34/ read thispic.twitter.com/6oPMtCOb8y
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45/ This are not about standards that ** I ** have set. This is about standards that are inherent in humanity, and which we have laboriously researched and started to understand after literally millenia of trial and error, experimentation and research. Humans LIKE plot.
46/ Humans LIKE fractal, self-similar design, where details at level N reflect details at level N+1. Humans LIKE Chekhov guns. Humans LIKE twists that they can almost, almost not, see coming. Humans LIKE rising tension. Writing may not be a science, but it also isn't >
47/ a free-for-all anything-I-do-is-equally valid as anything-you-do. There is a large body of research, explanation, and instruction. Dedication to a craft, and success at it requires: * an appreciation of the standards * apprenticeship and study to learn the techniques
49/ So, folks who like pulp: * that's great! * I like it too * some aspects of writing technique are objective * pulp doesn't mean "bad writing is goodf" * learn to write better * don't read terrible how-to books by a terrible author * read good how-to books by good authors
50/ Well, first of all, not many people are buying what he writes. He brags a lot about how much he sells, but check out the Amazon sales rank on his books. >>>https://twitter.com/RobHaines905/status/1253017371494752259 …
51/ The book I quoted from earlier has an Amazon sales rank of #183,573 here's a rough guide to estimating sales from sales rank rank ebook sales per day 1 10,553 10 4,028 100 1,074 1,000 200 10,000 26 100,000 2 note that left column is log - each is 10x
52/ These numbers aren't precise, and are gathered from a few sources, but they mostly check out looking at my own sales and those of fellow author friends. E.g. my first novel https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005JPPMS6 has a sales rank of #12,769 which predicts around 20 sales/day >>>
53/ and I sold 30 copies 2 days ago (a very big, outlier day) and 20 copies yesterday so ... reasonably tight fit
54/ B.A. has a sales rank of #183,573 on the quoted book, which works out to ... about 0.9 sales per day. The ebook sells for 99 cents. He gets a 30 cent royalty on that. So he's selling ~25 copies per month and making $9/month of of it.
55/ so if you're saying "but clearly the market wants this", my response is * no, not really
56/ I quote tweet so that I can make a coherent thread that is easy for my followers to read and understand. I AM speaking to a room, NOT to an individual.https://twitter.com/RobHaines905/status/1253018829304860677 …
57/ Dude, people do all sorts of things that pay nothing, or close to it, for all sorts of reasons. If B.A. wants to write terrible books that almost no one reads, and earn $9/month from it, yes, obviously there is no law of physics that prevents that.https://twitter.com/RobHaines905/status/1253018829304860677 …
58/ On Writing by Stephen King Story by Robert McKee Creating Character Arcs by Weiland There are a dozen others but titles escape me ; maybe later I can take a picture of my shelf. https://twitter.com/CDan1333/status/1253018320464482304 …
60/ as I've explained three times already (This is now #4) I'm not bashing him, I'm bashing bad art & bad technique. Why? Because Quality is an objective thing, and it is obedience to God to produce good art, and a sin to produce trash and call it good.https://twitter.com/RobHaines905/status/1253024897657380869 …
61/ well said! https://twitter.com/CDan1333/status/1253024763875917830 …
62/ Exactly! One of the many failures of B.A. is that he tries to do action, but doesn't. Hero "repels attacks". Could be describing lawyers in a corporate merger, a space frigate with force fields, or a clash of steel sword against wooden shield.https://twitter.com/ctdonath/status/1253026353210941440 …
63/ Contrast BA's terrible impossible-to-picture-because-nothing-is-described writing to that of Charles R Tannerpic.twitter.com/wLHpnREI04
65/ how does BA write action? we know what color the dirt is (though that doesn't matter), we know that the torches "gasp" (tho it doesn't matter), we know that the pit reeked (tho it doesn't matter), we know that the hero's footwork "stirred the bones" (tho it doesn't matter)
66/ and when we come to the ACTION - the ACTION which pulprev loudly and proudly asserts is the core of all fiction, what do we find? "the opponents ... clashed" "the demon's attacks ... dwindled" "the knight...counterattacked" thousands of words on lighting, dirt, smell >
67/ and zero words describing the ACTUAL ACTION this is like porn that spends 50 pages talking about the candles, the shape of the sofa, how it was that the lusty widow happened to be home alone...and then says "he banged her"
68/ now, let's look at Tanner: Yakran rushes Tumithak ...a terrific blow, dodged under Tumithak on one knee...another sweep of the enemy's sword .. fall back a step...lunging rushes around the table, close to the pit, now far away a plan! ... forced to the pit a lunge!
69/ This is PURE ACTION. No skulls underfoot being "stirred", no "feathery demons", no "like an iguana head, covered in chitin". It's a STORY, not an excitable 6 year old recounting a scene from a movie.
70/ there's an old saw that bad writing is * X happened * then Y happened * then Z happened but good writing is * X happened * therefore Y happened * therefore Z happenedhttps://twitter.com/SunglassPri/status/1253030415037878275 …
71/ BA has enthusiasm that, were he willing to listen to advice, might let him become a good writer with several years of practice An editor, tho, is not sufficient. It is not merely a matter of removing the bad - he must also be taught to write.https://twitter.com/sirgawain2100/status/1253030722446651392 …
72/
side thread from accomplished and actually really good author @JASutherlandBks ; will certainly contain lots of good info!https://twitter.com/JASutherlandBks/status/1253030894752989184 …
73/ 1) read many books on writing 2) read many novels, both inside your genre and out 3) cultivate high standards 4) learn to cringe hard at the garbage you generate ; feel burning shame and vow to understand what caused it and not repeat those mistakeshttps://twitter.com/sirgawain2100/status/1253031303664058368 …
74/ lol that's not exactly how I'd phrase it, but you're not wronghttps://twitter.com/SojoXX/status/1253031322114637824 …
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