hasty vows
I'm currently working on another round of edits on the novel, 'cause ya know it'll never be truly finished (Okay, this is patiently false and I know it. I get closer and closer to done all the time--it is just a very time consuming project which occasionally frustrates me and makes me understand, or at least empathize with, book five of the Harry Potter series)
Anyway, when I read novels I often have this commentary going in my head comparing myself and my work to the book in question. With good books it goes along the lines of, this is great I want to be like this author someday, I want to make people cry or laugh or whatever. All the editing, all the rewriting is worth it because I'm bringing my book closer to this standard of goodness, and if I don't quite make it with this book, well, that's what the next book is for (finding and reading early works of authors I really like is very important and instructive in this regard)
When I'm reading less than stellar books my inner comments have a very different tone. Along the lines of, if I ever send an unedited poorly written pile of schlock to my publisher just because the fans are clamoring for more and they'll buy whatever I spew onto the page, I promise to at least keep the thing down to 200 or 300 pages so that the fans don't have to suffer long. Or, I will not make my main characters who "love" each other spend the entire book screaming and abusing each other, until the last chapter where everything magically becomes peachy-keen between them. Or, if I ever have a manipulative egotistical jerk as a main character, I'd better have a damn good reason. Most recently I was reading a trashy romance novel (the type that gives me hope because if *that* can get published, then surely my book can too) and I vowed not to have the main characters get into a stupid childish fight right at the end of the book for no purpose other than to have them be able to make up in the last chapter.
So now I'm working on editing and expanding the end of my novel, and the characters seem determined to get into a fight. I'm doing my best to keep it from being stupid and childish (I'm not allowing any irrational ultimatums, and neither of them is allowed to stomp off in a huff) but I find it just a little amusing that I'm confronting the very thing I vowed against only a couple of days ago.
Anyway, when I read novels I often have this commentary going in my head comparing myself and my work to the book in question. With good books it goes along the lines of, this is great I want to be like this author someday, I want to make people cry or laugh or whatever. All the editing, all the rewriting is worth it because I'm bringing my book closer to this standard of goodness, and if I don't quite make it with this book, well, that's what the next book is for (finding and reading early works of authors I really like is very important and instructive in this regard)
When I'm reading less than stellar books my inner comments have a very different tone. Along the lines of, if I ever send an unedited poorly written pile of schlock to my publisher just because the fans are clamoring for more and they'll buy whatever I spew onto the page, I promise to at least keep the thing down to 200 or 300 pages so that the fans don't have to suffer long. Or, I will not make my main characters who "love" each other spend the entire book screaming and abusing each other, until the last chapter where everything magically becomes peachy-keen between them. Or, if I ever have a manipulative egotistical jerk as a main character, I'd better have a damn good reason. Most recently I was reading a trashy romance novel (the type that gives me hope because if *that* can get published, then surely my book can too) and I vowed not to have the main characters get into a stupid childish fight right at the end of the book for no purpose other than to have them be able to make up in the last chapter.
So now I'm working on editing and expanding the end of my novel, and the characters seem determined to get into a fight. I'm doing my best to keep it from being stupid and childish (I'm not allowing any irrational ultimatums, and neither of them is allowed to stomp off in a huff) but I find it just a little amusing that I'm confronting the very thing I vowed against only a couple of days ago.