Or rather should I say, do editors and others who act as gate keepers, prevent captivating stories from being told?
Rosemary comes up to me yesterday and says, "in her first twenty pages, this author violates every rule in the book."
A knot slowly began to form in my stomach. This was a most excellent book. If it were non-fiction I would have smoked and signed it. As it was I definitely smoked it and still ended up high lighting interesting text. The book, She Walks These Hills, by Sharyn McCrumb, was recommended to me by Dick Richards for the author's strong use of sense of place.
Since completing three novels last year, Rosemary has immersed herself in the technical side of writing. She rattles off terms like plot, back story, POV's, dialog and theme like they were ordinary house hold items and like I am supposed to understand them. The thing is, all of the books on writing that Rosemary has read, have been mine. Plus, I've read a whole lot more. So I do understand, sort of. I refuse however, to let the technicalities ruin the melody in my head.
That's fine. I can stand up on my platform, be self-righteous and pompous as much as I want. I am not trying to sell my stuff. Rosemary however, is. So she slices and dices on the advice of agents, editors, women in her writing group, writing coaches, writing partners and published authors. I plead for her not to lose sight of her story.
Maybe it's me, maybe I'm the dunce, but here is what is important when I read a book. The story must be interesting and I must want to keep turning the pages. The words must hold a tune. And they must carry that tune throughout the story as if I were not even aware of it. Or, if I am made aware it is at a point where emphasis is called for. (These are the points that I usually high light). Rosemary's books have all of the above. She's got great story, her dialog flows and IMHO, her use of descriptive language is above the genre that she writes for.
Why of course I am the doting husband. But it irks the crap out of me when I hear someone babbling about two different points of view in a chapter that I just smoked through because I thought it was interesting. Then again, maybe all that I accomplished here was to expose all of my own non-literariness to the world...
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