MikeKardec
One Too Many
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I just finished Steven Pressfield's, Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t and his buddy, Shawn Coyne's, The Story Grid. They are interesting books and sort of function together. There's a lot of good information but there are some critical things lacking too.
Steven Pressfield is a one time screenwriter turned novelist. He has written, among others, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Gates of Fire and Killing Rommel. More importantly he has written probably one of the most profound self help books on writing or the doing of any significant discipline, The War of Art.
Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t (Why that is and what you can do about it) combines biographical examples and hard won lessons on breaking into the writing business. It is very short, to the point and occasionally amusing. The most important aspects, rarely covered by this sort of book are 1) an honest picture of how the publishing business works, ie. Editors are account executives who do most of their "editing" by simply rejecting manuscripts that need creative, as opposed to technical, work. 2) How being an overnight success takes a lifetime of preparation. 3) Bothers to suggest that the lessons screenwriting teaches you about structure are invaluable for writing prose and how ignoring them is a nearly certain way to create a situation where Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t.
The Story Grid is editor Shawn Coyne's (one of the last few editors who will work with a writer to perfect his/her material) method of breaking down stories in order to see if they are "all there." Meaning the complete manifestation of that particular story ... it is rather common that this is not achieved and it's a situation that can be deadly to even a very good idea. He also discusses what the typical editor will and won't do and some of how the acquisitions process works.
I found Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t to be both fun and useful but possibly TOO short. There were occasional terms and ideas that were used yet not defined or completely explained. A good deal of the background in both books has been drawn from Robert McKee's magisterial text book Story. I'm inspired to reread it. I suspect that the missing details lurk there and are well known by his disciples.
The Story Grid was more informative to me, but I'm kind of a power-user, I've been a screenwriter, editor, ghost writer and writer. It inspired me to get more serious with some of the tricks I learned in film that I've become a bit lackadaisical about and to take Genre and the audience's expectations of each Genre more seriously. The work's failing is that it spends a great deal of time showing you how to construct a great tool (the story grid) but then uses it to analyze Silence of the Lambs, a novel so perfectly executed that there is really nothing for this valuable diagnostic tool to trouble shoot. The Story Grid DOES contain an in depth book report by an expert editor on this beautifully written best seller, however. That is a lesson in itself.
My own advice would be for beginning to mid level professional writers to use what both authors discuss as "the foolscap method" for doing a brief outline and testing a story's viability. Very useful. Reading both books is a good idea but obsessing over or trying to apply the more significant aspects of The Story Grid before a first draft is in hand is a recipe for disaster. It'll gum up your works before you get anywhere. The author acknowledges this in the book but it's worth another warning ... The Story Grid (with that one exception) is NOT a How-To book for writers, it is a potential tool for editors (or self editors).
Realizing that the qualities set out in both books ARE considered by publishing professionals even if they never bother to discuss your work in any terms other than "it's a pass" or "here's the check" is useful. Our society is incredibly wealthy and thousands and thousands of people find the time and energy to write books. The publishing industry is in the enviable position of being able to succeed while simply rejecting most writers out of hand. As my father used to tell me; to get started you have to be BETTER than the competition, not as good as the competition!
Steven Pressfield is a one time screenwriter turned novelist. He has written, among others, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Gates of Fire and Killing Rommel. More importantly he has written probably one of the most profound self help books on writing or the doing of any significant discipline, The War of Art.
Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t (Why that is and what you can do about it) combines biographical examples and hard won lessons on breaking into the writing business. It is very short, to the point and occasionally amusing. The most important aspects, rarely covered by this sort of book are 1) an honest picture of how the publishing business works, ie. Editors are account executives who do most of their "editing" by simply rejecting manuscripts that need creative, as opposed to technical, work. 2) How being an overnight success takes a lifetime of preparation. 3) Bothers to suggest that the lessons screenwriting teaches you about structure are invaluable for writing prose and how ignoring them is a nearly certain way to create a situation where Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t.
The Story Grid is editor Shawn Coyne's (one of the last few editors who will work with a writer to perfect his/her material) method of breaking down stories in order to see if they are "all there." Meaning the complete manifestation of that particular story ... it is rather common that this is not achieved and it's a situation that can be deadly to even a very good idea. He also discusses what the typical editor will and won't do and some of how the acquisitions process works.
I found Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t to be both fun and useful but possibly TOO short. There were occasional terms and ideas that were used yet not defined or completely explained. A good deal of the background in both books has been drawn from Robert McKee's magisterial text book Story. I'm inspired to reread it. I suspect that the missing details lurk there and are well known by his disciples.
The Story Grid was more informative to me, but I'm kind of a power-user, I've been a screenwriter, editor, ghost writer and writer. It inspired me to get more serious with some of the tricks I learned in film that I've become a bit lackadaisical about and to take Genre and the audience's expectations of each Genre more seriously. The work's failing is that it spends a great deal of time showing you how to construct a great tool (the story grid) but then uses it to analyze Silence of the Lambs, a novel so perfectly executed that there is really nothing for this valuable diagnostic tool to trouble shoot. The Story Grid DOES contain an in depth book report by an expert editor on this beautifully written best seller, however. That is a lesson in itself.
My own advice would be for beginning to mid level professional writers to use what both authors discuss as "the foolscap method" for doing a brief outline and testing a story's viability. Very useful. Reading both books is a good idea but obsessing over or trying to apply the more significant aspects of The Story Grid before a first draft is in hand is a recipe for disaster. It'll gum up your works before you get anywhere. The author acknowledges this in the book but it's worth another warning ... The Story Grid (with that one exception) is NOT a How-To book for writers, it is a potential tool for editors (or self editors).
Realizing that the qualities set out in both books ARE considered by publishing professionals even if they never bother to discuss your work in any terms other than "it's a pass" or "here's the check" is useful. Our society is incredibly wealthy and thousands and thousands of people find the time and energy to write books. The publishing industry is in the enviable position of being able to succeed while simply rejecting most writers out of hand. As my father used to tell me; to get started you have to be BETTER than the competition, not as good as the competition!
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