titles and stories
Jo Beverley
changes before, but if not....
All novels as far as I know have the title subject to change. Some authors
have more clout than others, but also, some authors are better at picking
titles than others. It's not easy, and many authors are really bad. I used
to be really bad. One problem we often have is wanting the title to
address some aspect of the book, but that doesn't always mean that it will
come across to the reader.
To take an absurd example, an author might want to call her novel COLD
OATMEAL IN MAINE because that, to her, is the core moment of the book. The
publisher is going to look at that and ask, "Will that title make the
passing reading pick it up and think about buying it?"
Of course, there's always the contrarian argument that a truly bizarre
title will grab attention, but even if it works, it probably only works
rarely. A good title conveys something about the nature of the book, and
also catches the attention.
Bernadette: Canadian distributors keep to true dating. As the US book
market moves to true dating there'll be no difference. So, single title
books come out here in the pub. month. I think category books do too.
Certainly they're later here. I hear people talking about a great one, and
I have to wait ages before I see it here.
Yes, where are you going to be, and when?
Re writers and storytellers, what Jean said. but I'd prefer another word.
We're all writers. There's a scale running from storyteller to poet, and
we all fit on it somewhere. The storyteller uses words at their simplest
to spin a yarn that will capture the reader and make her blind to
everything, _including_ the words. Unusual or complex wordplay pluck the
reader out of the story. It's not that the author can't do that, but that
it would work against her purpose.
The poet, (remember this is extremes I'm describing) is not
interested in story except perhaps as vehicle for what she really wants to
do, which is play with words, rhythms, images, moods, symbolism. The poet
does not want the reader sucked in to an exciting story because then she
will not notice or appreciate the brilliant words. In popular fiction, a
story is necessary, but the extreme poet might see it as an unpleasant
necessity.
As I said, each author has a place somewhere on the scale, and I doubt any
successful authors are at the extremes, but in popular fiction, the
megabestsellers are, I think, toward the storytelling end because most
readers read for the stories.
I consider myself a storyteller, perhaps 25% along the scale. I use words
to paint settings and moods as richly and clearly as I can, but I don't
want the reader to pause in awful contemplation of my cleverness or unique
word patterns. I want them turning pages.
As a reader, I'll go for a well told story every time.
Zahara, could you e-mail me? I'm having trouble making contact,
Jo :)
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"Arguably today's most skillful writer of intelligent historical romance,"
Publishers Weekly, March 1998 SECRETS OF THE NIGHT Topaz, July 1999
http://www.sff.net/people/jobeverley Ask to be on my e-mail list
Katy
storyteller to poet, and we all fit on it somewhere. The storyteller uses
words at their simplest to spin a yarn that will capture the reader and make
this is extremes I'm describing) is not interested in story except perhaps
as vehicle for what she really wants to do, which is play with words,
somewhere on the scale, and I doubt any successful authors are at the
extremes, but in popular fiction, the megabestsellers are, I think, toward
the storytelling end because most
readers read for the stories."
Anyone who is a pure storyteller or a pure poet and does that well, is a
person of gifts. Great storytelling is no less an art than great writing,
though I don't think storytelling receives as much honor as the poetic end
of the spectrum.
I agree with Jo that most writers fall somewhere on the spectrum. I always
thought my natural bent was toward the poetry end of things (though my
poetry is truly abysmal <g>), mainly because English is my favorite toy. I
play with words *all the time.* I could more easily stop breathing than stop
worrying about the rhythm of sentences.
So, before I got serious about romance writing, I thought I could never be a
fiction writer because I couldn't tell stories. Even then I knew it was both
a talent and a skill, and I was convinced I didn't have enough of the former
to develop it into the latter <g>. But I decided to try romance writing
despite that, mainly because I'd reached the point in my life when I coudn't
not write anymore.
It never occurred to me to write stories that didn't include storytelling;
it never occurred to me to write stories about wordplay and metaphor and all
those things at the extreme end of the spectrum. If I was going to write
stories, I wanted them to be able to move and transport and delight people,
the way my best-loved books move and transport and delight me. So of course
I had to tell stories, I had to become a storyteller as much as a person who
plays with words.
Of course, once I got going, I recognized that I tell stories all the time,
the chief one being the story of my life, which I tell to myself every day
<g>.....
I still play with words and metaphors and images--I really can't help
it--but I try to do it as cleanly and quietly as I can. I want the words and
images and metaphors to be so much a part of the story that it's part of the
experience; I want everything to make the story as real as possible, without
making it obvious that that's what I'm doing. Whether or not I've succeeded
is a question I can't answer .....
Katy Cooper, made...@email.msn.com
THE PRINCE OF HEARTS, Harlequin Historicals, May 2000