Above all, story FIRST!

"Stephen King, about ten years ago, did a little rant at one point about modern writers...not all of them, but some of them. He said some of them are like beautiful women who cannot carry on a conversation. You look at them and admire them and you want to sit down and talk to them, and they don't really have very much to say – they're just beautiful. Which is not to say that I don't admire beauty and the way people put words together, but I think it's so subordinate to story."
--Neil Gaiman
Source: Interview at http://www.laurahird.com/newreview/neilgaimaninterview.html

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I really like the above-posted quote because I feel the same way Neil does. It's not that I don't appreciate flowery writing with descriptive passages when it's necessary...but the story is the thing. Just because you can impress me with your extensive vocabulary while you wax poetic about the way the trees look in the moonlight or how a landscape appears in the dawn of morn doesn't mean there's real substance to what you're attempting to communicate to me through the written word.

Get to the meat of the fiction story and stop masturbating with adjectives all over the page, for Goddess's sake. What are you trying to do? Describe every damned thing using all one million adjectives you've learned in your life? Who are the characters? Where is the internal conflict? What about scene/sequence? Where are you taking me? If you don't hook me right away, I won't finish your fiction book...so you only have ten pages to do it or I'm GONE. Hook me...and do it right away. Make me want to find out more. Make me ask questions and wonder what's going on in the beginning.

Yes...I'll admit I'm a dialogue person when it comes to fiction. I also know you cannot have all dialogue, either. There is a SNAP-SNAP-SNAP to dialogue -- it's like running. Narrative slows the story down and one must pace things and achieve a sort of balance. However, too much narrative and description kills it for me when the story is neglected. This is one reason why I stopped reading Anne Rice. And as much as I love Stephen King, he can be guilty of this as well. As a reader of fiction, I want bodies on the first few pages, people. I want action...I want showing, not telling or describing...I want interaction and dialogue...and I want a damned good story, too. You don't have to fill in all the blanks with me (and this is true for most readers). Do the colors of the threads in the tapestry on the wall relate to the plot of the story in an essential manner? If so, share it with me. If not, then don't bother me with excruciating, pages-long descriptions full of flowery adjectives that make me want to hurl because it's obvious you're trying way too hard to impress. I can build a vision of the setting in my mind with adequate detail, thanks very much.

Herein also lies the problem with Hollywood's movies today (well, MOST of them) as well. paulzuzu and I have discussed this many times, in fact. They forget it's not all about special effects and CGI -- it's the STORY that ultimately matters. For the amount of money being tossed about in Hollywood, there's an awful lot of crap coming out of there. And the remakes...oh the remakes...don't get me started. Did we REALLY need another dose of Dukes of Hazzard, people?

But I digress (which I am allowed to do because, quite frankly, I moderate this community)....

I'm not only a writer, but I'm a reader as well. In fact, I don't know ANY writers who aren't readers. Not sure you CAN be a writer unless you're a reader. As a reader, I require you -- as a writer -- to do one thing particularly well: tell me a good story with characters I care about. See? It's not so difficult. Or is it?

(X-posted on blogelemental and elementalmuse)