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By P.A.Thompson
Here is something I just realized...
A few weeks ago, maybe longer, I had hit a reading roadblock. I'd become really difficult to please in my reading choices, nothing new I picked up was any good. Too many writing 'rules' broken to allow me to enjoy the stories. And by 'rules broken' I mean bumps in the reading that would toss me out of the story and cause me to analyze the writing. It didn't always break rules, but caused a problem with my reading flow.
So, I went back to my boxes of books that I had brought with me when we moved four years ago. I think I have mentioned reading the first twenty 'Spenser' books by Robert Parker. Besides being fun reading, I was curious to see how the Spenser character had developed as the series progressed. When I ran out of Spenser books, and the library couldn't fill in the gaps, I delved back into my boxes and came up with this series:
The Matthew Scudder series, by Lawrence Block
A detective type series of books I read way back when, 20+ years ago. Now, because of running into a wall, head first and at full speed, my memory is oddly gapped at times. I don't remember a lot of details from my first reading of these books, details about the cases he's working on, but I do remember more details about the main character (MC), Matt Scudder. And I remember why I wanted to read these books again - the last paragraph of the fifth book, 'Eight Million Ways to Die'.
A summary of the MC: Matt Scudder is an ex-cop. He left the force, by choice, when he shot two men who had robbed the bar where he was drinking. They killed the bartender and Matt shot them as they ran away down the street. He may or may not have had too much to drink. But one of his shots ricocheted and killed a seven year old girl. He was cleared and commendated for his actions, but it ruined his life.
He quit his job, left his wife and two boys, moved into a hotel room, and tried to drink himself to death on an almost daily basis. He works as an unofficial private investigator, not licensed, he does favors for people and they give him gifts (money).
So, going back to my opening sentence, I realized that I read five books just to get to the last paragraph of that fifth book. It had hit me that hard when I first read it. I wanted to read each of the books leading up to that paragraph to study how the character was written. What made that paragraph hit me so hard? The overall writing is good, the stories are good, but it's the character study that brought me back.
I want to write like THAT. I want to write characters that draw readers in. Love them or hate them, I want the reader to care and be drawn to them somehow. Matt Scudder is not a likeable person, the way he is now. He had some good qualities but he is SO flawed.
I'm still driven by character driven stories, like I said in an earlier post here.
What drives your writing?
Oh, a quote from the author, Lawrence Block:
I started writing about Matthew Scudder in the mid-1970s, and it’s been a great pleasure watching him grow and evolve over the years. An aspect of the realism of the series is that Scudder has aged in real time; he’s forty years older than he was when I started chronicling his fictive existence. If I have one piece of advice for y’all, it’s this: Don’t age in real time. I’m talking about you, not your characters. Slow down. What’s the damn hurry?
Responses to this blog
My model for writing is Heinlein. [That is, the early and middle-period Heinlein, not the late and rather rambling Heinlein.] Clear, lucid, nothing that distracts you from the story — the writing communicates almost transparently. Yet it's infinitely rereadable and, once you stop and look at it, consistently witty and illuminating. If I could do that . . . Of course it'll necessarily be in my own voice too; but it's still helpful to have a target to aim at.
My more modern model is Lois McMaster Bujold. She too gets a story across without histrionics or melodrama. But her sly humor adds a unique note. Again, I figure if I can accomplish anything like those books, I'll have added something worthwhile to the world.
Rick
I read way too many authors to pick one to be 'like' perhaps Guy Gavriel Kay for fantasy, though Kristin Cashore is brilliant too. For humour, I'm thinking the love child of P.G. Woodhouse and Douglas Adams. Thriller might be Ian Rankin, the Edinburgh police (sort of procedural) writer. I have to mention Charles de Lint for urban fantasy, though I haven't done much with that yet.
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Imagine having somebody re-read five of your books, just to study (feel) the character development you've done. How would that feel?
Do I want to be able to provoke certain emotions and affect in my (future) readers like some of the authors I've read? Hell, yeah!
I think this leads onto a bigger question, though. Or maybe I should say we should look at it differently. Are we really asking who we want to write like, or are we asking if we recognise our own writing weaknesses by reading others and see the need to tackle and overcome them?
Theme wise, I want to write like Victor Hugo. I write children's book, so I also favor Spinelli when it comes to themes.
Plot wise, probably Agatha Christie; I even liked Roth's plot in Divergent.
I'd like to comment on something you said: I'd become really difficult to please in my reading choices, nothing new I picked up was any good. Too many writing 'rules' broken to allow me to enjoy the stories.
If you knew nothing about these rules would you still have the same opinion of the stories you put down? I think the casual reader knows nothing of these so called "rules" but readers intuitively know what's good or bad writing, even if he/she doesn't write.
I often pull out older books just for the pleasure of enjoying again that certain cadence/word choice/sentence structure, whatever it is, that so clearly differentiates one author from another. I'm also surprised when an author, whose voice I love, starts a different series using a voice I don't recognize. I'd settle for writing in one consistently distinctive voice.
I'm going to say that I'd like my writing to be character driven. I don't care what the plot is, as long as its decent, but if you can put in incredible and unforgettable characters, then I find it to be a good book. That's what I want my stories to be, about characters who will resonate with the reader, as they should.
I wish you'd shared that last paragraph with us.
Marrion Zimmer Bradleys Mists of Avalon.
Beatris Small The Kadin.
Neither are my current favorite style of read, but I keep going back.
From what you wrote, you like thrillers and mysteries, too. Here are my top fave three authors that I've only recently stumbled across, and I can guarantee you will be enthralled: John Hart (he's only written four, much to my dismay), Gregg Hurwitz, Joseph Finder. Of course, I have many more, but most are 'commonly popular', so you've likely read them. I haven't read any of Lawrence Block's work, so will have to check it out, especially Book #5.
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