With thanks to Brian Lindenmuth, we have a trio of interesting blog essays today.
The first is by Rachael Gardner about "Managing Expectations" http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2010/07/managing-expectations.html It's always easy to blame others when things don't go as expected but then, what in life ever goes as planned?
Conjugate Visits is a new blog to me and it's filled with posts about editing. This one shows how this editor would have edited the first page of Steig Larsson's "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo", which would have been a much easier read with a bit of editing to pare it down ( my opinion ). http://conjugatevisits.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-parsing-larsson-querying-great.html
And it's always interesting to read writing advice, even if we don't use everything that comes our way. http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/07/mind-meld-the-best-writing-advice-i-ever-received/
Over at the Book View Cafe, Phyllis Radford, takes a look at short vs long from her own perspective of trying to write short stories. http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2010/07/29/so-you-want-to-commit-novel-9-short-vs-long/
3 comments:
The edit of the Larsson page is quite an eye opener. The original, as published, is quite weak, IMO, and that weakness is evident even before reading the edits and the rewritten version which certainly illuminate the bad writing. I wonder how much of it is due to the translation? Perhaps it is a combination of lazy writing and poor translating. One thing is certain, the books have sold.
You're right, Frank, the books have sold but I've heard a lot of readers wondering if it's poor writing or translating. I read the first book but had to put it down half way through and read something faster, then go back to it. I think the character of Lisbeth Salander is the only reason people keep on reading. At least it was for me.
You may as well just give me a login :)
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