So, you want people to be entertained, eh? You want to write something that somebody, anybody looks at and says to you “This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever read!” All too often this is not the case though. Would you like to know what I think?
Very often I’ll hand my computer to someone and say, “Hey, read this.” I wait for the amazement, the excitement, maybe a tear or two. Do you know what I get? I get things like “That’s good.” And that’s it. “That’s good?” Really? Is that it? The worst part is that I’m usually quite proud of the work and that’s why I’m showing it to this person. Expectations will always let you down though.
When I was younger I was quite an accomplished songwriter. I can write awesome lyrics to anything, it’s kind of my gift. Quite often I’d find that the better and more clever the lyric I wrote, the longer it would take for people to understand what the hell I meant. No lie, one of my most quoted lyrics I ever wrote was “I threw Timmy in the well and put six shots in Lassie.” To this day people come up to me and repeat this line. It’s not the line I’d like to be remembered for, though.
I bet Stephen King has the same problem. Have you ever read ‘The Dark Tower’ series? Amazing stuff but it’s almost like it’s too clever for people to understand. It’s far more of a brain-bender than say ‘Pet Cemetery’ but, I’d put money on the fact that people will go up to Stephen King and say “Loved that one with the dead cat.” Stephen King has written 49 novels and over 100 short stories, how many of these can the average American name?
Without sounding like a fuddy-duddy I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that, only about half the people who text message or e-mail me have a grasp of even remedial grammar or spelling. Maybe this plays a large roll in the situation. Perhaps I’m looking for too much from people because people have better things to do now-a-days than read. Maybe that is why when they do read they’re not actually absorbing information as much as they’re just looking at words.
The thing any writer or artist needs to remember is: It takes one to know one. If you’re a writer and you’d like some real constructive criticism, you should go to another writer, the greater the better. If you can get Stephen King to read your work and tell you “It’s good.” Then it’s probably good. Or at least I’d think so.
Justin Link is a blogger for West Orlando News Online.
