Thursday, November 26, 2009

Trashing Others Work

There have been some conversations lately between me and a few of my writing group friends about a very interesting phenomenon. We all have seen the great success of writers such as Stephanie Meyer and Christopher Paolini. They both have come from relative obscurity to major fame and fortune in a very short time. Kudos to them both and all the other writers who have had great success.

But, not everyone is as nice as me. One day while searching through Facebook for a page on fantasy writers I found a page dedicated to hating young Paolini. The members of the group(who by the way were all "authors") trashed his writing style, story line and his character. And I have had personal experiences where minimally published writers have trashed Ms. Meyer stating that her writing was no good at all. Yet they are both National Best Sellers. How can this be?

It seems to me that these people who trash others work are just jealous, that would be the easy assumption. I think though that in trashing someone elses writing these people feel like they are the better writers, albeit undiscovered. And I think that people are forgetting that most readers aren't reading from a literary point of view, they are reading to enjoy the story and get swept away in the adventure and romance.

So I am going to put this out there right now. I am not writing a work of literary genius with hidden meanings and deep metaphors. Get ready to trash my work because it is a rip snorting adventure meant for nothing more than a great escape from the doldrums of life.

3 comments:

Darren Barefoot said...

I haven't actually read anything by either writer. I did, regrettably, go see the movie version of "Eragon". It wasn't a good movie, and the plot was an utter rip-off of "Star Wars". I don't know how closely the movie's plot mirrors the book, but I was deeply underwhelmed.

Shannon said...

I totally agree that the movie was not well done at all. The book however was not bad considering it was written by a 15 year old boy. I think that in itself is an accomplishment that not many writers can claim.

Unknown said...

I like that ripping you from your seat and get thrown into a world where anything is real kind of book. i like books that grab my attention over ones i have to struglle through. As well theres ALWAYS going to be a book out there that somone doesnt like and to make themselves feel better they shred it to pieces. sadly thats going to hapen to everyone. Im sure thats somthing like that for every athour out there. Ive seen them for stephen King, and R L Salvatore and Terry Brooks. and there some of the most well known athours out there. Write what yoru heart gives you to write and itll always mean somthing ot you and a handfull of others, and well hold the dogs at bay for as long as well can, because im sure im not the only one that likes the writing you do. :) BTW i shottie the autographed book if ui have to come all the way out there to get it, ill get it :)