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neilmarr · 07-10-2010, 07:56 AM

Right, Mary. As I said, dangerous stock overload.

In Under the Dome you just couldn't see the wood for the trees. It was as though Steve was going through some kind of stock clearance of a whole bunch of old, pre-drafted characters, story lines and scenes he'd collected and that were gathering dust in a hard drive somewhere, creating clutter and nearing their sell-by date. The result was a shambolic jumble sale.

He'd have done better, I think, in creating two new novels (rather than one ridiculously over-length tome) and offering his readers well-selected and strongly defined key characters they could connect with and -- with fewer threads (read tangents) -- a more focused job of work. He could also (for once he failed) have written with the suspension of disbelief uppermost in his mind. The 'dome' itself, I could deal with; the cartoonish, Simpsons-like reaction to it, I couldn't. And his eventual explanation (excuse) for the phenomenon was so weak that I felt like droppingh a bomb on Bangor, Maine and hoping he would be at home.

I'm not fortunate enough to edit King, but if I was, I'd have hacked this one to pieces and lost at least three hundred pages. I'm a firm believer that tight is might ... and right.

What's puzzling is that so many commercially successful -- and very, very skilled and talented -- pro authors (throw in Dan Brown if you like; he knows his job) seem to write their later books under deadline pressure and produce formulaic hash piles as a result.

Maybe it's down to the amount of time they must spend away from their desks on contracted promotion or the contractual need to make good on three- four- and five-book deals with some houses and agencies who now print up a weekly editorial and release schedule on Friday to ruin your weekend.

But you'd think that a thorough professional like Steve King, pretty wealthy and comfortably established, should have the time and the freedom to make every new title better than his last. More haste, less read.

Cheers and thanks for the chat, Mary. Neil

07-10-2010, 07:56 AM	#17
neilmarr neilmarr Posts: 7,215 Karma: 6000059 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Monaco-Menton, France Device: sony	Right, Mary. As I said, dangerous stock overload. In Under the Dome you just couldn't see the wood for the trees. It was as though Steve was going through some kind of stock clearance of a whole bunch of old, pre-drafted characters, story lines and scenes he'd collected and that were gathering dust in a hard drive somewhere, creating clutter and nearing their sell-by date. The result was a shambolic jumble sale. He'd have done better, I think, in creating two new novels (rather than one ridiculously over-length tome) and offering his readers well-selected and strongly defined key characters they could connect with and -- with fewer threads (read tangents) -- a more focused job of work. He could also (for once he failed) have written with the suspension of disbelief uppermost in his mind. The 'dome' itself, I could deal with; the cartoonish, Simpsons-like reaction to it, I couldn't. And his eventual explanation (excuse) for the phenomenon was so weak that I felt like droppingh a bomb on Bangor, Maine and hoping he would be at home. I'm not fortunate enough to edit King, but if I was, I'd have hacked this one to pieces and lost at least three hundred pages. I'm a firm believer that tight is might ... and right. What's puzzling is that so many commercially successful -- and very, very skilled and talented -- pro authors (throw in Dan Brown if you like; he knows his job) seem to write their later books under deadline pressure and produce formulaic hash piles as a result. Maybe it's down to the amount of time they must spend away from their desks on contracted promotion or the contractual need to make good on three- four- and five-book deals with some houses and agencies who now print up a weekly editorial and release schedule on Friday to ruin your weekend. But you'd think that a thorough professional like Steve King, pretty wealthy and comfortably established, should have the time and the freedom to make every new title better than his last. More haste, less read. Cheers and thanks for the chat, Mary. Neil Attached Images Last edited by neilmarr; 07-10-2010 at 10:15 AM. Reason: because I spelt my own name wrongly.