Tag-Archive for » Stephen King «
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Someone help me out with this. Is there an asterisk I’m missing somewhere? Does the freedom of speech part only apply to people in certain employment fields? Because as far as I’m concerned Stephen King had every damn right to say that Stephenie Meyer couldn’t “write worth a darn.” This is aside from the fact that I don’t really think King can do any wrong and I think he hit the nail pretty hard on the head. This is simple freedom of speech.
It’s about owning your words, people. The people going “OMG I can’t believe he said that!” or “how could he say that?” or “respect your fellow writer by not saying things like that!” or “he didn’t have the right to say that!” make me twitch. Now I don’t really swear all that often on this blog, but this ridiculous explosion has rendered it. Shut the fuck up already.
Like I said in a previous post, there’s no reason why writers should be held to such a higher standard with their “co-workers” and “not be allowed” to say such things. I’ve heard the argument that it’ll make you a marketing nightmare. Ok. Because you don’t like every book you pick up and want to express that? If it’s a substantiated claim then what’s the problem? Get over it. Just because I’m a writer doesn’t mean I automatically forfeit my right to an opinion. In this day and age, it doesn’t have to be written on the internet or in a writing forum for the world to find out about it.
This is just absurb. King said Meyer sucks and Rowling rocks. I can guarantee he’s not the only one that feels like that. So why shouldn’t he say it again? Because there’s some implied obligation in the writing world that we need to have a 24/7 love-in? He’s entitled to his opinion and he can say it wherever he damn well pleases. Was it blunt? Yes. Does the truth hurt? Yes. Did he not realize what he was saying? I highly doubt it. Does he regret what he said? Probably not.
In this master class on the craft of writing, Stephen King reveals the origins of his vocation and shares essential habits and rules that every writer can apply. A truly unique volume, it begins with a series of telling memories from youth and the struggling years leading up to publication of King’s first novel. Offering readers a fresh and often funny perspective on the formation of a writer’s character, King lays out the tools of writer’s craft and takes the reader through aspects of the writer’s art and life, offering practical and inspiring advice on everything from plot and character to work habits and rejection. Brilliantly structured and chock-full of master’s experience and advice, On Writing will enable the work of writers around the globe. (from bn.com)
How I could kick my own butt for taking so long to read this. What a wonderful book on the craft and, really, there wasn’t all that much to it. Not really. Not compared to the multitude of other books on writing.
King takes a different approach to “dictating” how one might be able to write and, I have to say, it gave me a different outlook on this very blog and is one of the reasons I decided to incorporate more of myself and fewer “lessons” on writing. Because, really, there are no hard and fast rules (something I already knew) but what use does it do to teach others what really only works for you? Most of it, at least.
What I got from the book is that the events surrounding his writing, the places he worked, the people he met, the ears he got lanced, helped to mold his writing better than anything else. When he talked about his work experiences, I was able to immediately pinpoint certain stories of his to those experiences. Not to mention I was laughing my ass off at certain points. The man has a talent for dry wit that I just love, even when talking about getting hit by that van.
Before focusing on the novels of MT Anderson, this article makes a very valid point about teen reading. Don’t underestimate it.
Now, the title to my blog post is slightly skewed as what Anderson is pointing out is the intelligence of teenagers and how they don’t need separate books whereas I’m saying don’t underestimate the genre. But I think the two go hand in hand, you think?
Do not underestimate teens. I think that’s the crux of the argument and the rest is just details. No, they haven’t lived as long as you and no, they don’t have the worldly experiences you do but that doesn’t mean they need their works stripped down to simplicity to understand. Do I think teens need their own book category just for them? No. I read Interview with the Vampire (please don’t sue me) when I was 11. I also knew how to mummify a corpse when I was ten. So no, it’s not necessary.
But not every teen is an advanced reader and if we didn’t have that middle ground between middle grade and adult, kids would be going from Goosebumps to Stephen King. Some do not have that kind of reading capacity. Others do. That’s also not to say YA is for the slower readers. Bite me if you think that. The majority of my TBR pile is YA. It fits my patience level. But it provides a stepping stone. For those that run screaming from a novel that’s 600 pages in an 8 point font with a 3 millimeter margin (me), there’s the equally stimulating but much fat-trimmed YA.
So, I ask again, do teens in general need their own category of books? No. But the pre-teens do. As do the teens that just don’t want to read mainstream adult fiction. Or the adults with the short attention spans that enjoy reading without the pomp and meandering. It’s like taking a stair or two out of your staircase. It’s still manageable walking up and I’m sure a lot of people could do it, but there are those that can’t, or those that simply don’t want to. YA is a stepping stone. While all teens don’t read it, many (and many younger readers, and older) do so I don’t think it’s an obsolete category.
NaNo Update–Definitely questioning my sanity. Also discovering that maybe assigning a chapter a day was a little much for my writing style. It worked out in the beginning because the chapters were shorter but now they’re getting wordier and starting to get to lengths comparable to a chapter and a half or two chapters from the first few. My wrist is starting to hurt and my middle finger isn’t looking too good. I had the hangnail from Hell earlier in the week and it’s just now getting better. Not to mention the scar I still have from the pumpkin carving. An electric turkey carver might work better next time.
So I’m seriously considering tossing the chapter a day thing because I’m finding I just can’t write that much in one day. I write best in short bursts, as I’m learning. I’m getting the same amount of word count in but at this point, I’m thinking a chapter a day is just too much. It’s getting my OCD to come down from the chapter a day goal that’ll be the hardest part.
As for the word count, I’m pretty sure I’m good on that considering how much I’ve been writing. If it isn’t I’ll probably cry. I’ll find out tomorrow.
Yeah, in your dreams. Not that you can’t make money off of writing, and even make enough money to live off of, but becoming rolling in dough wealthy is a pretty far stretch for 99% of the writers out there. That’s not to say someone like me doesn’t dream of being in J.K. Rowling’s shoes but, until it actually happens, that’s all that it is: a dream. Sad but true. It’s like being asked to be the presidential nominee’s running mate. When targets are asked the what if question, they always say they’re content where they are but if actually asked, of course they wouldn’t deny it. Same goes for millionaire authors. I’d be very content making a reasonable salary off of my writing but if the opportunity came to make millions, I’d kick my own ass if I didn’t take it. After the screaming stopped, of course.
As Forbes is wont to do, they’ve released a list of the world’s best paid authors and is it really a surprise at who tops that list? I think what’s much more shocking is just how much more she got than number two, James Patterson. Rowling’s $300 million dollars in the single fiscal year from 2007 to 2008 got her number one on the list (no, I didn’t type that wrong, it really is $300 million) and Patterson’s $50 million got him the second slot.
Are you seeing that astounding gap too? The rest of the authors on the list (including Stephen King, Tom Clancy and Danielle Steele) aside from Rowling are within striking distance of each other. A $250 million gap is more like a precipice. A mini Grand Canyon even. Any of those figures on that list are astounding for any author to make, let alone to be at the top by a $250 million lead.
Yes, something like that can happen but the chances of it happening to you, me or anyone else you know are pretty slim. Might as well go play the lottery in a lightening storm and see what comes up.
When I get a chance I like to skim over the Children’s Bookshelf section of Publisher’s Weekly and see what’s going on in the world of children’s literature. Since PW posts their newsletters weekly (obviously), I came across King’s Entertainment Weekly article about mid-September which reviewed a YA novel called The Hunger Game by Suzanne Collins.
King goes on about the plot, the characters, making a couple of snide remarks on the “standard teen fare” of relationships and names but then he mentions this–
And although ”young adult novel” is a dumbbell term I put right up there with ”jumbo shrimp” and ”airline food” in the oxymoron sweepstakes, how many novels so categorized feature one character stung to death by monster wasps and another more or less eaten alive by mutant werewolves?
Then a Livejournal blogger and fellow YA writer decided to expound on King’s comment by sort of coming to her own conclusion–
Does he mean that YA can never be a “real” novel? Is that the “airline food” joke, that food on an airplane is not real food and a book called YA is not a real book? Because if that is what he meant, that is *so* not cool.
You know, it’s kind of hard to rally for the notion of being taken seriously when you type like a stereotypical fourteen-year-old girl but that’s besides the point. I think she missed the mark that King was trying to make.
First, what is an oxymoron? They’re two words that are contradictions in terms. King gave an excellent example in jumbo shrimp. Shrimp, by definition, means tiny or small. Jumbo means excessively large. So how can you have a jumbo shrimp? Well, I guess if you compare them to standard sized shrimp they are much bigger but by pure definition, you can’t have jumbo shrimp.
Airline food is much more facetious. I don’t know too many people that would call the slightly edible stuff they get served on a plane food, hence the joke. I like to use rap music as my facetious oxymoron of choice. Regardless, I think the blogger missed the point.
So why would King call ‘young adult novel’ an oxymoron? Is it because young adults can’t have novels or because a novel is a novel so why narrow it down even more? Or is he saying a young adult novel isn’t really a novel? Considering the tone of the statement, I really don’t think so. Considering King’s past and how stigmatized he is by the “elite” of the literary world for being a genre writer (remember the uproar when he won the Booker Award? For shame! For the writing of horror is not lit-ra-ture!), to poo on another genre (the debate as to whether YA is it’s own genre will be left for another post) would be, for cliches’ sake, the pot calling the kettle black.
