It's very self-defeating for unpublished authors to sneer at formulas and entertainment genres.
I completely agree! If the reader is instinctively expecting some turn of the plot at a certain point and it doesn't happen, it could really diminish reading pleasure. Better to stick to the formula when you're just starting out writing; you can break the rules later. Using the accepted basic grid for the story also doesn't mean it can't be original. The formula is not the plot.
(I'm really beginning to itch to write a "kitchen sink romance". I don't know if that itch would really carry me through 50,000 words of dishes and leaking pipes, but I just love the idea of using the romance novel formula with a Mike Leigh cast.)
I think it's a damn shame, though, that publishers refuse non-formulaic novels for the reason of them not being formulaic. I recently read a book written by publishers called "How Not To Write a Novel" and then proceeded to read an excellent published novel that did a lot of the things they warned against. The excellence of a novel doesn't hang on whether or not it's formulaic or on any other specific dos and donts. Many - most - of my favourite novels are written in the "wrong" way somehow.
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Date: 2009-08-16 08:16 am (UTC)I completely agree! If the reader is instinctively expecting some turn of the plot at a certain point and it doesn't happen, it could really diminish reading pleasure. Better to stick to the formula when you're just starting out writing; you can break the rules later. Using the accepted basic grid for the story also doesn't mean it can't be original. The formula is not the plot.
(I'm really beginning to itch to write a "kitchen sink romance". I don't know if that itch would really carry me through 50,000 words of dishes and leaking pipes, but I just love the idea of using the romance novel formula with a Mike Leigh cast.)
I think it's a damn shame, though, that publishers refuse non-formulaic novels for the reason of them not being formulaic. I recently read a book written by publishers called "How Not To Write a Novel" and then proceeded to read an excellent published novel that did a lot of the things they warned against. The excellence of a novel doesn't hang on whether or not it's formulaic or on any other specific dos and donts. Many - most - of my favourite novels are written in the "wrong" way somehow.