What Writers Can Learn From Their DNF Pile
on June 22nd, 2009 at 12:49 pmI just finished reading a really enjoyable book, and as much as it taught me about weaving romance in with fantasy, I came to the realization that the books that ended up in my dreaded DNF (did not finish) pile could teach me things too.
When I was younger, not finishing a book was a very rare occurrence, but over the past year, I’ve started and set aside a number of books. Were they bad? Maybe some were, but for the most part, they just weren’t for me. I usually give a book at least a hundred pages before I give up. So, it was never a case of “the first page didn’t grab me”. Here are some of the things I learned from the various books I set aside:
- Some authors have insanely large vocabularies. It makes their writing very impressive, but from a reader standpoint, it can prove off-putting. Most people don’t want to feel stupid when reading for enjoyment. Even though I respect authors who seem to know every word in the English language, those books helped me to embrace my less-than-enormous vocabulary.
- I love evocative description, but too much of a good thing is just too much. Some books have so much of it that I can read pages, just lost in the language, then I sit back and realize nothing actually happened in those pages. Most people know I’m not a big fan of a lot of description, this just confirms for me that it isn’t a question of how well it’s written, I just don’t like description that takes the place of story.
- I’ve also been told I prefer plot over characters. While I initially questioned that, I’ve found it’s true. My reasoning is that a great character can’t carry a book if there is no plot or a flimsy plot in place. If there is a fabulous plot, it is indeed made better by strong characters. But I think a great plot and less-than-stellar characters can make a good book easier than the opposite. So, yes, give me plot with a healthy side of characters please.
- Believability. I read a lot of sci-fi/fantasy, and as such, the stories revolve around characters doing incredible things. The author’s job though is to make us believe those things COULD happen (this is especially true of urban fantasy in my opinion). This leads us back to characters. Aside from horrid plots, nothing kills a book faster for me than unbelievable characters. If I can’t set aside all that I know about the world and sink into the world the author creates through their point-of-view character, they’ve lost me.
- It doesn’t matter what genre you write, don’t forget the research. Some things will only matter to people who “know”, but it could be the simplest item you forget to research that will turn off the more readers. Hence, don’t skip the digging. Get as many things right as you can.
And last but not least:
- Sometimes a book just doesn’t fit a reader’s needs at a specific time. One book I set aside was by an author I love. The book didn’t suck, it was solid. But another book in my pile kept staring at me. I didn’t want to read what I held in my hands. I wanted to read that other book. The moral of this story is that it does indeed often rely on getting the right book into the right hands at the right time.
Whether or not I will manage to apply all I’ve learned from the books that I set aside, I’m sure going to try. Which means that Pretty Souls is going through another round of editing before I start sending it again.
So, how about you? What have you learned, either from books you loved or those you didn’t finish?
I definitely agree with you on your last point. Sometimes I feel like a book might be something I would really enjoy, but due to being a little burned out of that genre or because I really want to read another book in my TBR list, I don’t enjoy it as much as I normally would.
It’s happened a few times before with books I finished and didn’t. That’s why I usually read another book by the author later on and see if my views have changed.
~ Popin
I think that any writer can learn from anything they read, it teaches many lessons and much can be gained from a bad book (if not more) than from a good tale.
What I tend to find works for me is when I start picking a book apart, what would I have done with the character, what worked well for this one, what didn’t work. It can happen quite quickly or it can take a while to dawn but as an aspiring writer, theres lesson’s to be had everywhere, be it newspaper stories or the use of the spoken language on anything from films to soaps.
For example I read an article today about a vet being trampled to death by a heard of cows. Now these cows were from a place called Hawes in Yorkshire (yep pronounced the way you think), so you start to think of things like headlines.
Imagination has now boundries but one other thing that I’d suggest perhaps would be to keep a file on articles that are either well written or have made you think of differing plotlines etc.
Book wise its incredibly rare for me not to finish a book I start. Even those I dislike as I feel I have to give them a fair crack of the whip as they could get better. What also annoys me though is an author who changes tenses part way through a scene as I get confused (and incredibly annoyed.)
The last book I started to read I finally gave up on because I didn’t care what happened to the character. She was a robot on the lam, and I was just like “meh”. There was so much technical mumbo-jumbo in there but hardly any story.
Very inventive but very boring at the same time. I wish I could have gotten thru it since I actually have met the author and he’s a nice guy, but inventions do not = interest.
Hey, great post and very true. I used to read anything and forced myself to finish it even if I didn’t like it. These days I’m a lot more picky, but then I have less time and know more about writing.
Books will lose me for the reasons you mentioned above. Also writing style. If there is a story I really want to read, but I feel the need to edit it… yeah… I won’t read it. I have one of those sitting on my shelf. I really want to read it, but I can’t get past the first page without going OMG DON’T DO THAT!!!
But that allows me to see what my pet peeves are, and try to avoid them in my own writing as well.
Thanks for sharing.
Good points all.
I certainly analyse stories that I like to determine what it is that I like about the story so that I can, hopefully, learn to incorporate those elements into my own writing. Likewise, analysing what it is I don’t like about stories which don’t work for me makes it much easier for me to spot those same elements in my own stories.
These lessons go beyond simply informing my own writing, however. I think that your comment “but for the most part, they just weren’t for me” is key. This speaks not so much to the work of writing as it does to the work of submitting.
If you aim to be a published writer, you are going to experience rejection. Writers need to be able to deal with rejection like humans need to breathe. I think the lessons learned from DNF books can help us to do this and to follow Heinlein’s fifth rule of writing: Keep your story on the market until it has sold.
When you receive a rejection for a story you have submitted for publication, send your story back out the same day to a different market. Because just like us, readers have different tastes in what they like in a story. And so do publishers. And editors. And when our work gets rejected, it doesn’t mean it isn’t right for publication. It only means it isn’t write for publication by that particular market at that particular time.
Keep on keeping on!
If the main character has tremendous appeal for me, the plot need not be very complicated. There must be either an inner or outer conflict that the character has to deal with. Too many obvious plot machinations tend to bore me and then I don’t finish the book, or I skim through to the end just to see if I’ve predicted it correctly. Usually, I have.
I’ve put down three books this year alone. HUGE on the best sellers list, too.
Two were from the same author. All three suffered from the same problem: repetition. The author either beat the plot or the exact same internal monolog into me with a 20 pound sledge. By the time I’d gotten 60% of the way through the book, I couldn’t take it anymore.
The two from the first author didn’t contain what I’d call eloquent writing. The third, a debut novelist, initially blew me away with incredible writing, but killed me with repetitive, monologue.
Another great post. Even books we don’t like can teach us what doesn’t work…
Very smart. I’m going to start trying to register WHY I don’t finish a book.
The last I didn’t finish was Wicked. I told someone it was because it was “too wordy”, but then I realized it was actually that the vocab was just too “thick” for me to finish. Intentional purple prose is not my thing!
It used to be a rare thing for me not to finish a book. Not so much anymore. Maybe because I don’t have as much free time as I used to, and so don’t want to waste it. Poor writing will turn me off faster than anything, but next is an unbelievable plot. Personally, though I prefer character over plot, which is how I write too.