Too Many Wonders

The question comes up fairly often, and it came up today: How far afield can an author go from established facts and still keep an audience? This is similar to our last discussion, but different. Here the question is not why some people like an author so much they will let her get away with (literary) murder, but how far an author can stretch the truth–or more specifically, how many times in one story?

I once had a story rejected because it contained Too Many Wonders. (It was capitalized in the rejection letter. I can show it to you.) The complaint was that the story had too many fantastical elements when it should have depended on one major speculation. And if that’s how the editor wanted to run his magazine, then he was right to say so. Honestly, it wasn’t the only problem with that story and he wouldn’t have taken it anyway, but I had sent in a lot of stories by that point, and I think he was trying to be encouraging. I sold the story much later, but even then the editor asked for significant changes (and he was right).

But I see stories all the time where there’s more than one speculative element! you say. And you, too, are right. If your story is set in the future, practically all of the elements will be speculative in nature. (Ironically, my story was set in the far future. Didn’t help.) The relevant phrase here is “practically all.” There’s one thing that doesn’t change, that can’t change, and that’s the human element. No matter how many changes you make, your characters have to be identifiable to present-day audiences. (Unless you’re Fred Pohl. Then you can do anything you want.)

The problem with Too Many Wonders is that they distract from the characters. I once heard it said that SF is the easiest thing to write because you don’t need characters; you can depend on gadgets and aliens and exotic settings. That is, to use a polite term, garbage. The idea of SF is to use the fantastic to explore real-world ideas without seeming to, thus allowing the author to make a point without hitting the reader over the head with relevance. (Or it can just entertain. But the best SF, the best literature, does both.)

Regardless of whether it’s serious or fun, a story should make a point. And the only elements that inhabit that story should be those that help to make that point. I thought my story fit that description, and my long-ago editor did not. You see who won that argument. So when you ask why a story should only have one speculative element, the real question is, why does it need more?

Answer that question to determine which editor will read your story. Answer that question well, and many people will read your story, over and over again.

#SFWApro

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A Million Readers, Two Viewpoints

It seems that every time you turn the page in this writing gig (pun intended), you see something new, and come to understand something that you may have known, but didn’t really appreciate until it was put into such personal terms. And now it’s happening again: I’m coming to understand that when it comes to my readers, I don’t understand you at all.

Let me hasten to say that I appreciate you–more than you can know. For me to reach even this lowly plateau on the mountain that is literary success has taken so many years, and so many stories, that every day I marvel that so many of you have put even a few hours’ and a couple of bucks’ trust in me. The fact that some of you really seem to like what I’ve done is a delirious delight. And some of you don’t. That’s okay, I can live with criticism–in fact, that’s why I writing this post.

In personal injury law, there’s a principle that “you take your plaintiffs as you find them.” Readers are the same way; even though you try to present your product in a way that it will find an appreciative audience (putting futuristic cities on the cover to attract science fiction fans, for example), there’s always the chance that your reader just won’t connect with your story. It’s a sad thing for an author, but you can’t win them all, so as long as you do your best you just have to live with it. And it’s balanced by everyone who has found your book and given it five stars.

But how does that work? Why is it that (assuming that your readers have looked at your cover or read your blurb and know what they’re buying) two people can read the same story and have such diametrically-opposed opinions? And they can have conflicting opinions about the same elements of the story?

Part of this is that there are differing levels of dissonance that people will let slide. My wife reads a particular high-profile series in which, as she freely admits, the author is terrible at reconciling details, and gets some very basic facts wrong. And yet, my wife (and literally millions of others) hangs on her every word. In the same vein, I once put down a hugely-selling author’s book in a genre I should by rights find very enticing, because I thought he couldn’t write a compelling grocery list, let alone a doorstop-sized novel. And yet both those authors’ books are found in every airport. Again, it’s a balancing act; you do one thing so well it overshadows your weaknesses.

So why are some writers well-regarded by their peers and yet unable to make the same dent in the market as those who are less stylistically gifted? Aren’t all readers looking for the same thing, an escape from the everyday into a world where they can experience the vicarious lives of characters who may inspire, or excite, or even frighten them? Why are those considered the best in their field by their peers not necessarily those who can capture the popular imagination?

It’s the eternal struggle: First you want to write, then you start writing, then (usually) after great struggle, you manage to sell a story or two. Maybe you sell a novel. But you’re always climbing that mountain. And even if you get to the top, there are readers who will say, “Been there, tried him. Couldn’t finish.” At which point a thousand others will shout that person down and he’ll leave that Facebook group.

But is he right? Or can a million readers not be wrong?

Tell you what: Find me a million readers, I’ll do a survey. (Well, at that point I’ll have my people do a survey. I’m pretty sure that once you get to a million readers, you get to have people. I’ll let you know.)

#SFWApro

 

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