How to Write a Novel That Flops
I’ll say upfront that this is likely an opinion piece. Many will disagree with the opinions expressed herein and question my qualifications for speaking them. I will say only two things about that. First, everyone is entitled to have an opinion, and people are more than free and welcomed to disagree with mine. Second, I’m not alone in the opinions put forth. I have spoken with other writers—some extremely successful—as well as listened to many writing forums and what is expressed in multiple online writing groups. Thus, my opinions aren’t completely without research. However, I would never dare speak or present myself as representing an entire group. Therefore, I write this expressing what I’ve observed, read and heard. As always, I encourage each person to conduct their own research and investigation to form their own conclusions.
After this weekend, I truly believe much writing advice put out there is part of the reason some authors fail. So, this is how this story begins. Buckle up. This may take a while.
Anyone who has read my blog knows I always like to start with how the idea for the blog topic was derived. Usually, I can point to friends, co-workers, or something mentioned in a writing group as my inspiration. Not this time. This happened quite by accident after a series of events.
Common Writing Advice: Read your genre. If you want to be a writer, you need to read, read, read. While I don’t completely disagree with this piece of advice, this is not why I read. I read because I enjoy books. I enjoy good storytelling. I enjoy being able to lose myself in some other place. Reading is fun. I’ve always loved it. Even before I began writing, I enjoyed reading. I started writing because I couldn’t find stories that I wanted to read. I’m not saying they weren’t out there. I’m saying that I could not find them. It is possible that I simply wasn’t looking in the right places. All I know is that they weren’t in my possession.
My becoming disgruntled with the books I was reading began in my early to mid-teens. At the time, I was subscribed to several book clubs. Each month, I would be sent a selection of four books. The books were anywhere from 50,000 to 70,000 words—so, not long. In general, I would finish them all within the first week, but sometimes, I would spread reading them over the course of the month. This is why I subscribed to more than one book subscription—to avoid having weeks with nothing new to read. Well, I began to notice that my books were piling up. It wasn’t that I didn’t have time to read, rather, I was uninterested. See, all the books began sounding alike. Literally, I could complete the next sentence in some of them almost verbatim before reading it. The characters were all same right down to the names. The male lead had one of three professions and was supposed to be an “alpha.” Every other male character feared him, and every female character—except for the lead—instantly dropped their panties for him. In actuality, the male characters were just assholes. They were not broody but rude, sexist, and patronizing. Their “masculinity” made them poster children for anger management classes.
The female characters weren’t much better. They were supposed to be these strong, fierce women. Yet, they constantly did stupid things. It’s like telling someone to be careful because there’s a lake at the end of the pier. Instead of being cautious, they run to the end of the pier and jump in without knowing how to swim. Then, someone has to go rescue their dumb butt. In their flailing around, they almost drown the person who is attempting to save them. I’m not impressed by this, nor do I think it’s bold. Plus, the women were always very petite and looked stunning with very little makeup—maybe a touch of mascara or lip tent. Now, I’m not saying all women need to go the full-coverage route, but a lot of women put in more effort than lipstick on special occasions. Even no-makeup makeup looks involved more cosmetics than that.
And sure, part of romance may be selling a fantasy, but in my opinion—and this is just my opinion—the fantasy should be one that most women can relate to. Here is a drop-dead-gorgeous man that everyone in town is drooling to have, and he goes for the one plain jane who isn’t making any kind of effort? And no, I’m not saying the woman hasn’t to be model stunning. She may have a stellar sense of humor that completely knocks him off his feet. Or maybe she is supremely talented in the arts. Or maybe she’s super smart, and her mind fascinates him. It doesn’t have to be her physical attributes that attract him. However, to be average to dull across all boards isn’t something that is believable to me.
Equally, I hate when the other female characters are presented as dumpier than the lead, and the one female who is presented as beautiful is, of course, the evil villain. Why can’t a woman be smart, beautiful, and kind?
It took me a while to see the pattern, and partly, that was because some writers cleverly disguised it. But the more I read, the more obvious it became, and my interest faded. This sparked me to begin writing. I wrote what I wanted to read. And here is the problem. What I wanted to read didn’t follow the formula or trend. My critiques were harsh. Now, part of the criticism was valid—the grammatical errors and/or lack of character development. But a lot more of it was aimed at style—my style. And this gets at the meat of this topic: writing rules.
I’ve said it so many times previously. There aren’t many rules in writing. Mostly, there are guidelines. The rules that do exist should be followed in almost every instance. There may be a few exceptions here and there. However, writing guidelines are just that: guides. They are suggestions and do not necessarily need to be followed. Now, this is not to say all guidelines should be ignored. On the contrary, writers should pay attention to the guidelines and apply them in ways that are appropriate for their writing style. For example, adverbs. Several years ago, someone spoke into the universe that adverts were nasty four-letter words that needed to be damned from all writing. It’s been said that adverbs are a sign of sloppy and/or lazy writing. And I’ve been in writing groups where writers have bragged that they have stripped every adverb from their manuscript. People proclaimed this as a writing rule. Listen, if this is your belief, fine. You do you. There is nothing wrong with following this guideline. However, by not following this guideline does not mean writing is lazy or sloppy.
If I were a chef and I removed all seasoning from cooking, a lot of my foods would taste the same. Recipes are formulas to replicate dishes that have been cooked previously. If every writer followed every guideline, all manuscripts would begin to read the same. Get ready to scream because I’m about to go there.
Writing guidelines can produce generic stories. As with removing seasoning from cooking can make a dish tasteless, so can following all guidelines at face value. Plus, these guidelines aren’t always true.
Common writing advice: Avoid repetition. This one got to me in all kinds of ways. Recently, I read an article from a book reviewer listing her top picks. She made them sound interesting and gave them such raving reviews that I dashed off to purchase them on my Kindle. These books were New York Times and USA Today bestsellers. Now, I’m not into bashing other authors, so I won’t be listing any names. And I’m also not saying these are “bad” books or that the writing was poor. I’m saying that these books did not appeal to me but obviously worked for millions. I just want to point out how the writing guideline of avoiding repetition isn’t relevant.
I’m only going to talk about one book to make my point. It was a romance told from a dual POV. The leads were both decently developed. They both had the same main dilemma which was twofold about being with each other. In the first part of the dilemma, I bought it hook, line, and sinker. It was a valid concern. The second half…eh…not so much. The first part involved their careers. Being together could negatively affect their careers. The second part was that because people thought they hated each other, then they couldn’t be together. Well, they were both single. The people who had these opinions were not family or close friends. People grow and change, especially from adolescence to adulthood. So, for me, I started with half a plot.
Literally, in every chapter, this plot of why the main characters did not think they should be together and were fearful that the other would end their sneaking around was stated. Their insults to each other were not only repeated in every chapter but were the same for each character. If you stripped off the character tags, readers wouldn’t be able to distinguish one character from the other. It was as if the author either didn’t trust the readers to understand or felt the readers would forget this part of the plot. But this is a bestseller! Now, in other novels where this repetition has been omitted, I’ve read criticisms from readers that they “didn’t buy” the relationship as being a HEA. They would label it as possibly being an HFN. So, how can having such repetition lead to a bestseller and lack of it end up in a harsh review? Both shouldn’t be possible. That’s because, in my opinion, avoiding repetition is a guideline that is directly related to the targeted audience.
New writers are often searching for their audience. These guidelines are supposed to help writers gain those audiences because supposedly, the guidelines are what readers want. But the certain guidelines are only written for a specific reader base. Let’s take the 2022 Netflix adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. This movie received a lot of harsh criticism from Jane Austen fans. They slammed it for misrepresenting the main character and the use of modernization in both the script and breaking the fourth wall. But then, I listened to a review where the reviewer made the point that she didn’t believe the movie was targeted at diehard Jane Austen fans. It was her opinion that the movie and script were aimed at audiences who shied away from reading Austen because they could not relate to the language or the characters. In this instance, historical accuracy and a shift from the source material is a purposeful choice to attract viewers who likely would be unattracted to the original work. In this case, the guideline of the original language and character development of the book is not being followed. But if the movie resonated with new viewers, then the guideline was not applicable.
I’ll leave with this. In college, I had a friend who did not like cheese. When we order pizza, she would ask for one without cheese. I always wanted black olives and mushrooms on mine, and I had other friends who hated those. As a group, we ordered multiple pizzas to please all the individual preferences. Other than the crust, our pizzas didn’t share much in common, but they were all good pizzas. In my opinion, writing guidelines do not, cannot, and will not work for all stories. Rigidly following them as rules may lead to a potentially good book being a generic flop. Writers should pay attention to writing guidelines as suggestions and consider if those suggestions work for the story that they are attempting to write. If they aren’t, then they shouldn’t be used. Following a good cake recipe will produce good results. It’s just that your good cake will taste exactly the same as all the other cakes that follow the same recipe. It will not stand out, and it likely will not win a baking competition. The way one wins is by being unique. This requires doing something that is different. It could be omitting some ingredients or adding others. It could mean making substitutions. Someone who is diabetic may not want to use sugar. A person with hypotension may select using half the salt. It boils down to using good judgment for what works.
So, that’s all that I have. What is your take on the subject? Do you agree or disagree? Did you find this information helpful or informative? Did you learn anything new, or did it change your opinion? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section. Also, let me know if you would like me to cover more of these types of topics or dive deeper into this one. If you like this post, please click the like button and share it. Your feedback allows me to know the content that you want to read. If you’re not following me on Creole Bayou blog, what are you waiting for? There’s always room at the bayou.
Get ready. It’s almost time to hit the ice again. Future Goals Coming soon.
When a college hockey player needs the help of an attractive older attorney, he gets more than he bargained for when trying to sort out the troubles in his career. Falling in love was never part of either man’s plan, especially as Corrigan’s and Sacha’s lives should never have collided. Now they’re left questioning if they’re standing in the way of the other’s future goals, or if there’s room for redirection.
Preorder your copy at:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3RjPYb9
Other booksellers: https://bit.ly/3CI8d5W
Missed the first four books in my hockey romance series? No frets.
Missed the three in my hockey romance series? No frets.
Out of the Penalty Box (book #1), where it is one minute in the box or a lifetime out, is available at http://amzn.to/2Bhnngw. It also can be ordered on iTunes, Nook, or Kobo. For more links on where to purchase or to read the blurb, please visit http://bit.ly/2i9SqpH.
Defending the Net (book #2) can be ordered at https://amzn.to/2N7fj8q or www.books2read.com/defending. Crossing the line could cost the game.
Ice Gladiators (book #3) is the third book in my Locker Room Love series. When the gloves come off, the games begin. Available at https://amzn.to/2TGFsyD or www.books2read.com/icegladiators.
Penalty Kill (book #4) retakes the ice. Get a copy at https://amzn.to/3ex0N9p or https://amzn.to/3ex0N9p and let the pucker begin.
For more of my stories, shenanigans, giveaways, and more, check out my blog, Creole Bayou, www.genevivechambleeconnect.wordpress.com. New posts are made on Wednesdays, and everything is raw and unscathed. Climb on in a pirogue and join me on the bayou.
If you have any questions or suggestions about this post or any others, feel free to comment below or tweet me at @dolynesaidso. You also can follow me on Instagram at genevivechambleeauthor or search for me on Goodreads or Amazon Authors or BookBub or TikTok.
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Until next time, happy reading and much romance. Laissez le bon temps rouler.
Author Bio
Genevive Chamblee resides in the bayou country where sweet tea and SEC football reign supreme. She is known for being witty (or so she thinks), getting mushy watching pet adoption commercials, and preparing home-cooked Creole meals that are as spicy as her writing. Genevive specializes in spinning steamy, romantic tales with humorous flair, diverse characters, and quirky views of love and human behavior. She also is not afraid to delve into darker romances as well. Genevive believes in variety, equality, and representation of all and is willing to tackle difficult subjects that may be shunned in many romance novels.
