What draws a reader into a story and compels her to keep tuning pages? This interests me both as a reader and a writer with a novel ready to publish. It interests me because so many novels I start I never finish. I’m beginning to wonder if the fault lies more with me as a reader than with the writer.
As a writer I’m used to reading my own work with a critical distance and a skeptical eye, which are essential to the purpose of revision, but deadly to the act of reading for enjoyment. What’s essential there is what Coleridge coined “a willing suspension of disbelief,” or “poetic faith.”
But if what we bring to the table, instead of poetic faith, is a skeptical and critical disposition, the novel may be doomed before it’s ever given a chance to work its magic on us.
Perhaps the reason so many novels I pick up fall short is because I’m reading through the wrong lens, with a critical eye towards revision, toward rewriting the page in my own image, rather than that willing suspension of disbelief, allowing the writer to draw me into the story in her own way.
A case in point: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.
I had been looking for a steamy romance with a literary bent, having found nothing lately within either of those genres–romantic or literary–that held my interest.
Someone suggested I try the Outlander series. I was highly skeptical from the start. A time-travelling romance? It sounded far-fetched. But since I had nothing better to read and the book came with so many 5 star reviews and a huge fan-base, I decided to give it a try.
I was not impressed. The writing was fine, the characters okay, but the pacing was extremely slow. It wasn’t at all the book that I wanted to read and I kept thinking how to revise it to better hold my interest. But I kept reading because I wanted to get to the juicy parts, to see how the author and protagonist would handle the time gap, the sudden jolt 200 years back into the past. And I wanted to see who her love interest would be.
Well, needless to say, I was disappointed again. Claire seemed barely phased by the fact she had been transported back 200 years. She saw it more as a logistical problem, how to get home, rather than “am I losing my mind, this can’t be happening” response I had imagined and felt would ring more true. Then when the first person she meets, a captain in the British army, tries to rape her, the whole thing seemed so implausible, I almost stopped reading right there.
But who would be her love interest? That question kept me going until I discovered it was this low-level member of a rebel band who had managed to get himself wounded, and was clearly several years her junior. If I had been writing the book I would have chosen the daring, hot-headed leader of the group, who while years older, seemed more exciting. Clearly this was not the book I was hoping to read and I set it aside.
But when the film series about the Outlander came out on TV, I decided to give it another try, and the film easily sucked me in. The music, the scenery, the costumes, the actors chosen to play each part, all were perfectly pitched to draw me in and sweep me away. The resistance I had initially for the series, and the critical distance I held it, melted away. The willing suspension of disbelief so needed for my viewing pleasure was in full force.
By the time the first season ended, I was so enthralled, I eagerly picked up the book again and began reading. This time I thoroughly enjoyed it and couldn’t understand why I hadn’t before.
I think we are more willing to suspend disbelief when viewing a movie than when reading a novel. The visual and auditory power of film-making does most of the work for us without the need to translate black letters on a white page into scenery or sounds. The musical score is an added bonus manipulating our emotions to match what the filmmaker wants us to feel, and when well-done it’s barely noticeable.
Much is required of both writer and filmmaker to make his or her creation “sing.” Both must learn their craft well and comply with the basic elements of story-telling, as I wrote about in my last post. But the filmmaker has more tools to entice the viewer into that willing suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy the film.
The writer has less to work with. So it’s essential for the reader, especially if the reader is a writer, to come to the work as a willing and eager partner. We must be willing to set aside our writerly prejudice to allow the story to work its magic on us.
Below are links to posts referenced here:
Loss & Desire, and the Search for Something More in Life & Literature
I like this post and find it very interesting. I view myself as a reader first then a writer. I discovered writing long after my love of reading and I think some of the points that you make are very true. Yet most readers would argue with you on the point of….. the movie makers have more tools to make more story “sing”…. As a” Reader”the believe is that the book is always better then the movie. So if the book is not good the chance for the movie to be better or more inspiring is almost impossible… Mainly because if the story is weak it will not gain anything from bright lights, a sound track or beautiful costumes, it will just be a “pretty”, badly written movie. I also find it interesting that you find yourself at fault when reading and not being able to find the quality of writing you want. All of the examples you share about the Outlander series are examples of just terrible writing, not examples of great writing. They may not appeal to you because of your education and sophistication as a reader and writer. The better you are as a writer usually the better you are as a reader also. I think you have just fallen into a cheap romance trap… or in other words.. read something a little better quality then a dime store novel and I think your results will be different. I think your suspension of reality will improve and you enjoyment will also. Just a my point of view. Hope you find something that reaches you a little deeper so you just can put a book down soon.
I hear you, Jolynn. I’m still feeling my way through understanding all this, and I think you make some excellent points. Especially about how so many brilliant books fail in film. I’m still muddling over that, but I think it’s mostly because the filmmaking just wasn’t up to par with the book.
But with reading, I have the same problem with critically acclaimed books, if I enter it with a skeptical or resistant mindset, with the mind of an editor, for instance. I don’t think the quality of writing is necessarily the problem here, even if its brilliant I’m still resisting the writing, not allowing it to pull me in, and therefore it doesn’t seem so “brilliant” to me at all.
In the past I just figured all the hype about a particular book being a brilliant book was wrong, because I just couldn’t get into it. The Tiger’s wife, and Bel Canato are two recent examples. I just couldn’t get past the first couple of chapters, while l I breezed through War and Peace, and One Hundred Years of Solitude–go figure. So now I’m wondering if the way I was reading doomed the first too, being skeptical of how brilliant they really were, while on the later two I accepted that they were brilliant and found they were.
On the other hand, while in my first resistant reading of the Outlander the writing seemed just “fine” and the characters just “okay,” once I went back and read it with a mind to truly enjoy and appreciate what was there, I found the writing impressive and the characters brilliant. But I wasn’t reading it with the mind that it must be second -rate because it’s not “literary,” I was accepting it for what it was, and actually found it to be what I was looking for–a hot romance with depth and substance. I wouldn’t classify it as a cheap romance at all; I’ve tried some of those and don’t get past the second page, and it’s not because I’m resisting it. It’s because the writing truly is bad and there is no depth or substance. Nevertheless, for those looking for a cheap thrill, the book could be very enjoyable, Shades of Gray, an example. That’s definitely one I could not get into, and I don’t think it was because of any resistant reading. But millions enjoyed it.
Anyway, I’ve really enjoyed this conversation and am so glad you came here and began it.
I enjoy many of your posts and think we are both correct in our observations. No one really knows until till they try a book if they will like it or not… and sometimes it is simply subject matter that makes me go, uggg, I cant finish this one! Hopefully you can relax that editors mind and enjoy what ever you are reading!!. I don’t often find time to write long notes but I do enjoy the blog and i have learned things from it.
Thanks, Jolynn. One of the things I love best about blogging having a dialogue with readers. They always give me so much to think about.
I’ve been entranced by Outlander, too – the series, not the book, I haven’t tried that yet. I did pick up a copy in a bookstore, and I read the wedding night scene, though! I didn’t think it was anywhere near as good as the scene in the show – and I didn’t especially like the writing. But, it was just one scene. I do love the relationship between Claire and Jamie. My husband and I are illiterate when it comes to TV these days, but I don’t think we can view the series until a season has been out for a while, so we’re usually behind other viewers. (My husband likes it too.) But I do love that series….except the rape scene with Jamie, I almost stopped watching. Another person I follow on social media detected a note of homophobia in the show, and I do, too. The show pushes my buttons on a lot of levels. Also interesting, seeing Frank and his terrible ancestor played by the same actor. I enjoy reading your writing about it!
We’re behind in our viewing of the Outlander too. And yes, the rape scene was horrific. It did break some taboos, having a man, the hero, abused that way. I’ve never seen that anywhere else (or read it either) which makes it all the more shocking. I’d read that she had no idea about any “rules” for writing romances when she began the series, and didn’t even consider it that. So she broke into a lot of new territory in this series.
Also, I just wanted to say, with romance novels…maybe you know this, there are all sorts of niches and sub-categories of the genre, appealing to different snippets of audience….and there are actually rules to follow if you write them….for example, some allow no explicit sex scenes whatsoever, others nothing more than kissing….and others REQUIRE kinky stuff…and on and on….seems strange to me, exactly the opposite of literary writing….whatever literary writing is….enjoy this discussion.
Yes, I had heard that about writing romance, all the rules that are followed, which I’m not sure I like. But I think there are a lot of cross-over genres now, and even perhaps a softening of the boundaries between them. And yes, again, literary writing especially seems to be losing its boundaries.