Jessica Russell's Blog - Posts Tagged "climax"
What You Can Learn From Your Favorite Authors
I've said it many times. Yes, you do need, at the very least, creative writing courses if you're going to write a novel. There's just certain things that you simply have to know to ensure that your story reaches it's full potential. However, there's one lesson in the grand scheme of things that you can learn merely by reading a book by your favorite author.
We've all been there… We have a favorite author, we can't wait for the next book, and when it finally comes out we grab it and drop what we're doing to at least squeeze in the first chapter before the next obligatory task in our lives. And then, to our dismay, we sit there wondering who wrote it.
It's happened to us all. We're in love with a particular author and then that author comes out with something we would refer to as a "miss," or a downright clunker.
Nevertheless, this can be a great learning experience for YOU and here's how:
Read it carefully for the second time. Take note of exactly where the writer lost you. Mark that first page where you began to roll your eyes, or yawn, or even say "where in the world is she/he going with this?"
This will help you avoid doing the same thing when the day comes that YOU are running out of gas and rushing an ending, or losing control of your plot, or doing any number of things that could ruin an otherwise good novel.
I won't name the author, but she is one of my all-time favorites. Sadly, she has passed away now, but I loved virtually all of her books except one. And the sad part is, I was absolutely ENTHRALLED with it for the first half. It was the second half where, in my opinion, it just fell apart.
A woman married a man in the 1800s who she thought was as conventional and "normal" as she was, only to find out he was experimenting with opium and witchcraft! He was planning to make his marriage to her a turning point, give up the old ways, and go on to have traditional life. Obviously, as you may have guessed, that's not where the book went. It ended up to be a tragic marriage, commencing with the death of her child.
Her former husband eventually died of his addiction. There was a very poignant scene where she went to his bedside to tell him she forgave him, and after the funeral, she vowed to seek out the man she thought was responsible for getting him involved in all this debauchery. As you might suspect, the man she thought was responsible really wasn't the culprit and she ends up falling in love with him in the second part of the book. So far so good with regard to the plot.
Unfortunately, it was missing one thing: a climax.
She thought a man was responsible for her husband spiraling into addiction and witchcraft, as well as the death of her child, but when she finally tracked him down, that emotional, angry, dramatic confrontation never happened. Instead, when she met him, she got a bit mesmerized and decided to watch him from a distance for awhile. They eventually fell blandly in love and she ended up sleeping with him BEFORE she was 100% sure whether or not he was the culprit. HUH?
The object lesson I got out of that was that you cannot be too careful when it comes to making sure you're giving your readers what was promised. I was waiting with baited breath as the book slogged on and on. I was waiting for this major emotional confrontation and THEN the romance, which I suspected was coming.
But it was as if, when she finally found this man, she thought to herself "eh, well, whatever, he's pretty cool so maybe I won't yell at him yet."
It just stopped making any sense. This grief and anger that drove her to the other side of the world to track down this man simply trickled away and they fell boringly in love, and the conclusion about what happened with her first husband and child was wrapped up in a few sentences and the book abruptly stopped.
It was the worst anticlimax I think I ever had the privilege to read in my life. And I LOVE this author. I used to wish when she was alive that there was a way to ask her to rewrite the second half of the book with her usual genius because I think it would've been one of my favorite books of all times.
So the moral of this post is that you can learn a lot from writers that you love, by reading your LEAST favorite book by that author and figuring out where it lost you. (And then don't repeat their mistake.) Write on!
We've all been there… We have a favorite author, we can't wait for the next book, and when it finally comes out we grab it and drop what we're doing to at least squeeze in the first chapter before the next obligatory task in our lives. And then, to our dismay, we sit there wondering who wrote it.
It's happened to us all. We're in love with a particular author and then that author comes out with something we would refer to as a "miss," or a downright clunker.
Nevertheless, this can be a great learning experience for YOU and here's how:
Read it carefully for the second time. Take note of exactly where the writer lost you. Mark that first page where you began to roll your eyes, or yawn, or even say "where in the world is she/he going with this?"
This will help you avoid doing the same thing when the day comes that YOU are running out of gas and rushing an ending, or losing control of your plot, or doing any number of things that could ruin an otherwise good novel.
I won't name the author, but she is one of my all-time favorites. Sadly, she has passed away now, but I loved virtually all of her books except one. And the sad part is, I was absolutely ENTHRALLED with it for the first half. It was the second half where, in my opinion, it just fell apart.
A woman married a man in the 1800s who she thought was as conventional and "normal" as she was, only to find out he was experimenting with opium and witchcraft! He was planning to make his marriage to her a turning point, give up the old ways, and go on to have traditional life. Obviously, as you may have guessed, that's not where the book went. It ended up to be a tragic marriage, commencing with the death of her child.
Her former husband eventually died of his addiction. There was a very poignant scene where she went to his bedside to tell him she forgave him, and after the funeral, she vowed to seek out the man she thought was responsible for getting him involved in all this debauchery. As you might suspect, the man she thought was responsible really wasn't the culprit and she ends up falling in love with him in the second part of the book. So far so good with regard to the plot.
Unfortunately, it was missing one thing: a climax.
She thought a man was responsible for her husband spiraling into addiction and witchcraft, as well as the death of her child, but when she finally tracked him down, that emotional, angry, dramatic confrontation never happened. Instead, when she met him, she got a bit mesmerized and decided to watch him from a distance for awhile. They eventually fell blandly in love and she ended up sleeping with him BEFORE she was 100% sure whether or not he was the culprit. HUH?
The object lesson I got out of that was that you cannot be too careful when it comes to making sure you're giving your readers what was promised. I was waiting with baited breath as the book slogged on and on. I was waiting for this major emotional confrontation and THEN the romance, which I suspected was coming.
But it was as if, when she finally found this man, she thought to herself "eh, well, whatever, he's pretty cool so maybe I won't yell at him yet."
It just stopped making any sense. This grief and anger that drove her to the other side of the world to track down this man simply trickled away and they fell boringly in love, and the conclusion about what happened with her first husband and child was wrapped up in a few sentences and the book abruptly stopped.
It was the worst anticlimax I think I ever had the privilege to read in my life. And I LOVE this author. I used to wish when she was alive that there was a way to ask her to rewrite the second half of the book with her usual genius because I think it would've been one of my favorite books of all times.
So the moral of this post is that you can learn a lot from writers that you love, by reading your LEAST favorite book by that author and figuring out where it lost you. (And then don't repeat their mistake.) Write on!
