A couple of months ago, my maiden blog post asked the question: “Are #1 New York Times Bestselling authors teaching new writers bad habits?”
The reason is because many new writers are fighting an increasingly competitive battle to get agent and publisher representation in traditional publishing. With overflowing slush piles and the increasing pressure on the industry, agents and publishers are choosier than ever. And their list of pet peeves continues to grow.
As new writers, we don’t always know what we don’t know. Sometimes the only examples we have of what is considered ‘good writing’ are the books we read.
As I sit here on vacation in Ireland, I’m reading Dan Brown’s INFERNO. With everything I’ve learned in the past year preparing my first book for publication, my lens has changed as a reader. I’ve also learned there are a lot of editorial choices presented in books by bestselling authors that would never be tolerated if presented in the work of a first time novelist.
Just a note, this is not a book review. I’ll post that on Goodreads once I’m finished reading the book. But as entertaining as I find the book, there are some mechanics that bothered me so much I’m interrupting my vacation to write this blog post (See the INFERNO section below).
Knowing my hands would be slapped silly for including these editorial blunders, I feel compelled to highlight them. I’m sure I will equally offend readers with something I do once my books are published. But I assure you, it won’t be with any of the INFERNO mistakes below.
To be fair, I’ve included my observations in three sections mirroring the subject of the book, Dante’s Divine Comedy: PARADISO (Good), PURGATORIO (Needs Improvement), INFERNO (Unforgivable).
That said, here is what I found from a writer’s point of view:
PARADISO:
1) Great pacing
2) Good Suspense
3) Good action sequences
4) Short chapters
5) Great imagery
6) Well researched.Without a question.
7) Narrative (this will also appear below). Since there is complexity to Robert Langdon’s puzzle, I don’t mind learning through the overabundance of research presented in all of Dan Brown’s books. His details actually draw you deeper into the story and allow great visualization of the setting.
PURGATORIO:
1) Narrative. At times too much, could live without it, or dips into passive voice. Overall, I could forgive this one.
2) POV. If you read my first blog post, you know how I feel about multiple POVs. I really enjoy them, and I flat out refuse to work with an editor who insists on three or less. But did we really need the POV of the security guard behind the gray door? In my opinion, we could have lived without the detail of the locking gate and ditched this POV entirely.
INFERNO:
1) Ending almost every sentence with “?!” or “!”. Need I say more? Heads should be hanging in shame over this one. Like a disease, this spread across many characters. The effect: they are jarring to the eye; the characters come across doltish; and the intelligence is sucked right out of the story everywhere they appear.
Don’t get me wrong. Used sparingly, both of these can work. But let me clarify: if you have used them more than 5 times in the first hundred pages – you have overused them. Much less 5 times within 2 pages!!!!!!!??????!!!!!!!?????? They become distracting to the reader?!?!?!?!
This point alone set my teeth on edge, and made me shake my head in editorial disbelief.
2) Using italicized internal monologue:
3) Overreliance on narrative instead of dialogue. Bothered me less than #1 & #2, but this is one reason why I don’t read Dan Brown for his characters.
Now that I have that out my system, I can go back and read the rest of INFERNO and enjoy Dan Brown’s creative storytelling. Although I have no hopes for a great romance between Robert and Sienna, maybe Dan will surprise me with at least one kiss.
Write on!
What are your thoughts on the use of “?!” and “!”?
