reader in some fashion early on is just a badly written novel.

Lord knows my first drafts take way too long to get to the point.  I spend enormous amounts of time getting the feel of the characters just so and have an unfortunate tendency to throw it all on the page.  My rewrites consist of paring down and refining, taking out gallons of character and tangential lard and boiling it down to make candles. And that’s for the novels that aren’t picaresque.  God save me if I actually write a novel where wandering around and having episodic adventures and living by one’s wit is built into the genre.

Because even if the conflict is there on the first page, it’s rather broad and cyclical:

• Hortensia versus the Western Society of her time.
• Hortensia versus her family.
• Hortensia versus deity, leading to transformation.

Then cycling back to:

• Hortensia versus her family, and finally,
• Hortensia versus the Western Society of her time.

God help us all.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Comments

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

Never worry about market until the book is done to the best of your ability. That is the ONLY time market should factor into your writing. Writing to market is an effort in futility, because even if the BIG picture doesn't seem to change as quickly, the littler pictures change daily.

Small press word is where anything goes. There seems to be a press for just about any subgenre out there. Write your story. Make it sing, then do your research. And if you find nothing NOW, wait a few months and look again.

[sboydtaylor.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Don't despair until it's in final draft.

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm just frustrated to be perpetually out of sync.

[sboydtaylor.livejournal.com]

Hah. Well my book doesn't seem to be in an identifiable genre, so there are plenty of market issues for the writer to worry about. But, srsly, just finish the book, cross the other bridges later :).

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

Oh, I plan to! I always do. :-)

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

Yes, thank you. I never do write to the market. I was just expressing my frustration with how infrequently my vision matches the market. :-) Every once in awhile I actually write a novel that's ahead of the market, but sometimes it's so far ahead nobody wants it at the time that it's done then before I know it the market is saturated with that thing I wrote. My timing and marketing instincts always seem to be out of phase.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

"Market" is such a misleading term. If you've written a good, entertaining book, market doesn't matter for crap. You're so funny! Your posts remind me of Christopher Moore.

Did you ever read, "Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" ??

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

Okay, just one more...It's weird but I've never been able to get into Christopher Moore's books. Maybe I am like him. No one likes looking in a mirror, I guess.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

What amazingly, amazingly good advice.

(thank you!)

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

Yes. We must write the novel we have to write.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

:) :::blushing:::

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

::fans:: :-D

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

Hehehehe! I'm revived! It seems we're online scribbling on your page at the same time!

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

Almost like chat...but I have to go home now, so have a good evening!

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

I'm going to watch a movie! So we're leaving at the same time too. Travel safe!

[marycatelli]

I've read some fantasy bildungsroman, so an ambling, not tightly woven plot is not an absolute obstacle.

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to avoid the whole bildungsroman thingie, but yeah. The plot is fairly intricate, just not full of the kind of high conflict action that seems to be most popular these days.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I hear you on the zowie-pow! action thing. -_-

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

I can write it if I have to, but I like bigger, deeper issues, too. I'll never write an all slammo whammo novel, I don't think.

[helios137.livejournal.com]

You write remarkably well (and insightfully) on how bad your novel is going. Perhaps a non fiction introspective piece or essay is in order?

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

Nah, my blog serves as the only non-fiction introspective piece I'm interested in writing. ;-)

And I've had a lot of practice writing about how bad my novels are going. They always go bad at some point. ;-) ;-) But that's what rewrites are all about. :-D

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

Your getting-to-know-you stages are long indeed, but as someone who has read several final products of those stages, I do believe they are worth it. When you get to the end, it's obvious you know the characters.

And if you're enjoying writing it, who cares about the market?

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

You're too kind. And I'll continue on once I get past myself and certain stressful events, which are probably adding to the whole frustration. I write because I write because I write...