Quality V. Quantity
I remember when I first read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. My high school freshman literature teacher referred to the book as a great American novel. The same phrase was used my junior year when I read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The budding writer in me became obsessed with the idea of “The Great American Novel.” I told myself one day I would write one. I thought of it in such simple and basic terms… as if it were easy… as if I were the only person who thought to set that goal. Silly me, right?
Writing a great American novel is a pipe dream; achievable by a select few. But does that mean I shouldn’t try? Great American novels aren’t necessarily the result of high yielding authors who put out high grossing novels at a rapid pace. They are products of quality… a combination of skill, talent and passion. Quality takes time, effort and patience, but, in the end, it’s better to put out a quality product rather than rushing to get published.
Success is a subjective term. Some people measure success by how much money you make. Some equate it to how much good you put out in the world. Some say success can be tallied by the smallest of quantities (like when a minister says they’ve succeeded as long as they’ve reached one person). In the writing world, success stacks up in varying ways for different writers. What does success mean for you?
I always thought if I were published, I’d consider myself successful. After my first story was published in an anthology I thought, “Well, now I can say I’m published, but is this success?” In a small measure, yes. Yet, as a human being, once I got the thing I wanted, I decided I wanted more. Such is the writer’s existence. Once we get a taste of a small measure of success, we want more. But how do we achieve more?
A quick glance around at a bookstore will reveal several authors who’ve reached a level of enviable success. They’ve managed to get a book (or several books) published and showcased in a brick and mortar store. They’re probably making money and they have, more than likely, reached a level in their career where they can honestly call themselves full-time professional novelists. They’re living the dream, right?
These authors have been lucky enough to find a formula that works for them, but it might not work for you. I can tell you with certainty that many of the bestselling authors, who have several published novels under their belts, have help. They have teams of paid writers known as ghost writers. A lot of the work they put out is actually written by other people. Good examples of popular novelists who do this include James Patterson and Nora Roberts. I could safely point to any author who puts out more than two novels a year and say, “They probably use ghost writers.” It’s a more common practice than a lot of people realize.
Should we model ourselves after these authors who pump out several novels at lightning speed? Is this the secret to success? Not necessarily. Sure, they enjoy notoriety and the royalty checks, but can they say they put the work in? Are they really respecting the process? Perhaps. There are arguments that can be made. Perhaps they did put in all the hard work early on and now they’ve figured out how to relax a bit. They have teams of people designing, editing, and yes, even writing, for them. They’re focused on manufacturing book after book after book. After so long of using the formulaic approach the art of writing gets lost. Eventually their quality may start to suffer.
One of my favorite examples of how quantity doesn’t always mean quality is E. L. James. She has reached staggering heights of success with her Fifty Shades of Grey series. Millions of women (and men) have gobbled up the words she’s written with an eager enthusiasm rarely rivaled in the writing world. My friends were some of these readers, and, a few Christmases ago, one of my friends bought me the first novel in the series. I got through nine chapters before I put it down and never picked it back up.
As a writer (and an editor) I couldn’t look past James’ prose, construction of dialog, weak plot, and barely dimensional characters. Perhaps if I didn’t possess a critical eye for writing structure and technique, I would have been more entertained. The subject matter of the book didn’t bother me, but the writing did. I didn’t like the main character’s inner monolog. It was repetitive and made me roll my eyes. I also didn’t find the main character believable. Nor did I find her male counterpart believable. I felt like they were severely underdeveloped, and, as a result, I found them to be boring. This is simply my assessment, and I realize a lot of people will disagree with me. But, honestly, I feel like James’ success is a fluke and if most writers tried to put out poorly developed characters with weak plot points they wouldn’t have the same type of success she’s had.
I’m rather surprised her books were published without further development. As an editor, I would have advised her to conduct deeper research about the lifestyle she depicted. I would have asked her to interview her characters to get to know them before revising them. I would have asked her to do several rewrites before trying to market her work as a publishable manuscript. Imagine how much better her novels would have been if Ana didn’t say “oh my” after every slight shock (sorry, but that is one of my biggest complaints). Simple revisions would have improved the prose dramatically (if you watched the movie, Ana didn’t do the “oh my” thing she did in the novel. I’m curious if this was a coincidence or an intentional omission in the script writing phase). As an editor, I would advise any client of mine to avoid rushing to publish so they don’t put out a product that doesn’t match standards of quality. It’s best to better your own skill set and hone your craft to reflect your unique voice.
Continue to challenge yourself by setting goals and seeking to advance your knowledge. The goals you set shouldn’t be hard deadlines for publishing or accomplishment. Rather they should be broad to further develop the weak aspects of your writing. By developing your skills your other goals for success will be easier to achieve.
By actively seeking knowledge and advice from seasoned writers and editors, you will bring your dreams closer to fruition. One of the easiest ways to do this is to read. Read, read, read! Read in your genre (also venture out into other genres to compare and contrast). Study the techniques that reveal themselves. For example… How do writers of the genre advance the plot? How are they building tension? How much description do they use versus how much dialogue do they use? There are several things you should be paying attention to. Information about writing and editing specific genres is available online. Go find blogs written by fans, authors and/or editors of your genre. They can provide perspective and insight into specific genres which will help you to learn them inside out.
Take it back to basics if you need to. Anybody with a high school diploma learned simple rules of story construction and writing. Do you remember the arc of a storyline (intro, climax, conclusion, etc)? Do you need to brush up on grammar rules? There’s no shame in admitting that you may have forgotten some of the things you learned about writing from high school and/or college. In fact, some would argue that the wiser person will admit when they are lacking knowledge. Everybody can benefit from a refresher course. You can literally take a course at a local college or you can visit educational websites to help you remember the rules.
After you’ve honed your skill set and have figured out what works for you, you might find yourself actually selling copies of the novel you worked so hard on. That’s great! But don’t get complacent. Enjoy the success, but don’t slack on the hard work. If you intend to publish again, you must keep up the level of quality you’ve established. In fact, I would argue that you should increase it. Your audience will keep coming back for more if you give them a product worth buying.
I remember the first time a novel made me cry. I was 16, and I was reading The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. This was long before it was made into a movie. It was the first novel by Sparks I’d ever read. As I turned the last pages of the book I was a blubbering mess. The tears made the words blurry, but I couldn’t put it down until I was done. That was a quality novel. The next book of his I read was A Walk to Remember. Again, I was reduced to a runny nose and leaky eye sockets by the end of it. Those two novels had turned me into a bona fide Nicholas Sparks fan. I couldn’t get enough. As soon as he put a new book out, I was consuming it at lightning speed. When movies started to get made based on his novels, I bought tickets and sat in wonder as his words were brought to life on the moving screen.
But then something started to happen. I didn’t notice it at first, but, over time, I started to realize I was wasting my money. Mr. Sparks’ books started to become predictable. I noticed it with The Choice. For the first time, I was able to predict the ending of one of his novels. Not only did I foresee the ending, I predicted it rather early in the story. How did I do that? Well, I’d read so many of his novels by that point, I’d figured out his formula. As a fan… as an avid reader… I was able to see where he was going, because he’d gone there before. Sadly, I realized that he’d figured out how to tell a story with the same moving parts, but simply change the names and some of the circumstances. I haven’t read another Nicholas Sparks novel since.
With hindsight, I realize the first two Sparks books I read (The Notebook and A Walk to Remember) were different. They didn’t follow the formula. Why? They were based on real people Sparks knew. The lovers who grew old together in The Notebook were based on his wife’s grandparents. The main character in A Walk to Remember is based on Sparks’ younger sister. When he wrote those novels he was channeling real love that existed outside of his prose. They didn’t fall into the formula because, to him, they were real. They contained a level of quality he, sadly, didn’t keep up. He got complacent and lost me as a loyal reader.
I don’t know if Sparks uses ghost writers. Part of me hopes he doesn’t, because the hard work that goes into creating your own literature builds the skills needed to keep up levels of quality. Part of me fears that he does use ghost writers. I’m basing this loose assumption on how many novels he puts out and the pace in which he puts them out. I’m also basing it off the formula in which he’s become accustomed to writing. It seems basic and dumbed down in such a fashion that another writer could easily plug in and get to work on his behalf. I would hope that anyone with a passion for writing would avoid this and, instead, work on honing their own skills.
It's hard work. Nobody says it’s easy. Writing is an art. Publishing is a business. You must keep in mind that not everything that gets published is art. And not all art will get published. I think it’s better to measure success on the effect your writing has on individuals versus how many of those individuals give you money for the words you’ve written.
Ultimately the techniques and skill sets will only go so far. I must reiterate that quality writing is the result of hard work. Time and patience are key. You must be diligent in your quest to become better. You must be willing to admit that writers never stop growing and learning in their craft. By forcing myself to be a better writer today than I was yesterday, my next novel may not just be an American Novel… it could be a Great American Novel. And wouldn’t that be… well… great?
