Blog Post
Thoughts on writing a clean yet plausible and enjoyable piece of fiction
My hope is it inspires a few of my readers to share what you consider meets the above criteria.
Have you read books that had tantalizing covers, impressive recommendations, and perhaps even an author whose name you recognize as well-established, yet you were immensely disappointed in the story?Most likely you have. It is a waste of your time, a big disappointment, and perhaps a bit of money out of your pocket.
Like millions of others I enjoy the work of fiction of a gifted author, and for a variety of reasons. But when writing I'm not putting into a manuscript things that put me off when doing my own reading. One of my goals is to meet my own standards, thus appealing to a certain portion of the reading public. (You can't possibly please everybody)
What puts me off:
Excessive graphic descriptions of violence and sexual intimacy.
Large doses of profanity and crass language.
(If I can't write a decent story without lowering myself to either of the two above, I'm not writing at all.)
The main characters having no character or maturity of their own.
A plot or story line that even by a stretch of the imagination could never have happened (I'm not writing science fiction.)
Excessive poor editing.
A poorly written and disjointed story.
The above is largely subjective, of course. I'll share one issue with my first book in the Sally Nimitz mysteries that I regret and would change now if I could; it is at the very beginning, where the police cordon off the victim's home for only two days. In the real world it would have been much longer, even back in the 1990's, which is when the story took place. A story full of improbabilities like that takes away from the enjoyment of the read. After I finish my next book my goal is to go back and
resubmit re-edits of two or three earlier books in the series to bring them up to a higher standard.
Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, wrote a short booklet to guide new authors, and one of his biggest points was, edit, edit, and edit again. He was right.
It is with these thoughts that I once again put up the link to a new website whose purpose is to be a resource for those seeking clean/Christian oriented reads, audios, videos. They offer a huge variety of material.
My own experience with material put out to appeal to this market is like any other: it ranges from very poor to excellent. But here is a very good site to do your own research.
The Death of Amelia Marsh is being advertised today on
https://www.1531entertainment.com/
We'll see how that works out for my own sales.
What reader hasn't been disappointed? Of course, our favorite authors are favorites because the disappointment is rare, and not often deep. But even our favorites can disappoint us sometimes. And it stands to reason: We can never please everyone, even our own selves, all the time.
ReplyDeleteAs you know, MaryJo, I stopped reviewing books in 2016 after reading a slew of stinkers . . . thanks to each writer pandering to social justice themes that had nothing to do with the stories they were trying to tell.
We share some pet peeves -- I will never understand why anyone wants to sit through a porn flick, visual or verbal -- and of course I have my own. I wonder if it bothers anyone else if every paragraph is only a sentence long? Or if every paragraph is a page and a half? I think my mental ear listens for rhythm, especially in dialogue and description. Too many too short sentences, and it's choppy and irritating. I'm more forgiving of length, I suppose.
Oh I do indeed remember those days, Carole. Wanting reviews for my own books back in the day - like 8 years ago - I obliged several other authors who were essential unknowns. Some of the stories were just bad, I'm sorry, they had so many issues. Then how do you - as a wise man once told me - tell an author their baby is ugly?
DeleteThe most disappointing are my favorite authors, both faith based and secular, who change their writing to reflect the culture. I have in mind to do a blog post on this very subject!
ReplyDeleteI hope the exposure on 1531 Entertainment increases book sales of Sally Nimitz. ❤
Put me on that band wagon, the one where a writer decides to put their story in a setting of decades or even centuries ago, but have the characters reflecting the culture today. It's done in movies too, a total put off.
DeleteThis is an upbeat book talk chat site, so I don't want to dwell on negatives too much. But sometimes the negatives have to be shown in order for something positive to come out of it.
Thanks for your good wishes, too, Linda.
Like: Good plot, well developed characters but not too many. Appreciate protagonists with moral values
ReplyDeleteDon;t like: Sentimentality, preaching (e.g. green issues), graphic mayhem (torture: mental or physical), ax grinding e.g. holocaust, slavery, etc. Would also add I don't care for gratuitous sex.
This is the list given to me in personal e-mail by a reader. Thanks, P.