So I just put down one indie book and picked up another, and both have disappointed me, but in different ways.
Last week, I made a list of all the things a novelist needs to know how to do, and I think it’s something more writers and wannabes should think about. But in the end, the list could be broken into two catagories: Mechanics and craft.
Mechanics are things like where to break a paragraph, how to spell words correctly, how to write a sentence, how to use punctuation correctly.
Craft gets a little more artsy. It’s how to write a believable story, plotting, pacing, character development, things like that.
The two books that disappointed me were exactly opposite each other. The first book had terrible mechanics. The author really needed to go back to comp 101. But the characters were interesting, the story intrigued, and I did want to know more. I put it down because I couldn’t stand her complete lack of contractions and the way she wrote “teenaged” when she meant “teenage.”
Book 2 has spot-on mechanics. The sentences flow, everything’s spelled right, the things the characters say sounds like stuff that would come out of real peoples’ mouths. But her story is totally fake. I can’t buy any of it. There are plot holes and character inconsistencies galore, and the pacing is far too fast. I’m meant to believe that the series of events could take place in just a few days when I really can’t buy that these thing wouldn’t take months to develop. And the main character discovers something bizarre about herself. She has a good network of close family and friends, but her immediate reaction is “ohmigod, I can’t tell ANYONE what I just found out about myself!” No real reason is given for her paranoia.
These are the things I struggle with as a writer. I need to know both mechanics — where do I use an em dash? How many semi-colons are too many? How long should this sentence be? Is this comma necessary? How the hell do I spell guarantee and separate? And craft — would my main character actually do that? Why would the bad guy wait so long to strike? Would these events happen in days or hours? Do I need to break up this scene with some dialogue, or do I need to rush from one action to the next?
A good writer needs to have a solid basis in both the technical details of mechanics and the more artsy feel of a good story. I’m trying. I sure hope I’m succeeding.
