Where the singing starts

[pjthompson]

It’s taken me a long time to realize there are people who love to read but who don’t give a damn about how a thing is written. Yeah, I know, should have been obvious with one browse of bestseller books—but, somehow, the concrete realization of this fact  managed to elude me. Of course, not all bestsellers are badly written. Many are quite well written, in fact. But now and then someone comes along like Stieg Larsson or Dan Brown or Stephanie Meyer or E. L. James who are really atrocious at narrative but still manage to concoct a compelling story and capture that certain something in the zeitgeist that has people flocking to them.

Full disclosure: I am again attempting to read Stieg Larsson’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and this time it seems to be sticking, but I have bounced off Larsson and these other writers. I probably won’t try the others again as there seem to be diminishing returns and too many other things I’d rather read. The thing is, as I have been struggling with my own writing, I have also been struggling with my ability to read fiction. I keep bouncing off of books, even well-written ones, even those by old favorites, and I’ve been longing to become immersed in something. I’m far enough past Larsson’s tell-not-show and long infodump opening that the mystery of Tattoo has had a chance to hook me, so I may actually finish this book. No guarantees, though. It’s been the first part of December since I finished anything, even rereads of old favorites. (The last was Deborah Harkness’s Times Convert, the follow-on book to her All Souls Trilogy. It was meh, but I’d loved the other books and wanted to catch up on the characters.)

My writing and my fiction reading have always been connected. One feeds the other, even if what I’m reading has nothing to do with what I’m writing. Being immersed in someone else’s world for a time helps stimulate the mystic place in my brain where my own singing starts. I can’t help thinking that if I cure one symptom it might help cure the other.

I’m still writing almost every day, and it’s still mostly like pulling teeth, but I do plant butt in chair. Most days it isn’t much more than 500 or so words. Some days I’m blessed by 1000 or so. Today, all I managed was 250. But the important part is sitting my butt in the chair, opening the file, and doing something.

So, readers who don’t care how a thing is written. It’s all good. People should like what they like regardless of nerds like me who care about those things. I once had a friend who absolutely refused to read when he was younger, even though it caused him problems in school. He was a bright, imaginative, funny fellow but he just hated reading. Then one day when he was in high school a perceptive teacher shoved a science fiction book into his hands. He was intrigued by the premise and started to read. From that moment on, he became a voracious reader of science fiction and fantasy. He always had a book in his hands. He did confess to me, though, that he often skipped the descriptive parts and dialogue tags and read just the dialogue so he could get through the story faster.

And therein hangs a tale: there are many people like him. Not only do they not care how a thing is written, they want to get through the story as fast as possible to find out what happens. No savoring. They don’t really care about “the art of story,” that immersive feel of a book. It’s a mystery to me why they read at all—but again, that’s not for me to decide. People should be allowed to like what they like and how they like it, and no one—well-meaning nerd, politicizing authors, crusading literati, anyone—has the right to tell them otherwise.

There are no shoulds in reading. Only what gets you through the night. And the book.

 

 

Comments

[pjthompson]

Date: 2019-01-09 11:52 pm (UTC)
marycatelli: (Default)
From: [personal profile] marycatelli IP Address: (32.208.220.30)
It has been my experience that most writers are at least workmanlike in prose. Perhaps I've been lucky.

[pjthompson]

Date: 2019-01-10 12:19 am (UTC)
pjthompson: (Default)
From: [personal profile] pjthompson IP Address: (2605:e000:5ac3:e900:a53a:f328:b7d1:da2b)
Perhaps. Most truly bad writers usually don't make it past the guardians at the gates: agents and editors.

[pjthompson]

Date: 2019-01-10 01:44 pm (UTC)
lizziebelle: (book)
From: [personal profile] lizziebelle IP Address: (4.16.8.144)
I feel much the same way. I just don't have the patience for things that are not well-written, no matter how promising the premise. I've given up on many books because of this.

It's been a while since I've really loved a book. I miss that feeling.

[pjthompson]

Date: 2019-01-10 08:11 pm (UTC)
pjthompson: (books)
From: [personal profile] pjthompson IP Address: (2605:e000:5ac3:e900:bcfe:346f:cdc5:b0b4)
Even sometimes when something is well-written I lose patience. I was recently reading a book that had been very well received critically, had a great premise, was well-written. When I started it I was loving it, but about halfway through I ceased to care either positively or negatively about any of the characters. I soldiered on for awhile hoping things would change but they didn't so I stopped. Very disappointed. I was really loving that feeling of being carried away because, like you, it's been a while.

[notasupervillain]

I will often read a thing more than once, when I feel that way about it. That I need to know what happens in the plot so desperately that I can't focus on anything else until I know.

There's lots of things someone might get out of a book, even if it's not well written. I can't visualize, so I basically always skip physical description. I wouldn't care if a book skipped that entirely. I often end up in love with characters that are strong enough to shine through the writing (see: Anne Rice). And on the opposite side, an especially badly written book can allow the Reader to better use their own imagination, to make the story in their head deeper and more self-referential to the Reader's experiences than a fleshed out book might be (see: Twilight).

[pjthompson]

Like I said, there are no shoulds in reading.

I don't think I'm physically capable of skipping the descriptive parts, either in reading or writing. In the reading because I like to be transported into someone else's world and get out of my own head for awhile. In writing, because I have a powerful inner image generator and I need to get it out of me and onto the page. It's like walking through a waking dream for me and that has its own kind of power.

Everyone is different. The important part is reading what you enjoy in whatever way you enjoy it.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Amen to this.

And like you said, something for everyone, so each of us can continue to tell the stories in his or her own way because every reader likes and takes aways something different. Just a matter of finding your kindred reading spirits.

[pjthompson]

Right. Charlaine Harris once said (paraphrasing) that if you write something and like it, chances are someone out there will like it, too.