Okay, you guys know I’ve been pretty quiet lately. I don’t really talk much about writing or the process of writing anymore, because I honestly have pretty much matured to the point that I realize I have no idea what I’m talking about. I’ve learned a lot about writing over the past few years from studying various mediums like film, plays, short stories, novels, graphic novels, and even games. What I’ve learned about writing is that there aren’t really many rules other than they need to work at servicing the story. Even then, how well it succeeds can be so subjective that it’s hard to know when it’s actually working. The criteria for success are more gut feelings than anything else. However, you can feed that gut to the point that you have a greater appreciation for the medium and how to find success in that medium. I guess that’s just a fancy way of saying that when it comes to story, to each their own.

However, I do think that certain mediums of storytelling are better equipped for telling certain types of stories than others. Additionally, though you can use some of the same tools and formats of one medium in another medium and meet with success, chances are your stories are going to work best when told in their appropriate medium. Based on that assumption, I think there are certain things that can only be done effectively in specific mediums. Comics have a unique format. They’re a bit like sonnets. You have limitations and constraints. It also tends to be collaborative, unless you can write, draw, and color. A short story has its limits and constraints. A novel has its strengths and weaknesses.

This time last year I was finishing up a long study on film. I had it in my head that it might be fun to experiment with screenwriting. I did. I wrote a few short screenplays, involved myself in a few online screenwriting groups, and critiqued quite a few screenplays. This was my attempt to really understand the process of writing a screenplay and get a better understanding of traditional screenplay structures. Overall, I think I have a fair understanding of what makes a screenplay work. Much of this study I did was in an effort to better understand how to plot my own short stories and novels. However, I came to a much different conclusion. Not much of what I learned applied. It could. I could write my novel with the same structure as a screenplay, and I imagine that the novel would both read and sell relatively well. Taking that into consideration, you might wonder why I’m now completely avoiding that type of plotting with my current work in progress and why I’ll probably always avoid that method of plotting for any of my work.

I’m avoiding this process, because a novel is not a film. A novel is a completely different animal and I’ve come to the point in my life where I love the freedom a novel gives you to explore and create. I’m afraid that so many novels have been written to mimic film structure and have even tried to use cinema descriptive techniques, that a lot of the unique things a novel can do are lost on today’s reader. I just finished reading Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando. It’s a wonderful pseudo-biographic about a man who turns into a woman and then continues to persist throughout history. There’s a real mingling of voices in this novel. Sometimes you’re deep in the point of view of the pseudo-biographer and at other times you’re firmly in Orlando’s view—delving into his/her thoughts and feelings. There’s really no great Inciting Incident, there are no specific reversals, you can’t turn to the middle of the novel and find a very specific point of no return, you can’t go three fourths of the way in and find a ‘darkest hour’. Now, I could probably dig through the novel and find these various parts, re-arrange them so they fit this very rigid structure, and I’m sure there are some readers who might find that to be an improvement, but that would defeat the flow and feel of this wonderful novel. Orlando was made into a film by the very talented Sally Potter. I haven’t seen it in many years, so I can’t really comment on its structure, but I do remember enough to know the film and novel are similar, but still quite different. I prefer the novel. No offense, Sally.

This brings me to what I really wanted to comment on for this post. My post is a reaction to another post. The post I’m reacting to is one made by Rachelle Gardner, an Agent with Wordserve Literary Group based in Denver. Now I just want to say up front that I’m not trying to demonize Ms. Gardner. I know that her opinion is not only valid, but based on the books bought and sold today is pretty much spot on. If you want to improve your chances of getting published, following her advice is probably a sensible thing to do. So why am I going to argue with her post on a point-by-point basis? Because I think this type of thinking is limiting. I think this way of approaching how things “should” be done, doesn’t take into account the fact that the novel is more than just a medium for delivering a Hollywood blockbuster in word form. I also want to see better novels. I want to have better experiences while reading novels. I don’t want every novel I read to be written for the lowest common denominator.

Here’s the post, if you want to follow along at home: http://www.rachellegardner.com/2011/08/10339/

1. We are more worldly. Possibly, but I’m not sure that makes a difference. I might know what Paris looks like from watching Anthony Bourdain travel from restaurant to restaurant trying out the local cuisine and commenting on it, but that doesn’t mean I really get a feel for it. In fact, it’s more his voice over than the images that relay a sense of place for me. Additionally, I might have been exposed to what a place looks like or feels like, but that doesn’t mean I had the same experience as the character in a novel. A great writer can make a place come to life. Setting can be just as important a character as the hero, with all the same internal conflicts, and can turn a place into a memory that is real to the reader. We still pay travel writers for a reason. Captured video images will never replace first-hand experience. And even if I have travelled to Paris, my Parisian experience won’t be that same as a character in the novel.
2. We’re more impatient and are easily bored. Really? Have you ever seen what it takes to get a World of Warcraft character to the highest level and fully outfitted in epic armor? People often point of video games as a sign that we are an easily distracted, short attention span generation, but that’s just not true. Most gamers aren’t playing Pong. They’re playing through sophisticated stories with lots of levels. Gaming takes dedication—it’s one of the reasons I just can’t do it anymore. Today’s television shows aren’t single-episode adventures where everything in the story needs to be wrapped up in forty-five minutes. Today’s audience is in love with the longer episodic story arcs you find in Mad Men, Dexter, Lost, and True Blood. If audiences are demanding more from their television, why would you think that they would want even less from their novels?
3. We’re conditioned for “show, don’t tell.” I can’t really argue too much with this one, because no one wants a tome filled with exposition. However, I think comparing a novel to TV or movies is a mistake, because of what I’ve said above. They are two different mediums. If a reader has the expectation that a book should feel like a movie, then novel writers have done a grave disservice to their readers. Write better.
4. Language itself changes over time. I agree with this completely. The novel does need to change, but it needs to change to its strengths, not the strengths of other mediums. You can always incorporate elements from these other mediums, but don’ try to turn a novel into a screenplay. Novels should do more with character than film, they should allow a greater depth in story than comics, and they should involve you more in setting than an MMO.

In closing, I have nothing against commercial fiction. I think there is a place on shelves for many types of books, especially now that we’re not hampered by the traditional publishing model. However, if you want to go the traditional route, it’s probably not a bad idea to listen to the advice Ms. Gardner has to offer. But if you want to write a great novel, one that will withstand the test of time, I suggest you forget about following some plot skeleton that mimics the latest best seller and write from the heart.