“Write what you know. So they say. All I know is I don’t know what to write, or the right way to write it. This is big! Lady, don’t screw it up. This is not some little vaudeville I’m reviewing!”
This is what goes through my head every time I sit down to write. Every time! These lyrics from Newsies race through my head as I desperately try to figure out how to say things in a way that will make people care. Which words should I use? Have I revised enough times? Can I make something better? This is revision six? Do I need a revision seven? Which leads me to my thoughts for today.
With so much available to self-publish a book and the idea that “anyone can do anything” we are losing some of the value of literature. I can’t tell you what makes one book “literature” and another not but I can tell you that there is a quality of writing there. There is an intentionality of word choice.
So many of the Teen books I read nowadays have lost some of the professional touch to them. They sound colloquial not only in their speech but in their text. You can have a character who is colloquial and still sound polished. Look at Dickens! His books are filled with lower-class characters who speak in their own dialects and yet his descriptors are what make it professional. Yet so much of what I find today “dumbs down” the word usage and language in order to be more approachable for Teens. Why are we lowering our standards instead of teaching our Teens and Students to reach to a higher level?
One of my high school teachers continually told us to “raise the bar”. Meaning if we’ve reached a level that we understand or we know what we’re doing, raise the bar again so we can keep aiming higher. He taught Science. It probably won’t come as a surprise to know that Science is not my strong suit, but I excelled in his class. He taught me how to keep pushing to be better and never be satisfied with being “good enough”. But this is what we have done with many books that are being published.
There was a Teen book that came out in the last few years. It got a lot of hype. It was a great story. I loved the character development and the story arc. But I didn’t love the writing. EVERYONE talked about how important and great this book was. But I think that quality should trump content every time. If it’s not a well-written book, I don’t want to hand it to a patron coming into my library.
This isn’t to say that more people shouldn’t write books. Or even to say that people shouldn’t self-publish books. This is to say that we should learn our craft! There is a reason that we go to college and study. There is a reason there are entire Bachelor’s degrees dedicated to Writing or Literature. Take the time to learn your craft. You wouldn’t assume to be a teacher if you’ve never had any training. You wouldn’t walk into court and call yourself a lawyer if you’ve not passed the Bar exam. Don’t just assume you can be an author without first taking some time to learn your craft. To quote one of my favorite Professors from college “Get more knowledge, at college”.
Keep Sparkling,
B
The Sparkling Librarian 