steady down
by uzwi
Why are genre writers so desperate to convince? Treat ’em mean keep ’em keen seems to be lost advice. The result is chapter after opening chapter of needy, to which the experienced reader is only going to react with contempt. There’s a terrible lack of self-confidence out there. Panic won’t relieve the conditions of the buyers’ market; only exacerbate them. Readers know the weakness of your position. They’ve passed the groaning tables at the front of the shop. They’ve heard all your desperate lines. They’ve seen you do the little dance. What else can you show them? Even as they ask they’re walking on by, looking for someone who knows the product but has the dignity not to oversell it.
the m john harrison blog 
I speak here as a reader. I deeply enjoy a thriller, for instance; but I throw fifteen back in the pond for every one I take home, put off by the anxiety & neediness of the writer. Who tells them it’s a good idea to write like this?
Every time I feel myself becoming less opaque, I turn to you, Mike.
I’ve never thought about this particular author attitude showing through in print, but in retrospect I think you’re right. There’s a kind of preemptive fan-service you can see sometimes in work by people who haven’t yet developed many fans…. I hope to hell none of my writing looks like this to anyone else.
The desire exactly to develop fans instead of critical readers is at least half the problem…
I was thinking less of fan-service than this other abjection, the fear of failure (the failure to convince). Again: I’m speaking solely as a consumer, not a writer. As a writer I would just suggest they sack their team–& perhaps the publisher which has made lack of confidence a house style–& get better support.
Lack of confidence as a house style – which leads to (among other things) an insistence on pace, pace, pace, so that you are left wondering why they didn’t just publish the white board with plot bullet-pointed on it instead.
Isn’t this the same in all “genres”? And it’s not just the author, but the publishers. I’ve heard from several writers the pressures put upon them by their publishers to dilute their opening (and closing) pages, to give the market what it apparently *wants* etc etc. It’s all bullshit. Can you cheer us up with the next post please? I can’t take more misery this year.
I now realise you already said this about publishers in your BTL comment. Apologies. And, of course, you said it much better. Lack of confidence as a house style. Hashtag W T F. Misery. Please cheer us up.
Hi Lara. Can’t help you on optimism, I’m afraid. I feel cheerful enough though. Just generally. That’s probably the exercise.
Hi PM Newton: White board publishing, in which you sell the reader a kit for making the novel you would have written if you’d had time. But in way I’d rather have naked pace–as per old school pulp–than this weird unreadable over-emphasis thing. “Hand holding”. Urk.
Well put. As a reader, I want a writer who doesn’t give a damn what I think and writes what they *have* to write. Plus I really hate pigeonholing and genres! 🙂
Hi Kaggsy. Agree. I’ll give the most flawed item a chance if it has a strong sense of itself & plenty of confidence. Agree on pigeonholing, too: but I’ll read genre if it shows some spirit & was clearly written by the author, not their coach. (Thanks for yr “Rediscovery of The Machine in Shaft 10” post, by the way. Those old things!)
Oldies but very goodies!