And Now for Something Completely Different by Gabriel Valjan

 

In yesterday’s Blogger’s Choice, Susan discussed the obstacles authors face in what I call The Quest for Eyeballs. I know that sounds like a gory treasure hunt, and it often is. Here, on Criminal Minds we have discussed the business side of writing, the artsy mechanics of how we do what we do, and, when we can, the joy that accompanies creation and the pains of frustrations or criticism from critics and readers.

 

Writers have heard the two extremes: that either writing is difficult or it is so easy that anybody can do it. I have yet to meet a writer who hasn’t met that special someone who insisted that they had the next bestseller inside their brain, but they were so busy that they needed someone to type it up for them. The division of labor falls on the glorified typist (You). The same typist (You again) is the recipient of their largess.

 

Writers write, and they always have. Publishers are in the business of making money, and agents comb through the Slush Pile, in the hopes of The Next Great Thing. The Truth is nobody knows what that Thing is, but it is fair to say that both Agent and Publisher are fiscally and politically conservative. People say they read to think in new ways, but nobody reads to be provoked or indicted, although Literature with the capital L tends to do just that. It is often with time that the ‘vile and morally reprehensible’ becomes the safe classic, until it doesn’t. Witch hunts and book bans ebb and flow, the reading lists expand and contract. Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is On again, Off again.

 

Rather than answer a question, I’ll give you a few slices of the reality (by no means definitive) that writers confront, and this is before or as words appear on the page.

 

·      If you write ‘contemporary’ or ‘historical, how true do you stay to the place and era?

 

I write a series, set in Boston during the Seventies. It’s a decade where I heard people of every ethnicity, sexual and political persuasion use derogatory language against each other, amongst each other, to describe Other and their own. Nobody blinked or was offended. I’ve had to strike passages in my own work because editors have told me that I would offend readers, or I wasn’t allowed to say That. So much for cinéma vérité.

 

·      How do you approach writing different cultures, set here in the US, or in another country?

 

When it comes to writing Other and Different, you will encounter concepts and ways of doing and thinking about things that are, by their nature, Different and Other, so a writer best have empathy and a dispassionate nature. While you pick what aids creativity, there has to be point and counterpoint for balance.

 

I wrote a series set, for the most part in Italy. I’ve lived abroad, and I can’t tell you how shocked Europeans are when they see Americans protesting against ‘socialized medicine’ and equate it with Communism. To them, universal healthcare is part of the Social Contract as a citizen of society (as in Rousseau) and they equated the death penalty with Communism, as in the State puts an individual to death. Their historical experiences changed their perspective, or as my Italian friends say, 'it is on our skin.'

 

For a less volatile observation, I learned that Italian-American culture and language is not the same in Italy. Most Italians THERE find the Italian spoken HERE by the descendant of immigrants incomprehensible. Forget about the food, and nothing makes an Italian cringe more than hearing someone order a cappuccino after dinner. It's blasphemy.

 

·      How can an author balance their need to indulge in reading trends of the moment with maintaining an authentic voice, even if they risk sounding elitist or outdated?

 

There is no easy answer here. When I wrote my first novel, I was told my vocabulary would challenge readers. Huh? Mind you, I used words that I myself use daily, and I wasn’t writing wooden sentences or used 10 words were three sufficed. I’m neither a member of Mensa nor did I do spectacular on the SATs. The experience, however, made me self-conscious of everything I write or will write from now until they day I stop. At that point, I won’t care because I’ll be dead.

 

·      Should an author target the general public, or is it better try to carve your own niche?

 

This circles back to agents and publishers, and the primordial scream from Jerry Maguire, “Show me the money.” I’m certain that when Walter Mosley pitched the idea of Easy Rawlins, he was told the PI was passé, dead and buried in the studio vaults with reels of film noir, and the same agents and publishers thought that nobody would give a damn about an African-American protagonist. But…it hit, and I do know for fact that that when Mr. Mosley walked into the office, they didn’t want to hear about his next project. They wanted more of Easy Rawlins. Damned if you don’t.

 

So, write what you write. Nobody knows anything. What is good today might be shite tomorrow, or not. All you can do is perfect your craft by reading others and being honest with yourself.

 

The worst thing a writer can do is not be honest with him-or-herself.