Spoilers and Plot Twists
I love where my ideas come from for this monthly blog post. I have no idea what I am going to write about until the universe shows me. Read a tweet recently – went to find the tweet to give her credit and as usual the tweet has fallen into the chasm of Twitter - or X - or whatever it's called today.
She had received the criticism of not informing the reading public that her lead character(??) was bi. Her thought was - Why should she?
Which leads me to ask – how much information should we share before we publish? I grew up reading books that “unfolded”. They took their time and gave us bits and pieces of character, back history etc. They did not – by the 3rd page – tell us who the MCs are, the villain and what the conflict of the entire 298 pages is.
Yes, we do write a blurb to give the reader an idea about the book. But the blurb is basically a teaser – not a confessional.
In a review of one of my books, I had a reviewer tell the end of the story. Instead of letting the reader get there for themselves, the reviewer said, “I feel it is my duty to tell you…” and then told the end of the story. I have never wanted to write a reviewer and give them shit so much as that one. Thanks for the lost sales. The book is What Happened in Bangkok. My critique partners, betas, editor and publisher all thought the ending was fine. I wrapped up the love story and since it is book 1 of a trilogy – obviously, there is more story. D’uh.
OK, got that off my chest.
So, to avoid upsetting readers, how about we authors not bother writing our stories, not bother creating characters that people can fall in love with, not devising conflicts to worry readers that the lovers will not find happiness or the murderer will get away with it or the aliens will conquer earth and subjugate us all. How about we just write Spoilers and Plot Twists.
Next book – spoiler - destined to be a #1 best seller.
Spoiler – straight boy meets straight girl.
Spoiler – their families hate each other. Have hated each other forever. No one remembers why. It isn’t important. They just hate.
Plot Twist – young lovers say “screw the family” and run off and get married then happily ever after.
Whew. That was so much easier to write. I can send it off to editor with few worries about plot bunnies or run-on sentences.
Yes, there is a sarcastic undertone to this post. Writing is tough enough without having to deal with reviews that make you want to bang your head against your laptop. If there is a true problem with the book – ok – discuss that. But since the reviewer was annoyed the character was bi – I’d say the problem was not with the book. It’s an personal issue with the reviewer. And the reviewer needs to sit back and think about that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Join my Author Group - Daryl Devore's Musings
3 ways - FB, MeWe or I can email you.
Free ebook for those who join.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/738845900663510
https://mewe.com/join/daryldevoresmusing
1 comment:
Someone is going to complain about something in a book. That's just the way it is. For some people revealing everything up front is great. For others, it's a turn off.
I don't read reviews. You can't please everyone. I gave up trying long, long ago.
Post a Comment