Have you ever felt embarrassed by your writing?

I was organizing my writing projects and as I put them into different folders, I could not resist the urge to flip through some of the pages I put inside the YA folder. I have never had much success with this genre (as far as I have had success at all in some writing competitions) and have never managed to get published in any journal or magazine, traditional or online. What I read made my heart race and then plummet. Neither in a good way. At first I almost felt proud reading the introductory paragraphs, the intense and descriptive words, thoroughly enjoying the aura they created. But as I progressed down the page, the words and sentences started to pull away and any sense of them being representative of the genre just melted away. As the story developed, or rather, as the story stalled, I almost felt my blood drain into my toes. The dialogue was flat, the characters uninspiring (and definitely not young adults), and the storyline common and boring. I felt embarrassed that I had actually been ignorant enough to submit something so amateurish and poor. As I never had any positive responses to my YA stories, I stopped writing YA and now I focus only on general fiction and literary fiction. Perhaps not being able to (or work harder to be able to) cross over makes me a bad writer - or at least an embarrassed one! Anyone else feel these pangs of literary pain?

Three Day Weekend - Three Books

I have been meaning to write this post for over a week now but, finally, here it is!  I can't help but "brag" that I managed to read three books in just three days over the long weekend (my teenage self would be laughing at my old self - I used to devour books when I had more time...).  Here are my thoughts on the books, in the order I read them.

Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth
I first few chapter were quite good, fast and fun, and the secondary characters and their stories quite interesting, especially with the historical layers and explanations. But the more I read the less impressed I became.  Although the main characters work quite well, the smug, young politician and the complex, quiet vampire, the sci-fi element (as distinct from the horror element) introduced through the storyline of the key villain did not work for me at all.  I simply could not believe the story.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
I picked up this book expecting it to be ridiculous and silly, but I was hooked after the first few sentences.  The writing is interesting and solid, the story intriguing and believable, and the voice unique and impressive. The concept sounded so bizarre I had to smirk, but the story built by the author is so believable that I suspended all disbelief, almost expecting vampires to turn the next corner.  When I finished the book I wanted to read more about Abe and his vampire hunting adventures.  I also loved the introduction and wish the author had finished that thread of the story too.  Definitely a great read.

The Technologists by Matthew Pearl
If I had not shredded the packing slip, the book would be back in the Barnes and Noble warehouse.

There Is No Writing Without Reading

I have recently read somewhere that there are now more (self-professed) writers than readers.  If it is indeed true, it is rather disturbing - I know I am not the first one to say that in order to be a good writer one needs to be a good reader first.  As writers we must read more than we write; we have to let our imagination soar and utilize what we learn by reading the works of other writers, whether established or just starting out.

That said, I am terribly behind on both my reading and my writing.  I am still on the last draft of my work-in-progess / first novel and I dread reading it. I think I am afraid that after two full years of writing and editing, I may find it still lacking here or there - and I fear having to rework it.

As for my reading, I simply don't know what title to pick up next!  Can you help me out?

I just finished reading Arthur Schnitzler's Dream Story.  Before that, I read Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.   I tend to reach for classics, literary fiction, or YA, especially if it is by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Any ideas?

Like I Said, We All Make Mistakes

And that is the one I keep making. I know the rule, yet I manage to "forget" it ever so often.  I could try to blame it on the fact that English is not my first or second language, but that would be a cheap excuse. After all, I use English everyday, practically all day long.

The rule is a simple one and quite easy to follow.  In theory like (a preposition) should be used only with a noun, a pronoun, or gerund.

You look like a princess.  Be like your brother - start studying. 

As, on the other hand, is a conjunction, and is used with a verb or before a clause containing a verb.

Why don't you walk to work as we do?  As I told you, I left my coat at the office.

That said, why is it so easy for me (and others) to make this mistake time and again?  In colloquial English people have been using "like" as if it were a conjunction for about 100 years. The Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage states that “probably no single question of usage has created greater controversy in recent years” than the conjunctive use of like.  Why we have been switching like and as - that they did not explain.

Any rules of grammar you have difficulty adhering to?

The Length of Chapters

I am done with the hard revisions of my work (which is called In The Shadow of Honey Locusts) and I am giving it a last read, making minor changes here and there.  I think I have said that before but hopefully it is true this time.

In the absence of former training or coursework, I find it challenging to manage some aspects of writing.

Take, for example, chapters.

How long should each chapter be?  Should their length be somewhat uniform or can one be 5 pages and the next 500?

As one who reads a lot, I know there are no hard and fast rules (although having a 500-page chapter is probably not a good idea), but some guidance, even if by analogy, is helpful.

I look at each chapter as telling a mini (although not necessarily stand alone) story that forwards the overall plot, just long enough to serve its purpose.

One blogger / author likened chapters to TV shows. When a TV show finishes its first act (which often happens right after something significant is revealed), it goes to commercial break. Then the second act comes, with the same set-up and rules.  Same for the third act and so on.  He suggests we look for our chapters to have similar elements and when we reach a “commercial break,” we are wise to end the chapter and start a new one.

Do you follow any rules in creating chapters or do you just let it flow as it may?

They Said It

While pondering my purpose as a writer I came across the quotes below.  Some are curious, others strange, but they are all true.

Enjoy!

"The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say. "


--F. Scott Fitzgerald

“If you have a story that seems worth telling, and you think you can tell it worthily, then the thing for you to do is to tell it, regardless of whether it has to do with sex, sailors or mounted policemen.”


--Dashiell Hammett

"Genius gives birth, talent delivers."


--Jack Kerouac



“Long patience and application saturated with your heart’s blood—you will either write or you will not—and the only way to find out whether you will or not is to try.”


--Jim Tully



"I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again." 


-- Oscar Wilde

"Coleridge was a drug addict. Poe was an alcoholic. Marlowe was killed by a man whom he was treacherously trying to stab. Pope took money to keep a woman's name out of a satire then wrote a piece so that she could still be recognized anyhow. Chatterton killed himself. Byron was accused of incest. Do you still want to a writer - and if so, why?"


-- Bennett Cerf

"Easy reading is damned hard writing."

--Anonymous

"A writer doesn't solve problems. He allows them to emerge." 


--Friedrich Dürrenmatt

"Half my life is an act of revision."

--John Irving

Literary Fiction is Not Boring, is it?

No. It is not.

Naturally, my answer cannot be anything but.  I read a variety of genres, from suspense to young adult, but literary fiction is the genre I gravitate to most when reading (and writing).

But it is not everyone's favorite.

Literary novels are often perceived as boring and lacking urgency or creativity, as being slow paced and devoid of action.

For me, literary fiction is like good wine - each word should be savored and enjoyed, slowly and deliberately. Let the words come alive and paint a vivid picture, sing to your soul. But it's the middle of July, and heat radiates from every leaf and blade of grass along the lake road, from the tar-papered sides of the lake cottages, from the dust that hands in the air like sheer curtains - Julie Orringer, The Smoothest Way is Full of Stones.


Perhaps it comes down to wrong expectations - they are not page-turners that can be (or should be) browsed through or read in one night -  that defeats their purpose.

Do you enjoy literary fiction?  Why or why not? What is your favorite literary fiction title?