Are we blocking our own way?

[Steerpike]

I am very intrigued. The part that I put in bold in your original quote makes me happy I think I'll have to get around to reading this one.

There is a place, for example, where a window or mirror within the labyrinth comes into play, and in the book there is a box in the center of the page with backwards writing in it (but you don't read it that way, because it is just the inverse of the text from the other side of the paper). In other places, different colored fonts are used, or you have text running around a margin. In many places the word House alone appears in blue text.

When you explain it to someone, it sounds like a mess, but it's a pretty cool book, actually, and with some genuinely creepy moments.

 

[BWFoster78]

Like I said, if you want conformity to rules, this is not your book It says early on that 'this is not for you.' lol

I'll trust the author's word on that

 

[squishybug87]

There is a place, for example, where a window or mirror within the labyrinth comes into play, and in the book there is a box in the center of the page with backwards writing in it (but you don't read it that way, because it is just the inverse of the text from the other side of the paper). In other places, different colored fonts are used, or you have text running around a margin. In many places the word House alone appears in blue text.

When you explain it to someone, it sounds like a mess, but it's a pretty cool book, actually, and with some genuinely creepy moments.

Wow! I'm not just saying this, but I will read this book, though I tend to hate the psychological thrillers. I'm really interested in seeing how the author pulls this off.

 

[Steerpike]

I'll trust the author's word on that

Well, it doesn't say it's not for you because of the rule-breaking. There's a page at the beginning that is blank except for the words "this is not for you."

Great book, though

 

[Penpilot]

To the OP, yes.

I think people get published when they're good enough, but occasionally when they're not. Right place at the right time, can play into it, and like all business, if someone thinks they can make money on a product, they'll work to get it to market. Sometimes that product isn't the best but it fills a void and makes money. If there's money to be made more of the same or similar product will be produced, crap or not.

As for us struggling writers. I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to write something perfect yesterday. I can't speak to anybody else's experience, but for me personally, I spent years reading about the 'rules' of writing and trying to adhere to them to the letter and produce something perfect. But of course that never happened. For me, I ended up stifling myself and it took a moment of clarity to shake me out of it.

What happened was I was in an editing class, and I was asked to provide some back ground information to my novel, so I sent out 15yr old world building notes I wrote when I was in my early twenties. There was some of my mythology and a two page short story that was the seed for my book. I thought that short story was really bad. Several of my classmates told me, that they were having problems engaging with my novel, but the short story easily clicked with them. They said there was this honesty to the prose that wasn't in my novel. I realized right then that I'd tried so hard to write the technically perfect book that I ended up writing dishonest prose, trying to force the words into a certain shape instead of just letting them flow.

I took a step back and started to examine some of my favorite writers and some of the writers I don't exactly care for. One of my favorite writers Neil Gaiman, his books are full of imperfections. He uses adverbs. In one of his chapters, he has three consecutive one sentence paragraphs, each jumping to a different POV, and the book was until then a single POV book.

So in my writing now I keep the 'rules' on the back burner. They're important to know, but it's much more important to tell the story honestly. If that means breaking the 'rules', sure. The 'rule' are tools to help us. Control them. Don't let them control you or the story.

And Finally, we are all at different stages with our writing skills. To expect perfections immediately with our first efforts is like expecting to swim the same times as Michael Phelps the first time you ever hit the pool. I think we as writers should allow ourselves to fail more. Give it our best effort and move on. We can only take a story to a certain level before it stagnates, the story and our writing in general. I think we have to take the attitude of do the best we can now, and in the next effort do a little better. If anchor ourselves to one story, and can't let it go, the failure of that story will take us down with it. But if you can let it go and let it sink, you can swim for it and maybe find something that floats.

My two cents.

 

[pskelding]

George Lucas quoted Akira Kurosawa who once said "Movies are not finished, only abandoned." I think for books it's the same. Too much over polishing can kill a book or film. I wish Lucas would have really listened to his own advice!

 

[julidrevezzo]

The problem with "what's out there" isn't so much how good it is or isn't really, imho, it's how well it fits into the tiny little box the Big Six Publishers are looking for at that second in time. I've read dozens of Indie books that were very well done, worthy of being accepted by the Big Six and yet, they're ignored, have to go with small e-publishers or self publish just because they're not writing about oh, say, vampires or zombies or whatever the hot thing is at that particular time. The other problem is the schedule these Big Six folks demand from their authors. I personally know one author who has put out four, 400 page books in less than a year. I hope to all the gods she had these finished and ready to go before she signed that contract, but I doubt it. It's a good book though, I thought. Worthy of who she got? *shrugs* Don't know, but I enjoyed it. So... I think it depends on the editors, and the houses, and the timing really. What makes one pass into the yes pile and one into the no? Who the heck knows? *lol* Sometimes I think it's all luck.

 

[ALB2012]

I have read a good many officially published books which are in need of an editor, or in some cases a plot. I do think people should do the best they can, of course, and basic rules of grammar are a must BUT to a degree they are relative, some people have learned what was deemed correct 20 years ago, and certainly between US and UK English there is a disparity. I bet a lot of people know some but not all and many people know only what they learned at school 20 years ago. Now I am not saying readers are stupid but a lot of the issues which get flagged up are not really issues as will not get noticed or minded by the average reader unless they are really bad or really obvious.

If 50 Shades of Grey can become a best seller there is hope for us all, it is pretty bad.

There is no such thing as the perfect book. Even the most well written, well edited and exciting story will be deemed boring, badly written and have terrible characterisation by someone. You simply cannot please everyone.
I have read some great indie books which I have really enjoyed, and some trad pubbed ones I thought were rubbish.

It is worth getting an editor of some sort as often you simply don't notice your own errors but never publishing because someone might not like it, or because it is not perfect means a potentially excellent story may never see the light of day and that would be a shame.

 

[Micha Fire]

when i write I write for teh fun of it

wanting to make it public / publish
I will edit some of it:
spelling, grammar (if I can see it wrong), plot continuity

and layout into readable book-form is fun and annoying at the same time

"rules are there to be broken"

and I think, there is an artists way of writing too -- that can't be pressed into strict rules