There was a time when authors painted exact pictures of settings, characters, and action - a time when they wrote at length about the condition of a staircase that their hero was climbing even if it had little to do with the plot or action of the story. There was a time when they chose names of places and people based on research and the likelihood that a person might have that name in that place at that point in time. There was a time when the thoughts of all the characters and even the opinions of entire populations were proudly committed to the page without the benefit of Point of View.
Obviously, all of that has changed.
In modern writing, the reader is only allowed to know the thoughts of one character at a time unless the author wants to risk the charge of “head hopping.” Settings are left – for the most part – up to the imagination of the reader. Action is described in the briefest details.
But it goes further than that.
Fiction authors are so limited by modern strictures, that they have become closer to copywriters than literary writers. Headlines, fragments, and middle grade level words have become indispensable tools of authors. Character’s names are chosen more for how they’ll “sell” to the reader than for any other reason. New authors are coached by their more experienced peers to choose strong names for their hero – Matt, Kent, Dirk, Max, Nick, and Jake - but not Adrian, Albert, Dan, or Fred. And there are companies that reject manuscripts that mention children, the words “pregnant” or “baby,” or any other subjects that don’t fit their idea of sexy.
If you are finding it hard to sell your manuscript, you might do a re-edit. Did you write it in the style of Dickens? Is every sentence complete? Are they too long? Describe less, and shorten things up. Did you use words that Beatrix Potter would have delighted her young readers with? If so, go back and put it in plain, non-dictionary language. Does your opening start with the story? You can’t afford to “lead into it;” start the story where your reader will immediately want to know what happens next.
If this all seems a little depressing, or daunting, don’t dispair. Writing has to evolve just like everything else. (In a world where we only have a little time to read, most readers can’t afford the time for you to describe the table settings and tea cup your character uses.) The challenges of writing have shifted. We no longer have to worry about how to make insanely long descriptions interesting. Now we have the challenge of how to keep a story moving at a fast pace without sounding like a list of actions.
In some ways, I hope that writers will gain back the right to use some of the great words that publishers have deemed “too advanced” for the average reader. And I hope that someone other than the great John Grisham will get away some description in their stories. (I truly love his “A Painted House.”) Sometimes I crave a good description of a character’s home. (You can tell a lot about a person by their home.) I hope that readers will reward authors who create round characters who aren’t so commercialized that they look like every other hero out there. (Seriously, I’d love to read about a tough-guy hero with a vocabulary beyone the F word, or a heroine who actually loves children more than her dog or cat or job.) Only time and the market will tell if this is possible, but I sure hope so.
All the best,
Mary
