RARA-AVIS: Re: SMALL CRIMES AND DRAGON TATTOO

From: JIM DOHERTY (jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com)
Date: 20 Nov 2008

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    Nathn,

    Re your comment below:

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

    As Al has suggested, that's an oversimplification.

    Some writers are great storytellers, but indifferent stylists.

    Some are great stylists, but not particularly compelling storytellers.

    Both are important skills for a writer. But if you are going to be one or the other, you are much, much more likely to be successful if you're just a good storyteller than if you're just a good stylist. Maybe yo won't be read a hundred years after you've gone off to the sweet by and by, but you might just be able to make a living in the here and now.

    Be that as it may, they're not mutually exclusive skills, and the best writers are both great storyteller and great stylists.

    And the notion that they ARE mutually exclusive, as the editor who rejected Dave's MS seems to think, is just ridiculous.

    JIM DOHERTY

          



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