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Kill All the Lawyers? No, Kill the Fiction Writers
by Kathleen Maher on March 20, 2007
In the last six weeks, I’ve read comments by established writers declaring that “bad fiction writers” be stopped.
As a diligent and widely unknown fiction writer, I beg to differ. The inherent quality of fiction, the pronouncement that it’s good or bad, is entirely subjective. Beyond that, fiction requires shelf-life. Many of our best writers finish a piece and put it away to rewrite only when time has brought them to a different vantage point. Then, too, what’s bad today; could easily be judged good tomorrow. Or the opposite—what was considered breakthrough literature twenty years ago bores us now. Fiction is an art. While many might agree that fiction with an indifference or ignorance of structure, grammar, narrative, character, and/or story arc qualifies as despicable writing, others might know some of the writer’s other work and declare the same piece experimental. Any writer, afraid to risk writing badly, will never manage the daredevil feats unique fiction requires.
Of course, not many people care much about unique fiction, or any fiction until it’s transformed into a movie or TV series. That development may not disturb me as much as it should. What does disturb me is the idea that bad fiction writers are an assault upon society. Why fiction writers?
Why not bad guitar players or bad sculptors? It’s not much harder to toss out a bad short story or dump a boring novel than it is to turn away from a bad painting or photograph. Bad drummers may not be as popular as I imagine, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t tolerated with a great deal more sympathy than the struggling, searching, over-reaching fiction writer. Even though bad drummers, if they’re experimenting in your apartment building or garage, intrude on your privacy much louder than any fiction writer sweating to find a line of angry, screaming dialog ever could.
One commentator expressing anger toward bad fiction writers referred to the MFA writers’ programs popular throughout this country and what a waste of money and energy they are. I don’t know, being a self-taught fiction writer. But I would no more want to put writers’ programs out of business than dance schools or fledgling theatre groups or even a garage band with more attitude than chord changes.
Speaking for myself, you’re apt to find my penchant for writing fiction is among the least of my obnoxious qualities. Years ago I gave up almost all hope of publication. But I would no sooner give up writing fiction than I’d give up my life. Honestly, my plea here is not for myself alone. Tolerate me or not—I know quite well how little difference I’ll ever make. But earnest young writers determined to master their art? Are they really so abominable? How hard is it to say, “Keep at it.” They work alone, in silence, and dupe you into spending your money about as often as they win the lottery. The very worst fiction writer might someday become the best. No one knows. It costs nothing to say, “Work hard enough, long enough and you’ll eventually become the writer you were meant to be.”
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Right on Kathleen!
And besides, bad fiction writers make better neighbors than bad drummers.
– bosco (03/21 at 21-Mar 13:18 -05:00)
I think you have taken the sentence out of context. The “bad fiction writers” referred to are the ones who do NOT shelve and rewrite and revise ENOUGH before publishing. The purpose of shelving and a work for as long as it takes and rewriting it as often as it needs is precisely in consideration of the fact that what might seem good today might be bad tomorrow, or to quote you, “what’s bad today might easily be judged good tomorrow.” Good fiction transcends the different kinds of reading taste (case in point: the classics) that keep changing over time.
“Bad fiction writers” need to either shelve and revise and rewrite more before publishing, or simply be stopped if they do not have this discipline and patience. In other words, I agree with the established writers. They are not established writers for nothing. It helps “bad fiction writers” become better fiction writers to listen to them.
Just my thoughts. I have linked your fantastic blog, by the way. It’s one of my favorites.
– Maryanne Moll (04/07 at 7-Apr 11:26 -05:00)
I often get teased (albeit gently) by established writers and people from my former MFA fiction program for continuing to go to amateur posting/critiquing sites and writing groups, but I love them. Even the best of workshops will only return about 20% useful advice, at best; you don’t necessarily go for line edits--you go to pick up energy from other writers who really want it (whatever “it” is--if you’re a writer, you likely know what I’m saying). People who are still in the stage of exploring what it is they want out of literature, and how the hell they might come close to it or at least sweep past it, have a lot more in the way of energy, often, than people who’ve been polishing, revising-revising-revising (okay, that’s me, I admit: compulsive reviser, editor). And yeah, comments like that--suggesting that “bad fiction writers” “be stopped"--are discounting the idea that we all begin bad at some point--maybe at age six or age nineteen or eighty-three. If we’d stopped then, what would we have? Add to that the fact that I can find at least a few readers of any of today’s most acclaimed writers who would rate them as “bad” (and, alternatively, readers who would rate trashed writers as “good"), and that sentiment (stop bad fiction writers) means nothing. I used to work for a vanity publisher as an editor--actually, they wouldn’t have owned up to being a vanity publisher, but they were--and I read a lot of books that I thought to be bad. Yet almost a decade and a half later, I still think often of some of those books. They still have an impact on my life (not all, but some). That has to count for at least one of the many measures of a book’s effectiveness. I didn’t understand the value of certain books until they’d settled in me for several years, I mean.
Anyway, Kathleen, thanks for the thoughts and your careful considerations.
Christine Allen-Yazzie
THE ARC AND THE SEDIMENT, a novel
www.christineallenyazzie.blogspot.com
– Christine Allen-Yazzie (04/16 at 16-Apr 19:03 -05:00)
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I do wish our culture were more understanding about the more subtle benefits of fiction writing. I have a friend who regards writing fiction as the most effective way to postpone the onset of dementia. Perhaps there haven’t been enough authoritative studies done? We know we get too focused on publishing credits and big names, but the internet is increasing our awareness, showing us we can let go of some of the misplaced reverence we pay to dead-tree literature. For instance, Jane Smiley’s Ten Days in the Hills is poorly written. I think it is even socially irresponsible to ask people to pay money for that book. I am also a self-taught writer whose volumes of rejection slips puts the Library of Congress to shame. That’s not because I am a bad writer; maybe it’s because there are too many higher-ups in the industry who are overwhelmed readers. Nonetheless, cheers to Fiction for Fiction’s sake! Writing fiction has kept me out of trouble, so far. But after this comment, I’ll probably be added to somebody’s hit list… Thanks for your post, Kathleen. Peace!
– winebowl (03/21 at 21-Mar 05:33 -05:00)