Novel Writer's Toolkit: Revised Edition

Never Complain, Never Explain AND What a Writer Needs

1 of N does not equal N And Never Complain, Never Explain

Arrghhh.  Math in a writing book.  Sorry, but it's the best way I can explain this concept.  What this formula means is that just because you can go to the bookstore and buy a best-selling book written by so-and-so, the famous writer that does not mean you can write a similar book and get it published.

Ahh, now you're really mad at me.  I'm contradicting what I wrote earlier.  No, I'm not.  What I'm talking about is those people who sit there and complain that their book is just as good as such and such and, damn it, they should not only be published but have a bestseller.  Also, those people who look at book number 5 from a best-selling author and complain about how bad it is.  Yes, there are many book number 5’s from best-selling authors that if they were book number 1 from a new author, would not get published.  But the primary thing that sells a book is the author's name.  I've always said Stephen King could write a book about doing his laundry and it would be on the bestseller list.  Stephen King earned being Stephen King and to misquote a vice-presidential debate, I've read Stephen King and you ain't no Stephen King.  Neither am I.

Another thing people do is they see a technique used in a novel and use the same technique, and then get upset when told it doesn’t work.  They angrily point to the published book that has the same technique and say, “SEE.”  Unfortunately, what they don’t see is that that technique is part of the overall structure of the novel.  It all ties together.  I’ll discuss book dissection to study various aspects and techniques and I still stand by that; however, I also remind you of the story of Frankenstein.  Just because you can put all the pieces together, that doesn’t mean you can necessarily bring it to life.  There are some techniques that only work when put in context of other parts of the novel; thus using it in isolation can be a glaring problem.  You can’t take the beginning of one bestseller, tie it in with flashback style from another, and have a similar flashy ending as another and expect the novel to automatically work.

Every part of a novel is a thread connected to all the other parts.  Pull on one piece and you pull on them all.  Tear apart a novel or a movie and see the pieces, but then be like a watchmaker and see if you can put them all together again as the writer did and if you understand why they go back that way.

For example, Quentin Tarrantino ignored the classic three act screenplay structure with Pulp Fiction.  Yet the movie was a great success.  So therefore, a number of new screenwriters decided they didn’t need the three act structure.  However, what they failed to see is that it was not so much the unique story structure that made Pulp Fiction such a success, but rather the intriguing dialogue.  Tarrantino’s structure without the Tarrantino dialogue would have spelled failure.

It is also more important to figure out what is working and why, rather that what you feel didn’t work in a book you read.  An attitude that will serve you little good is the there’s so much crap on the shelves in the bookstore.  I admit that there are times when I am looking for something to read, and I stand in the local supermarket looking at the paperbacks, that I really can’t find anything I want to read or that sparks an interest.  But that doesn’t automatically mean it’s all crap.

I had to do this many times.  I’d read something I might not like, but it seems to be selling quite well.  Instead of dismissing the rest of the world as stupid, I try to find what it is about the book that people like.  That doesn’t mean I’m going to do the same thing, but it does broaden my horizon.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with a little fire burning deep inside believing you are better than those people getting published, but I think that’s the sort of thing that should be used to fuel your writing, not expressed loudly so everyone can hear it.