A dumb writer
I sometimes read reviews of books that talk about the author's smart and sassy writing, and I feel so dumb.
Intellectually I'm not dumb, I have two Master's degrees, an LLB, and I'm a qualified English Solicitor (Attorney). It's rather that the emphasis on clever writing makes me feel like I'm dumb.
It seems like everyone is looking for humour in books these days. I can't write comedy. I just don't see the world that way. Stand-up comedy would be torture for me. I don't find most comedians' jokes funny. They're trying too hard. It's not natural humour.
I can't write smart and sassy, whatever that is. I'm a dumb writer, a simple storyteller , a shaper of narratives with - shock, horror - a beginning, a middle and an end. In that order.
I think simple storytellers are undervalued these days. Everybody's shouting so hard with multi-viewpoint, multi-timescale, multi-tense stories jumping about everywhere. And somewhere in the middle of this maelstrom the essential story gets lost.
I don't mind doing some work as a reader, but I don't expect to get to the end of a book and still not understand how the various narrative strands fit together. And I've had that experience a couple of times recently with new books. The author has been too clever, has left me to guess too much, and I've gone away feeling confused.
As authors, we know our worlds inside-out. Our task is to tell the reader what we know, translate our thoughts to words on the page. But sometimes things get missed off the translation and I'm left guessing. But then what do I know, I'm only a dumb writer.
Intellectually I'm not dumb, I have two Master's degrees, an LLB, and I'm a qualified English Solicitor (Attorney). It's rather that the emphasis on clever writing makes me feel like I'm dumb.
It seems like everyone is looking for humour in books these days. I can't write comedy. I just don't see the world that way. Stand-up comedy would be torture for me. I don't find most comedians' jokes funny. They're trying too hard. It's not natural humour.
I can't write smart and sassy, whatever that is. I'm a dumb writer, a simple storyteller , a shaper of narratives with - shock, horror - a beginning, a middle and an end. In that order.
I think simple storytellers are undervalued these days. Everybody's shouting so hard with multi-viewpoint, multi-timescale, multi-tense stories jumping about everywhere. And somewhere in the middle of this maelstrom the essential story gets lost.
I don't mind doing some work as a reader, but I don't expect to get to the end of a book and still not understand how the various narrative strands fit together. And I've had that experience a couple of times recently with new books. The author has been too clever, has left me to guess too much, and I've gone away feeling confused.
As authors, we know our worlds inside-out. Our task is to tell the reader what we know, translate our thoughts to words on the page. But sometimes things get missed off the translation and I'm left guessing. But then what do I know, I'm only a dumb writer.
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