Writing Worry #6: All you need is a good story to get published
Sometimes it amazes me that some novels get published. I know this is probably a measure of hubris on my part, but I often reason that if 'this book' or 'that book' gets published surely something I wrote could be as well.
I'm sure I'm not the only one to have put down a book mid-way through or even finished it and thought I could do better. Plot holes, poor writing, badly developed or predictable characters etc. certainly don't stop a book from being published. I can think of a few books that if I was an editor I probably would have sent back to the author for another re-write or would have even declined altogether - like all the agents and publishers before the author got that big break.
And I would have been so wrong. Despite numerous flaws, these books find their audience. The authors of these books have found something that appealed to an agent, publisher, and editor enough for them to put their time into making a published work. Some books that I have cringed while reading have gone on to huge success and movie deals.
Taken the Twilight series. I had first seen the movie than a friend offered to lend me the series to read. It wasn't something I was interested in enough to purchase, but who can resist a free book read? Plus I wanted to see if the movie has simply missed what made the books so successful. To me the movie was a lot of toothless teenage drama. But the love triangle and the attraction to what could kill you intrigued me enough to look beyond the bland performances of the two lead actors.
The first 50 pages of Twilight were a real slog. The writing was mediocre at best and involved a lot of teenage introspection and moodiness. If I hadn't been so determined to find out what made this series such a success, I would have stopped reading before hitting page 100.
I pressed on and was rewarded with wishy-washy characters, a slim at best plot, a passive heroine, a stalker hero, and no actual threat. I continued reading the series determined to see if it got any better.
The central premise of the book is what hooked me. The forbidden love that could kill the lovers is a core romantic plot. The twelve year old girl in me was relishing in all the angst, while the adult in me could barely tolerate it. The worst part was the lack of on screen action. Every time something violent was about to happen, Meyers would remove her characters from it.
In all, the series is not one I'd read again. And yet, I've seen most of the movies and will am still curious about the graphic novel. The Twilight series strikes a cord with me even though I don't love the writing or the plot. I can understand why writers use it as a basis for their fanfiction. The love triangle strikes all the fundamentals, the danger of a lover who could kill you is like catnip to angst lovers like me, and the back story of the vampires and werewolves is interesting even if the main characters often feel one dimensional.
A novel doesn't have to be perfect - really, there's no such thing as perfection. All it has to do is have some grain that appeals to the very nature of being human. Be it vampires, BDSM, Amish romance or any number of genre, a good story isn't held back by its flaws.It just needs a chance to find its readers and shine.
