Writers, be true to your story

I was preparing my submission for this year's ABNA contest and realized that the excerpt they requested, the first 3000-5000 words, barely reached the first action scene in my novel. If an agent, and this is most agents, want only the first few pages or even the first chapter, they would never make it to the action. So what's a writer to do?

Once upon a time there were great books that started like, "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." These days that would get a quick rejection. And J.R.R. Tolkien, a true master storyteller, prattled on forever about Hobbits and their quirkiness before anything actually happened in the story. It was great literature, grand storytelling.

In the world of the blurb, the sound bite, and the movie tie in, that is so last century. Today we start with, "The bullet ripped through flesh like peeling the skin off a rotten tomato." Let's get right into the action. We can find out who has the gun and who is getting shot later. Give us visual, grab us and don't let go. We want to see the story, now.... Get a movie ticket.

Books aren't movies. Even movies made from books are never as good as the books and I've even read books, written after the movie, that were better than the movie. Literature is to be read, savored, imagined, not viewed. If you want to sit back and watch, rent a vid. But I digress in my chosen rant...

It is simple marketing, which is the business of agents and publishers by the way, to sell books. Books sell by cover, blurb, and first page. It's simple, really. Think about being at the book store. You see a book - the cover art - you pick it up and check the back - the blurb and review bites - you open it up and start reading. If you turn to page two you will probably buy the book. You might even buy it without ever opening it, if the cover and blurb are good enough.

At that point the publisher has made a sale, and the agent has made a commission. But to the author what happens next is the most important. Does the reader actually like the book they bought? Do they give it, or recommend it to friends? Do they look for other books by the author? Or do the throw it on a shelf unfinished and forgotten. The business side doesn't care. Sale made, profit made, done deal.

You might think that it would matter. An unsatisfied customer and all that. But the reader doesn't shy away from the publisher's next book, they stay away from the author. They will eagerly buy the publisher's next over-hyped stack of pulp, but they will remember they didn't like "that author." So why should the business side care about great literature? It doesn't make any more money than hype-literature.

Back to my original question, what's a writer to do? Many today grab a scene from the story, doesn't really matter where, beginning-middle-end, doesn't even matter if it's all that relevant to the overall story, as long as it will grab readers. Put it right up front, get the agent, get the sale, then start the actual story in chapter two. I know you've read those books. Hell, Twilight started at the end, with a little prolog, and jumped back to the beginning.

So what am I to do with my novel, ruin the flow of the story by throwing in some dramatic scene from halfway through the book? It would be like the Hobbit starting with Smog, then Bilbo thinking back on how he got there, or A Christmas Carol starting with the Ghost of Christmas-yet-to-come and the grave scene. But to get an agent or publisher, who will only look at a few pages, that's the literature we end up with.

So, again I ask, what is a writer to do? My present course of action, short of selling out my art, is very simple. Knock their socks off with the query and synopsis. Make your overall story jump off the page and bitch-slap 'em before they even read page one. If the cover and blurb carry enough punch that readers will buy without opening a book. If the query/synopsis is good enough the agent/publisher should (notice I said should. This is an untested theory) read the manuscript to see how you worked it all out and if the prose matches the hype.

So my advice, and I'm following it until it proves worthwhile or worthless, is to stick to your story. No bait and switch with a little action scene stuck in on page one that should be on page ninety-five. Be true to yourself and your story, then learn to kick ass with your query/synopsis. I know, novelist HATE writing queries, and dread a synopsis. Tell you what, in my next post I'll talk about writing short and succinct blurbs and queries. You can hit hard with just a few lines.

See you then,

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