The Writing Life: May 2007 Archives

Miss Snark is finally calling it quits. Her blog was a regular read of mine.

I can understand how appealing it is to not have to have a blog hanging over your head, what with all your normal work responsibilities. She had been getting the same questions over and over again. Literary agents must really feel frustrated after a fairly short amount of time. With such a high volume of "writers" clamoring to be published, there must be a high turnover rate. With high turnover comes lack of continuity. With a lack of continuity come the same mistakes over and over again, innocently (or sometimes not so innocently) committed by people who are blissfully unaware of what they don't know. The more happy they are, the less they know.

I don't envy the job of the literary professional. It's a thankless job that ends up on the receiving end of a lot of crap from people who can't separate their art from themselves. People that take criticism personally because no one has taught them otherwise in their life.

That's got to be tiring.

I haven't updated the word count on the novel because I've been busy with revisions for class, a research paper for my Chaucer class, and sundry familial activities. I haven't made a lot of forward progress on the novel — the word count is in the vicinity of 12,000 right now — but I have made a lot of mental progress with where I want this thing to end up.

I'm more of a character-driven writer than a plot-driven pot-boiler one. I'm fine with that, for the most part. On the one hand, the kinds of novels I enjoy reading over and over are the ones that focus specifically on the characters and less so on the plot. Those are the only ones that seem to really support multiple readings since, if the interest of the novel rests on the plot, knowing what's going to happen ahead of time is kind of a downer. On the other hand, a pot-boiler can set you up very well financially (and let's be honest with each other, writing is simply not all about the Art…you have to eat, and so does your family). But if the focii of the novel is the characters themselves, that's a lot more like real-life relationships, so you're more inclined to want to spend some time with those characters again and again.

I'm reading Faulkner's The Sound & the Fury again. That's probably not the best example of what I'm talking about here, though. I can't say that I fully understand what's going, so far as the plot is concerned; even now, during a third reading. But it's the time spent with the characters that's interesting in this novel. Getting to know Benjy and Caddy and Jason again is what spurs you on. If I ever do figure out why Quentin does what he does, or exactly what the heck is going on all throughout Benjy's section, though, I'll be sure and update you.

But it's time spent with the characters that matters. Whether it's a plot-driven pot-boiler or not matters less than what it feels like to get to know the characters in a novel. That kind of lasting impression is the one I'm trying to make with my fiction. The kind of novel that sells for decades after it first comes out. The kind that you're glad to discover, albeit ten years too late. The thought of having to wait ten years before getting enough steam built up to support myself as a writer is, to be honest, a little depressing, but if that's the price I have to pay for doing the best I know how, then I guess I'll just have to suck it up and pay it.

That or write a really crappy pot-boiler a la The Da Vinci Code and make tens of millions on that one book and not care about ever having to write another one (or, in the case of Dan Brown, not having the ability to write another one).