How many times have you received promotions for upcoming books that immediately spark your interest? Within days, advertisements of the release land in your inbox, are discussed on popular writing groups and show up on major literary promotion sites. The buzz is all around and rather than wait, you preorder the book and eagerly await its arrival.
The blessed day arrives and without reserve you tear open the cardboard wrapping separating you from that coveted read. Its cover is appealing. You fondle it as if it were a Braille primer. It looks good, it feels good and you carry it to your favorite reading spot. Curled in the reading position your family already knows that acceptable interruption must be in the category of someone having lost a limb or the house being on fire.
Marathon reading has now begun – or has it?
Several chapters in, you’re scratching your head. What? How could that happen? No, that’s not realistic given the timeline, profession. What is the name of this book?
You press on, hoping that it will all make sense in the end and that this read will not become an exercise in futility. But, it is. It is simply because the great idea the story was predicated on and promoted as, never happened. It didn’t due to lack of:
*End result vision
*Character development
*Too much drama
*Too many walk on characters taking up story development space
*Absence of appropriate research
The list of story-maiming possibilities can go on, but for the sake of space we will not go into overkill.
As writers it is our responsibility to give the reader a positive return on their investment. That starts with an end result strategy. What that means is that you see the end the work towards bringing the story to an end that can reasonably support the vision.
If you are willing to follow as we go along, on Tuesday April 20th we will begin working on the end result strategy. Feel free to invite a friend and/or mail any questions you have to lindaonassignment@yahoo.com using Feasible in the subject line.
Until then – be blessed and don’t forget to use your words to bear good fruit.
Linda!
I am near the end in self-editing my book. The issues regarding character development, tone, structure and just making sure that the writing makes sense is something I strive to pay close attention to.
ReplyDeleteThank you for bringing these concerns up.
I look forward to reading future blogs.
Eleanie
I can't think of how many times I plodded my way through a book I was certain would be a killer. Improbable plot twists seem to be the main culprit in the lemons I've read.
ReplyDeleteThis interesting article will be used as another source of inspiration when I edit my work (which in my editorial view, means I have a fool for a client.) However, before I send to another editor, I try to make the copy as easy on them as I can.
You're always in the crow's nest looking out, Linda.
I've had this experience too, however, I keep going because I think of books like these as resource material.
ReplyDeleteIf it's highly-touted and does well on the best-seller lists, I take the time to read because I wanna know what makes the book do so well.
I'm not always satisfied, but I know reading taste is subjective and I also know that some of us can be like sheep - so we buy into what others say, even if we have our doubts.
Thank you for stopping by Elaine. I'm happy to hear about your upcoming releases. It seems that you are on the road to success.
ReplyDeleteLinda!
Hi Tim. I applaud you for doing your best before submitting to fresh eyes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stoppin by.
Linda!
Joy you make a great point in terms of reading tastes being subjective.
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by and I hope you come again.
Linda!
Linda, great blog! Yes I have anticipated the arrival of a book and thought what was the point!!!! In fact, several books have disappointed me. I don't even finish reading them. Recently, however, I downloaded two free ebooks featured for the ebook reading challenge week; one was so full of typos, misspelled words, and grammatical errors, it was hard to read. It had a great story line and I kept reading to see what was going to happen, but it was difficult. Then when I started the next free ebook, the title was misspelled. As authors and as people we should give our best in everything we do. We are our own brand!
ReplyDeleteThank you for joining the discussion Rosa. I hope that these coming weeks will be an encouragement to others.
ReplyDeleteLinda!
This has happen to me several times. I hate to stop reading a book I've purchased, but will put it aside and come back to it to find out why others raved about it. The ones with grammer and punctuation errors, I truly have to wonder why? and how?
ReplyDeleteReeta
Hello Ms. Reeta. You ask valid questions, unfortunately the answers are varied. I hope you join us next week as we explore some avenues that can contribute to such questions.
ReplyDeleteLinda!