Recently Anthony wrote:
"Reading this I'm interpreting "write longer" as writing more
... as in a
350 page book vice a 200 page book. Now while this can be a
"bad" thing if
the writer sucks ... surely you do not want less from your
favorite author
as long as they write it to the same level of quality which
the previous
200 pages had ... which any author truly worth their weight
in words can
and does?"
That's the point. Very often they don't. Donald Hamilton, as
one example,
wrote a long series featuring hard-boiled counter-espionage
agent Matt
Helm. The early entries were sharp, tight little
masterpieces, none of
which were more that 180 pages. Later, bowing to the market,
his Helms
started getting long, 300 or more pages. Still very
enjoyable, but lacking
the tightness and economy of the earlier, better
novels.
"If "longer" equates to more books ... I don't see the
problem there either
... assuming once more the favorite author who "writes
longer" creates more
works to read ... who wouldn't want to have more works of
their favorite
authors to choose from?"
Again, if s/he writes to the same level of quality, but if
s/he doesn't,
what is produced might be a lot of dreck instead of one fine
masterwork. It
would be absolutely great if Hammett had written more than
six novels,
unless they were all of inferior quality; then we'd all be
disappointed and
the quality of the original six might seem cheapened. - Jim
Doherty
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