Enlightening

I don't read in my genre (gasp!) While I enjoy writing women's fiction, it's not my preferred choice for reading. Thus, I have absolutely no idea how my writing compares to others who specialize in it.

Today I was taking another look at ARC hosting sites (for future reference, just in case) and I found that some of BookSprout's listed novels are previewable. Of course I homed in on the women's fiction category, and wow! I am apparently an Einstein. The first book I perused had a tense error in the very first sentence, something the author should have readily noticed. Nevertheless, I read on. It didn't get any better. What I read came off as someone jotting down her thoughts in her diary. No structure; just, "I did this and then I did that". Unlike most readers, I wanted to give the novel a fair chance, so I clicked on the next chapter, and then the next. Then I gave up. 

I felt bad for the author. It's probably her first publishing stab and she is no doubt as proud of it as I was of my first couple of novels. Bathed in delusion. Writing an entire book is an accomplishment. Every other person one meets claims they're going to write a book, but maybe five per cent of them (at the most) actually do it. It all sounds so easy in your head, until you give it a go and can't even finish one chapter before giving up. 

There was probably a nice story buried somewhere in the mess I skimmed. She just didn't know how to write it. Been there. (And sadly, she obviously paid good money for a professional book cover.)

I pulled up a few more previews that were better written, but many leaned far too heavily on inner thoughts. I slot a few of those into my stories, too, but lightly sprinkled, not every other sentence.

And why does everyone want to tell us why they wrote the story? I've never even considered adding a forward to any of my books, but if I did, it wouldn't be about me. It's a novel, not a memoir! Self-absorption runs rampant nowadays. 

Bottom line, if this experiment is any indication, there are writers as good as me, but none that are better. I'm good. I wasn't sure about that, but I am. It took a long time to get there. I've always been a natural writer, but there's so much more to it than talent. Structuring a story, writing for the reader instead of for your personal journal, pacing, flow.

Sometimes it's nice to compare, just to learn where you stand.