Good writing, missing plot.

[Jada59]

I started reading a book and got excited as I loved the author's style of writing. Nicely descriptive and good humor.. But?

She keeps adding more and more characters. I've surmised that some are neighbors, but the others? Dunno. And seemingly no plot. They get ready for work/school, eat dinner, go shopping... There is mention of a Halloween celebration. But why? She describes the costumes, then moves on to dinner at one family's house. I can't find the point of this story!

Why would someone writ3e a book like this?

 

[mynameisben]

Why would someone writ3e a book like this?

$$$$$

 

[TxRad]

Family and friends are fodder for books during the pandemic. And yeah, the money.

 

[Jada59]

Thanks guys.

 

[KeithD]

I put together an international anthology for a writing Web site some years ago and I remember one writer being incensed that I wouldn't take her "short story." It was very well written and detailed, but it was nothing more than a woman standing in front of a mirror in her entrance foyer and putting a hat on. That was it. It could have been a story, but it wasn't.

 

[lovecraft68]

This is the first hundred pages of any of King's work since the Dark half. In the Black House I swear he was about to describe the state of every roof in the town.

But when you spent 15 years writing some of the most iconic horror novels out there, I suppose you can meander all you want once you've made that name.

 

[Jada59]

I put together an international anthology for a writing Web site some years ago and I remember one writer being incensed that I wouldn't take her "short story." It was very well written and detailed, but it was nothing more than a woman standing in front of a mirror in her entrance foyer and putting a hat on. That was it. It could have been a story, but it wasn't.

Hehehe.

 

[Thefireflies]

I think about this sort of thing often, especially when I’m writing something for this site, constantly wondering: why would anyone want to read about my fictional people doing fictional things? Yet, I like to read about fictional people doing fictional things, especially if it’s well written. Sometimes I’ve read books that appear to have no real purpose other than to tell a seemingly pointless story, where I’ve thought “Why would you write it this way?” but I kept reading because I loved the writing style or the little things in the story that keep me turning the page. You mention you like the style, descriptions and humour in the book you're reading, and maybe that’s the point - the author felt they could tell a story that kept them writing, assuming it would keep the reader engaged, even if it’s a story about nothing in particular.
Then again, I sometimes read a book and wonder how the hell it was published in the first place and think there are better offerings among amateur writers online

 

[NoJo]

I put together an international anthology for a writing Web site some years ago and I remember one writer being incensed that I wouldn't take her "short story." It was very well written and detailed, but it was nothing more than a woman standing in front of a mirror in her entrance foyer and putting a hat on. That was it. It could have been a story, but it wasn't.

Well, Proust managed to get a story out of someone dunking a madeleine

 

[SimonDoom]

One motive might be that by writing about mundane, ordinary things one calls attention to the writing itself OR makes us re-look at what we think of as mundane in a new light. James Joyce's Ulysses is like that. It's about not much more than a day in the life of a few people in Dublin, but it's told in a way that gives otherwise ordinary events artistic significance. And there's no denying his talent with words.

 

[yowser]

One motive might be that by writing about mundane, ordinary things one calls attention to the writing itself OR makes us re-look at what we think of as mundane in a new light. James Joyce's Ulysses is like that. It's about not much more than a day in the life of a few people in Dublin, but it's told in a way that gives otherwise ordinary events artistic significance. And there's no denying his talent with words.

Although even an eminence such as Borges concluded that it in fact was 'unreadable'.

 

[NoJo]

Although even an eminence such as Borges concluded that it in fact was 'unreadable'.

I "read" it when I was a precocious 12 year old, just so I could say that I'd read it. I still remember the first line of it, and also learning, through the character of "Bollocky Mulligan - two dactyls", what a dactyl was.

 

[KeithD]

I "read" it when I was a precocious 12 year old, just so I could say that I'd read it. I still remember the first line of it, and also learning, through the character of "Bollocky Mulligan - two dactyls", what a dactyl was.

I think I've read the first three pages of it several times before yawning and putting it to one side.

 

[AvroAnson]

Their dad had bought a disassembled dark red Aeronca 7AC Champ as a father and sons project. When it was put together, his plan was to teach his two sons to fly it. But the small two seat plane had a dangerous combination of wanderlust and yearning to return to the air after the many years it had been stored in five separate pieces.

Dad was going to tune the engine and had tied the tailwheel to a tree stump on the family farm just outside Monticello, a small farming community. We were there working at the sleepy local airport that only came alive during crop-dusting season. Northern Indiana is corn and soybean country, flat, fertile and fried-egg-on-the-pavement hot in midsummer.

The low pass over the airport by that red Champ was followed by a visit from the White County Sheriff. An irate farmer had made a complaint about a small, high-wing, red airplane stampeding horses, turkeys, and dairy cows. As the Sheriff was asking if we knew who was at the controls of the plane he received a call from boaters at a big recreational lake to the east where water skiers had been buzzed.

The question to who had been at the controls was answered for us the next day. An inspector from the Indianapolis FSDO (FAA - Flight Standards District Office) arrived asking questions about an aircraft that had been found 100 miles to the east, out of gas and abandoned in a cornfield.

Truth can be stranger than fiction. See, the natural fiber rope dad used to tie the plane down was old. He had set the throttle well forward and been outside the aircraft propping it when the engine came to life. Without someone’s feet on the toe brakes the Aeronca surged forward snapping the old rope. There was enough flat ground in front of it and it was properly trimmed for level flight.

“Pilot,” thought the little red airplane, “I don’t need no steeking pilot!”

It barely cleared the trees of the windbreak at the edge of the property. Then pilotless it flew low over horses, turkeys, dairy cows, our crop-dusters being refueled at Monticello, and a lake filled with boaters and water skiers. Running out of gas, it landed just as peacefully as it had taken-off, in a cornfield over 120 miles away.

So pilot? It helps, but you really don’t need a pilot.

Plot?

Oops, I must have misread the OP.

Nevermind.

 

[SamScribble]

I think I've read the first three pages of [Ulysses] several times before yawning and putting it to one side.

Sad bastard that I am, I've read it several times. I love it.

 

[HappySpouse]

This is the first hundred pages of any of King's work since the Dark half. In the Black House I swear he was about to describe the state of every roof in the town.

But when you spent 15 years writing some of the most iconic horror novels out there, I suppose you can meander all you want once you've made that name.

I’m reading that right now the first ninety or so pages was f-ing painful, the following couple hundred have been great. I blame Straub.

 

[lovecraft68]

I’m reading that right now the first ninety or so pages was f-ing painful, the following couple hundred have been great. I blame Straub.

That's funny because I blame King, pretty sure it was his intro.

Talisman was pretty damn good, but I never finished Black House.

Straub has written some great books. Ghost Story, Floating Dragon and Shadowland are all must reads for a horror fan, but...he has had some serious clunkers too.

 

[HappySpouse]

That's funny because I blame King, pretty sure it was his intro.

Talisman was pretty damn good, but I never finished Black House.

Straub has written some great books. Ghost Story, Floating Dragon and Shadowland are all must reads for a horror fan, but...he has had some serious clunkers too.

Oh it was almost certainly King. But never waste a good scapegoat.

 

[SimonDoom]

Ghost Story, Floating Dragon and Shadowland are all must reads for a horror fan, but...he has had some serious clunkers too.

I read Ghost Story as a kid. Now that was a great horror novel. Excellent characters, mystery, sense of dread, weirdness, and an interesting ending -- something many horror authors, like Stephen King, often have a hard time pulling off.

 

[lovecraft68]

I read Ghost Story as a kid. Now that was a great horror novel. Excellent characters, mystery, sense of dread, weirdness, and an interesting ending -- something many horror authors, like Stephen King, often have a hard time pulling off.

You read it as a kid, so tell me, looking back....Stella Hawthorne...hotwife, and Ricky the Cuck?

It was a great story. The Fenny Bates flash back from Sears was creepy as hell.

But as often is the case, the movie was...not good.

 

[Jada59]

One motive might be that by writing about mundane, ordinary things one calls attention to the writing itself OR makes us re-look at what we think of as mundane in a new light. James Joyce's Ulysses is like that. It's about not much more than a day in the life of a few people in Dublin, but it's told in a way that gives otherwise ordinary events artistic significance. And there's no denying his talent with words.

This is not like that though. I finally figured out that all of the characters were neighbors and lived in Sears homes. That was the connection. But it would seem that she either made up the names of the homes or my research was faulty. She got me interested in the homes and I did look them up.

I got confused though because she kept adding characters without explaining who they were, or why they were there. For instance, two girls skipped school. One of the girls insisted that a boy come with them. He didn't want to. He was sick. But he got dressed and went anyway. Then said he had a fever and went home. There seemed no point in adding him in there.

The whole book was like that.

 

[mynameisben]

This is not like that though. I finally figured out that all of the characters were neighbors and lived in Sears homes. That was the connection. But it would seem that she either made up the names of the homes or my research was faulty. She got me interested in the homes and I did look them up.

I got confused though because she kept adding characters without explaining who they were, or why they were there. For instance, two girls skipped school. One of the girls insisted that a boy come with them. He didn't want to. He was sick. But he got dressed and went anyway. Then said he had a fever and went home. There seemed no point in adding him in there.

The whole book was like that.

This reminds me of a book I read recently, The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, supposedly a New York Times Bestseller. For me, it was an endless parade of newly introduced characters and fable vignettes that ofttimes went nowhere. I needed to maintain a spreadsheet to keep track of all the characters. How I ever made it to the end of that book is a profound mystery to me.


Ben

 

[Jada59]

This reminds me of a book I read recently, The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, supposedly a New York Times Bestseller. For me, it was an endless parade of newly introduced characters and fable vignettes that ofttimes went nowhere. I needed to maintain a spreadsheet to keep track of all the characters. How I ever made it to the end of that book is a profound mystery to me.


Ben

I'll remember not to buy that!

 

[Wifetheif]

I'll remember not to buy that!

The market today is for big, ponderous trilogies with each book running to five hundred pages or more! Publishers call it "world-building" I call it tree desecration! The point is to "hook" readers with the first book and have a built-in audience for the sequels. To my mind, world-building can be accomplished with a minimum of words. "The clocks were striking thirteen" 1984. "The last man in the world sat alone in his room, there was a knock at the door" Frederic Brown's "Knock" and of course the entire story in six words by Hemingway, "For sale, baby shoes, never worn." I've been praised by lit readers and Amazon reviewers (for my non-literotica.com works) for my world-building. Why write five hundred words when fifty will suffice? My fiancee just landed a three-book deal. Her world-building is brief but wonderful.
It really seems to be a generational thing. Yes TLOR is huge and Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy rivals the Manhattan phone book in length, but those were exceptions. None of Lewis's Narnia books are over 250 pages or so, yet it is every bit as developed as Tolkein's. In one story, I crammed the entire history "House elves" (my invention) in less than five thousand words. I could probably spin an entire novel out of these creatures, but why bother? I said pretty much everything I wanted to say. Sometimes length really helps. "Moby Dick" was originally a MUCH shorter novel. Melville's Beta-reader, Samuel Hawthorn suggested the Herman "put some religion" into his novel. One really can't argue with the results.
Today's "hip" young authors all seem to go for words, words, and more words, with plots that are paper-thin at best. The Nineteenth Century was the era of the long novel, but aside from Hugo and Dickens how many of them are read today? I suspect that this will be very much the case with these twenty-first-century word smiths.

 

[Jada59]

The market today is for big, ponderous trilogies with each book running to five hundred pages or more! Publishers call it "world-building" I call it tree desecration! The point is to "hook" readers with the first book and have a built-in audience for the sequels. To my mind, world-building can be accomplished with a minimum of words. "The clocks were striking thirteen" 1984. "The last man in the world sat alone in his room, there was a knock at the door" Frederic Brown's "Knock" and of course the entire story in six words by Hemingway, "For sale, baby shoes, never worn." I've been praised by lit readers and Amazon reviewers (for my non-literotica.com works) for my world-building. Why write five hundred words when fifty will suffice? My fiancee just landed a three-book deal. Her world-building is brief but wonderful.
It really seems to be a generational thing. Yes TLOR is huge and Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy rivals the Manhattan phone book in length, but those were exceptions. None of Lewis's Narnia books are over 250 pages or so, yet it is every bit as developed as Tolkein's. In one story, I crammed the entire history "House elves" (my invention) in less than five thousand words. I could probably spin an entire novel out of these creatures, but why bother? I said pretty much everything I wanted to say. Sometimes length really helps. "Moby Dick" was originally a MUCH shorter novel. Melville's Beta-reader, Samuel Hawthorn suggested the Herman "put some religion" into his novel. One really can't argue with the results.
Today's "hip" young authors all seem to go for words, words, and more words, with plots that are paper-thin at best. The Nineteenth Century was the era of the long novel, but aside from Hugo and Dickens how many of them are read today? I suspect that this will be very much the case with these twenty-first-century word smiths.

Right. My daughter is 22. She hated reading. I found out why after I tried reading what she had to for school. She did like Dickens though.