Ropes Course Metaphor

So yesterday I was sort of snarky. I considered being less snarky today, but it seems to have fallen out of my range to be nice. Maybe I am channeling characters, or maybe I have become chronically annoyed with my newly needy family, who normally leave me the heck alone evenings, but since the advent of June, just as I jump into BuNoWriMo suddenly need to be taken to this store, have that thing purchased. My daughter wanted to make cookies last night for her forum (that's like home room, and they rotate for snack) and I said (I'm quoting here), “Only if you can do it all alone and clean up after yourself.”

You can imagine how that turned out. Forty-five minutes of my daughter and husband arguing because she had one question and his anal retentive nature then had to direct the process (noisy and annoying)... THEN, do you know what cleaning up consisted of? Putting everything in the damn sink. So my snarky self apologizes that I am taking it out on fellow authors, which I seem to be.

HOWEVER, todays blog isn't MEANT to be snarky. I am learning some serious lessons. Sadly, it is at another author's expense. And HERE I reach my metaphor (not even terribly strained!)

Ropes Course

Have you ever been to CAMP? Or a training seminar? Or a TEAM BUILDING exercise? Psychologists and government employees are frequently subjected to these things, but I feel like reaching back to Camp in High School is more instructive. What I need you to remember or imagine is being in line for a ropes course or an obstacle course.  There are pitfalls, or ways to fail... but there is also a chance to succeed.

The person in front of you GOES, and they go EXACTLY where you were planning on going. And they end up falling in the mud, stung with nettles, stung by a bee and eating ants for survival... or some similar set of tragedies. YOU my friend, now know that the way that looked so promising is full of TRAPS. YOU don't want to go that way. Oh, sure, the other way makes you conquer a fear of heights, use strength you weren't sure you had, and crawl in the dirt a little, but YOU have no lasting wounds. You also have an advantage the guy before you DIDN'T. You got to watch him mess up.


My Current Read

I am reading a mystery/thriller that has a pretty darned good underlying story. Maybe it is TOO GOOD... TOO tempting... I say that because SEVERAL of the underlying things going on are things I have USED/Considered... I think, on reading them in someone elses published book, they are too obvious... It doesn't help that the execution isn't as strong as it needs to be—the wording is more conversational than 'book', the characters are under-developed. But I SWEAR to you I can see the promise!



This poor author needed an editor who really knew the genre to pick the tale apart. But it is to my advantage.


HOW?

Because I am SEEING the traps I might have fallen into, had some agent fallen in love with my great story. Let me describe them...

1)  Too Easy: The MC has witnessed something sketchy... he's not even sure WHAT, but his best friend was involved and is now missing. He goes to the police who don't listen. (no problem so far). But THEN, he immediately finds a cop who gives him the name of a man who gives him a book... WAY too easy. (this was one of my critiques on Legacy--add a few more obstacles)  Oh, sure, he does some mopey stuff in between, but really nothing fails... he doesn't have to proactively do much...  This conversation tells him this, that venture shows him that... SCREW UP, DUDE!

What I would have done was have 'nice cop' warn him away. MC goes to where it happens and tries breaking in to look into it HIMSELF. Nice cop FINDS HIM, sees he ISN'T letting it go and THEN gives him the name. It adds an iteration of trouble, and it give the cop a REASON to give him the info (that is bigger than just seeing he's asked a couple questions—cop could logically think 'well if he won't drop it, maybe I'll give him a hand' but this doesn't WORK for a protective cop without that 'he's gunna do it anyway'.)

2)  Cliches: I really DIG secret cults that are going too far... that get caught up in themselves... Hell, CONFLUENCE features one (sort of), but THIS one, is both too cliched and too general. And the BOOK—a book with hints or answers-- I LOVE that on paper—I totally would have done it if I'd thought of it, but on the page, it was a let down... a book with some answers is just... I'm not sure... maybe if he'd had to rescue some RUMORED book from somewhere—or better yet the hidden case files from a similar case years earlier...

I just feel like a good editor would have gone through and pointed out a dozen places where things needed to be harder or more complex or less cliched, and THEN this could have been not just a 'fairly interesting' book but a really GREAT book.--Oh, sure, the female characters seem underdeveloped, and the emotions fall a little flat, but the MC is okay, and thrillers don't take their energy from character—they take it from plot.


Now this book was published at a small, regional press—they probably don't have the BUDGET for expert editors in many different genres--I mean the GRAMMAR is fine, there are no TYPOS--the LINE editing was FINE... it is the big picture editor who needed to step in. But I think if I can spot all these holes, a peer published author CERTAINLY could. I can actually HEAR Elizabeth Spann Craig as I'm reading, “so how would I add more tension to this scene?” So even with my lack of success, I feel like I could give a helpful peer reading.


Lesson One Farther

The OTHER thing this makes me realize (which oddly enough gives me some compassion for Stephenie Meyer, who I lambasted yesterday) is once a book is OUT there, it is OUT THERE--too late to improve it. And you will be judged by it. If a version of your book makes it, people will think THAT is your skill level. Do you want to be judged by a cleaned up second draft? Or do you want a dozen eyes to give you serious critiques, perform a couple rewrites, get a couple more critiques, polish and THEN get a book out there that people say, “WOW, this author can WRITE!”

I think high concept stories may suffer from under-editing. I think self-publishing suffers from under editing even without being high concept. I'm not saying DON'T DO IT. I'm not saying there aren't great books that get published this way. I'm just saying A LOT of books that get out there that way will eventually embarrass any writer who wants to be taken seriously because we HAVE TO believe in ourselves.

I am debating writing to this author... telling him the book was PRETTY GOOD, but that I felt it was under-edited, and does he have anyone he is working with on later books. I'm not sure how he'd feel about that. I'm not sure how I'd feel about it if it were me. But when the potential shines through, but the publisher clearly isn't covering there end... isn't it a FAVOR? I'm just not sure.

And because I know you care... BuNoWriMo update:  Tart is at 6036 words... pretty pictures on Saturday!