Blog Round-Up One

Christine asked, "How do you know if your writing is any good?"

Good question and I don't know. Theoretically, I could depend on my FB, but FB is another beast in itself - the good, the bad, the boffo, at some point they all get FB. I could listen to my mother who believes it's all good or to my friend Tracy who insists that the novel is worthwhile.

But I kind of think that Christine hit on something when she said that 'good' just might mean better than reading the phone book (or even the newspaper, for that matter - do you know how many typos there are in a typical daily paper? ACK!). Because people also think John Grisham is a good writer and Mary Higgins Clark sells way more books that Jhumpa Lahiri ever will. Which goes to prove that 'good' is all in the eyes of the beholder.

All I know is that the stories I don't consider my best work elicit the most FB, strangely and perversely enough. I see major flaws in Among Bluebonnets, just to name one story that got a lot of positive FB. But then stories like Surfacing, which I adore, virtually went unnoticed.

In the end, I think 'good' is defined as what captures the reader's interest, in terms of storylines and plotting and the characters the stories focus on. "Among Bluebonnets" got a lot of attention because it was an early Janeway and Chakotay friendship story, but in my mind, the story dealt with two of Chakotay's major friendships - B'Elanna and Kathryn. I never saw it solely as a J&C story, but none of my FB even mentioned the earlier chunk of C&T or that that friendship was even important; people were eager for a J&C story and this one fit the bill perfectly, even though there was much more going on. Hence, was it good? I don't know - I think it requires a little revision, but I don't think it was bad. It just goes to prove that the writer's intent isn't always properly interpretated (can you imagine what Emily Bronte must be thinking of modern day interpretation of "Wuthering Heights"? I can only imagine her marching her into a classroom, exclaiming, "You all have it wrong!") nor is FB necessarily a gauge of what's 'good' - only that at some point in time, what you wrote appealed greatly to a particular audience for a particular reason.

Sorry, Christine, that I couldn't answer your question, but for what it's worth, I thought "Beautiful People" was an excellent, well-written story - one that was truly 'good writing.'