Sometimes voice trumps (even) plot

[whdean]

The book’s written in the first person, so I mean “voice” in the broadest sense. The narrator is the one who describes everyone and everything that happens in the book, throwing in his own internal dialogue for good measure. Taken together, these aspects of the book overcame what I thought was a weak plot twist. I’d have probably still enjoyed the book if the plot had been even weaker or more predictable.

Now, I don’t know whether it would work the other way in the first person. In other words, I don’t think you could make up for a weak or flat voice with an interesting plot. And the reason it wouldn’t work is that the reader couldn’t identify with the narrator.

As for style and story, I don’t think you can separate them from an affective standpoint (= from the standpoint of the experience of the reader reading). I suspect that people think you can because they conflate the analytical and affective standpoints. A critical reader (= analytical standpoint) can differentiate the prose style and the story and talk about the two separately. But I don’t think it follows that we can experience the two separately, such that the story can be good and the prose bad.

[mlhearing]

Apr 26, 2014 11:01:00 GMT -5 whdean said:

Stephen King said something to the effect that people come for the voice. I've experienced one case of that. Just finished Craig Johnson’s The Cold Dish, the first in the Longmire series. It’s written in the first person. And it is so well-written, so richly written, and the dialogue and characters were so good that I wasn’t the least bit disappointed with the rather bizarre ending. I won’t reveal it, of course, but it seemed barely foreshadowed and even a little hackneyed. But I didn’t care because Craig as Sheriff Longmire has such a fantastic voice and there was so much more there.

Just like Chesterton's "novels," yes?

[whdean]

To tell the truth, I've never really read his fiction because people who like him have told me it's unbearable. But I will have to read some eventually.

[Deleted]

I'm pretty sure my voice and my characters are a whole lot stronger than my plots. Probably depends partly on genre. If you write romance, you get more forgiveness on plot. Thrillers? Not so much. That's why I write romance.

I'm the same way as a reader. Don't care that much about the intricate plot, unless it's a techno-thriller or something, when I do care. And "beautiful" writing generally makes me impatient. I much prefer plain writing, and humor. If I find somebody who has good characters and well-integrated (not forced) humor--well, I'll read that author all day long. Don't like books that are intentionally trying to be "funny," though. ("Sidesplittingly funny!" That kind of humorous writing pulls me out of the story and makes me not connect.)

I'm picky, I guess. But not about plot.

[Deleted]

I most often pick up books because the premise is some plot or character situation that I like. Otherwise I'd never pick up the book. However, as soon as I start reading, there's either a "this is fabulous" moment, or a "this isn't for me moment," and since I already know the premise is for me, that means the author's voice just didn't hit the right notes with me.

But if that voice is great, I can read anything. That's how I end up addicted to twitter feeds about the mundanities of life.

I'll have to try the Longmire books. I've been watching the series, and I love it. But yeah, the plots are bland. It's the characters who bring it to life even on the show.