I've had the pleasure of being rejected -- or maybe I was actually ignored -- by this esteemed editor. Yes, now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure he never got back to me after agreeing to read my manuscript. Anyway his words sure do seem like the quote of the month to me. How about you? How do you interpret this? Agree or disagree?
4 comments:
I think what he meant was a book can be well-written, but good writing doesn't necessarily mean the story itself is good.
Agree, unfortunately--a "book," considered objectively, is a structured thing, and reading it has to add up to a coherent experience (so I think, at least). The writing can be insightful, descriptive, vivid--you name it, page by page. But that's not all a book needs to be successful for the reader.
I would have to agree with this. Good writing is one element of a good book, but there's also characters, plot, pacing, hook, marketability, etc.
I have to agree with Chuck. A book can have great writing in it without being up a great book, but then again it depends on what one thinks of as a great book. I think some writers can get so caught up in making beautiful sentences that they amble through their story like a window shopper. But some people love literary window shopping! A great example is Philip Sidney's "The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia". I haven't actually read the whole thing, but the sentences are beautiful. An early death saved him from the Elizabethan critics!
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