Re: RARA-AVIS: SMALL CRIMES AND DRAGON TATTOO

From: Allan Guthrie (allan@allanguthrie.co.uk)
Date: 19 Nov 2008

  • Next message: jacquesdebierue: "Re: RARA-AVIS: SMALL CRIMES AND DRAGON TATTOO"

    I wouldn't necessarily draw that conclusion. In extremely commercial fiction, storytelling and premise frequently take precedence over the way the words are put together. So much so that James Patterson, for instance, only writes outlines and then gets other writers to do the first-draft leg-work of his novels for him. They might be good writers, but that's neither here nor there. Nobody buys Patterson for the quality of his prose. Millions of people, however, buy him for the quality of his stories. Patterson's admitted that he's not particularly good at the putting-the-words-together part, but then lots of great prose stylists aren't that hot at the storytelling part.

    Al

    ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nathan Cain" <IndieCrime@gmail.com> To: <rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 12:53 AM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: SMALL CRIMES AND DRAGON TATTOO

    So, the secret to being a successful writer is to suck at it? Is that true of any other profession?.



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