God! So I’m not alone? It’s like you’ve read my mind - or heard one of my many rants to anyone who’ll listen. If you’d read my recent work you’d see what I mean. Thanks for writing this, and doing it so well.
Wait are you telling me an agent included a comma splice in a rejection email to you??? (The screenshot in section 6). Blasphemy. The stuff about not connecting seems like standard form rejection drivel to me so I wouldn't read too much into that
East of Eden is my top pick for greatest American novel of the 20th century. I have been mocked for this choice and my response was to call that person a moron. So, maybe I need to work on my reflexes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And Yes. When I first encountered all this upon trying to pitch a philosophical novel, I was confused (these supposed lovers of literature, why, having read 100 bios have I not seen a single great novel name-checked?)... I've since come to realise just how deep this malaise runs, and yet still each reminder still finds a way to be frustrating :)
All mistakes I make happily and nearly a dozen that show, not tell why not a single agent or traditional house editor will ever see any of my writing. It's going straight to Kindle where 25 years spent in copywriting will sell it, which is another thing these high and mighties will refuse to do
Agree wholeheartedly. Of course there are exceptions to everything, because we create characters, and they are individuals, so some will use shorter more Hemingway esque sentences, while some may be poets and create a Bayeux tapestry of words to describe morning tea. But I see your points.
I stopped picking up novels on the "new releases" table when I realized that they all had the stench of a writer's retreat / workshop. Once you notice the pattern, you see it everywhere. All the characters are just-so, and every story feels like the same story wearing a different skin.
And if that's true, after you've read one version, why read another?
I'm so glad UVA didn't have an MFA program while I was there in the 1970s. There was nobody to tell us the "rules." We thought the rules were somehow reflected in great literature, but they weren't explicit.
I’ve been writing commercial fiction for a NY publisher since 2009. These same rules absolutely apply to commercial fiction as well, with the exception of some fantasy. I write long (every book but one over 100K words) but I’ve been fortunate to have an editor who is fine with that. I have a new agent (who I do really like), who has been pounding it into my head that I have to write shorter and punchier because my writing is too dense and contains too many “archaic” words. He’s very practical in his take on this: younger editors and readers just don’t have the attention span or patience for longer, more layered, more thematic stories. It’s all about action and nailing “the tropes.”
A few words of encouragement to you, Lisa, and all other artists...never forget that the Renaissance followed centuries of dark times. And much of what happened in Firenze is due to one family. Don't give up. You are building a family, an army...and we won't have to wait centuries.
I’m not against, as T.S. Eliot put it, “High deeds in Hungary,” and I’ve lived my share of high action, cliff-hanging, shooting bears at close range, running rapids; the problem is high action narrows. The emotion of one trained man under stress is much the same as the next. It’s only in those moments of anticipation or reflection that we truly live.
The desire to teach runs deep and tends to well to the fore in virtually anyone exposed to any kind of education or experience. An MFA professor or a literary agent expounding isn’t too much different from a journeyman mechanic with a fresh audience.
Anyone in any kind of gatekeeping position may find themselves in a losing fight to avoid overvaluing their opinions and insights.
The only real choice is to ignore them and plod forward. To give in to the fashion dictates of the day is to die.
The kind of explicit moralism of a work like Maria Edgeworth’s Patronage clearly went out of fashion at some point, but morality certainly didn’t disappear (I don’t think anyone would argue that Trollope’s The Three Clerks doesn’t have a lot to say about morality).
The bottom line in publishing is the same as that in the gallery business: If it doesn't sell the publisher, or gallery will go out of business. As there are now, essentially, only 5 publishers left it is increasingly difficult to get published unless the publisher feels they can get an immediate return on their considerable investment. Literature as art is a nice conceit but often times artists get in their own way trying to strong arm readers/viewers into accepting what they do rather than encouraging an organic growth of acceptance and enthusiasm. The world is full of unpublished and unseen great art. And there's little reason to believe that will be changing anytime in the near future. Good luck in your pursuits.
12 reasons why most classic literature was never popular in its own time. Yet, generations later, what are we still reading?
God! So I’m not alone? It’s like you’ve read my mind - or heard one of my many rants to anyone who’ll listen. If you’d read my recent work you’d see what I mean. Thanks for writing this, and doing it so well.
Wait are you telling me an agent included a comma splice in a rejection email to you??? (The screenshot in section 6). Blasphemy. The stuff about not connecting seems like standard form rejection drivel to me so I wouldn't read too much into that
East of Eden is my top pick for greatest American novel of the 20th century. I have been mocked for this choice and my response was to call that person a moron. So, maybe I need to work on my reflexes.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And Yes. When I first encountered all this upon trying to pitch a philosophical novel, I was confused (these supposed lovers of literature, why, having read 100 bios have I not seen a single great novel name-checked?)... I've since come to realise just how deep this malaise runs, and yet still each reminder still finds a way to be frustrating :)
All mistakes I make happily and nearly a dozen that show, not tell why not a single agent or traditional house editor will ever see any of my writing. It's going straight to Kindle where 25 years spent in copywriting will sell it, which is another thing these high and mighties will refuse to do
Agree wholeheartedly. Of course there are exceptions to everything, because we create characters, and they are individuals, so some will use shorter more Hemingway esque sentences, while some may be poets and create a Bayeux tapestry of words to describe morning tea. But I see your points.
I stopped picking up novels on the "new releases" table when I realized that they all had the stench of a writer's retreat / workshop. Once you notice the pattern, you see it everywhere. All the characters are just-so, and every story feels like the same story wearing a different skin.
And if that's true, after you've read one version, why read another?
I'm so glad UVA didn't have an MFA program while I was there in the 1970s. There was nobody to tell us the "rules." We thought the rules were somehow reflected in great literature, but they weren't explicit.
I’ve been writing commercial fiction for a NY publisher since 2009. These same rules absolutely apply to commercial fiction as well, with the exception of some fantasy. I write long (every book but one over 100K words) but I’ve been fortunate to have an editor who is fine with that. I have a new agent (who I do really like), who has been pounding it into my head that I have to write shorter and punchier because my writing is too dense and contains too many “archaic” words. He’s very practical in his take on this: younger editors and readers just don’t have the attention span or patience for longer, more layered, more thematic stories. It’s all about action and nailing “the tropes.”
A few words of encouragement to you, Lisa, and all other artists...never forget that the Renaissance followed centuries of dark times. And much of what happened in Firenze is due to one family. Don't give up. You are building a family, an army...and we won't have to wait centuries.
The opening sentence of Anne of Green Gables has 148 words.
Dear Liza,
I’m not against, as T.S. Eliot put it, “High deeds in Hungary,” and I’ve lived my share of high action, cliff-hanging, shooting bears at close range, running rapids; the problem is high action narrows. The emotion of one trained man under stress is much the same as the next. It’s only in those moments of anticipation or reflection that we truly live.
The desire to teach runs deep and tends to well to the fore in virtually anyone exposed to any kind of education or experience. An MFA professor or a literary agent expounding isn’t too much different from a journeyman mechanic with a fresh audience.
Anyone in any kind of gatekeeping position may find themselves in a losing fight to avoid overvaluing their opinions and insights.
The only real choice is to ignore them and plod forward. To give in to the fashion dictates of the day is to die.
The kind of explicit moralism of a work like Maria Edgeworth’s Patronage clearly went out of fashion at some point, but morality certainly didn’t disappear (I don’t think anyone would argue that Trollope’s The Three Clerks doesn’t have a lot to say about morality).
The bottom line in publishing is the same as that in the gallery business: If it doesn't sell the publisher, or gallery will go out of business. As there are now, essentially, only 5 publishers left it is increasingly difficult to get published unless the publisher feels they can get an immediate return on their considerable investment. Literature as art is a nice conceit but often times artists get in their own way trying to strong arm readers/viewers into accepting what they do rather than encouraging an organic growth of acceptance and enthusiasm. The world is full of unpublished and unseen great art. And there's little reason to believe that will be changing anytime in the near future. Good luck in your pursuits.
If you can't be a Master of Fine Arts, be a Mistress w/ Fat Ass - it pays more