The Furious Spinner

I guess someone else agrees with us about Mr. HP and Ms. Rowling.

Nicholas Lezard writes, "And for all that she is gifted enough in devising popular scenarios, the words on the page are flat. I think it was Verlaine who said that he could never write a novel because he would have to write, at some point, something like 'the count walked into the drawing-room' - not a scruple that can have bothered JK Rowling, who is happy enough writing the most pedestrian descriptive prose.

"Here, from page 324 of The Order of the Phoenix, to give you a typical example, are six consecutive descriptions of the way people speak. '...said Snape maliciously,' '... said Harry furiously', ' ... he said glumly', '... said Hermione severely', '... said Ron indignantly', ' ... said Hermione loftily'. Do I need to explain why that is such second-rate writing?"

I hate to throw stones at a fellow writer, so I won't. But I can't read those books. Maybe it is because people "said glumily." Etc. Although, as Mario pointed out, the books were written for children. Kids wouldn't notice that kind of thing. (I couldn't read Tolkien either. I don't know if he had his characters saying things glumily. As I tried to read them, I just keep thinking, "When and where the hell is Middle Earth?")

I don't think there is anything wrong with being a popular writer. I'd love to be one! I often don't understand why a particular author is popular, but so what? For instance, I read Louis Lamour to try and figure out why he was popular. Library patrons would tell me that they liked him because he really put them in the place he was writing about. I read a couple of his books and I remember he'd have a character in the house, for instance, and then suddenly the character was outside. I kept losing where people were because the writer didn't put them where they were supposed to be. Maybe that's just because I'm very visual when I read. I don't know. And yet, despite all this, he is still an extremely popular writer. So he's doing something right.

I have a program tonight at Three Creeks Library in Vancouver. A group of teens have read Mercy, Unbound, and we'll discuss it. It should be fun, she says happily. I reread the book in preparation for the program. It's really good. I don't know why it didn't get more notice. She says modestly.

I worked on Blue Honey Clan today while they were working on the road out front of our house. Lots of dust and noise. The beginning part of the novel is the roughest. That's usually the way with my first drafts. Either that or I get less critical as the pages go on. Hope that's not the case.

By the way, speaking of Verlaine's snarky remark, twenty-five years ago, I qvetched to Algis Budrys that I didn't know how to get a character across the room, and he said, "He walked across the room." Now that was great advice.

May You Use Adverbs in Beauty!

Labels: writing

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