A Question Of Style
February 11th 2009 20:25
Comedy and satire or serious writing?
Some people are very lucky: they can write successfully in a variety of styles. Others stick to one tone. The hard thing is knowing which you're good at - and in certain cases, that can be a very difficult assessment to make.
Take the two authors pictured here: Ben Elton and J.R.R.Tolkien. The former is very well known here in the UK as a television script writer - mostly for his work on The Young Ones and with Rowan Atkinson in the Blackadder series - and as a stand-up comedian. The latter is renowned for his epic tales of adventure and depth of both character and world creation.
In both cases, there are major pitfalls. Let's start with Mr. Tolkien: it's true that he effectively defined the fantasy genre with the Middle Earth books, for example changing the way people consider Elves and Dwarves for virtually every publication that followed. He created entire languages, histories, races and a world in which they lived. On the other hand, his books had a tendency to be very long and complicated. A good example is a comparison of the movie and literary versions of The Lord Of The Rings: it's incredible just how much was left out of the film version without affecting the overall picture. (That point is debatable, but I still hold to it!)
Spending a lot of time and effort in creating an entire world can be extremely valuable. Equally, it can be somewhat wasted: extensive descriptions become tedious and few readers really want to learn a language or refer repeatedly to a glossary in order to understand what's going on. In the past, I have heard Stephen Donaldson referred to as "Stephen 'Why use a paragraph when ten pages will do?' Donaldson". There was far too much descriptive text and not enough story for that particular reader.
At another end of the scale is humour. Mr. Elton's a very clever, funny individual and he works hard to be that way. He has the gift of seeing humour in things that most people ignore and his irreverent style is an almost perfect tool in his writing. He takes risks, in that he often walks the very thin line between satire and being offensive, but he usually gets away with it. Incidentally, one of my brothers met him once at a book signing (as manager of the shop he was signing in) and apparently he's a really nice, normal, modest guy.
Comedy is a very difficult tone to master. What one reader finds funny, another will consider bland and yet another will deem insulting. Elton's book Gridlock is an excellent example, in that one of the main characters is a spastic. That's an extremely dangerous step to take as a writer and a very touchy subject to handle. In this case, it was successful: the book was a major hit, reaching number one in the UK chart. There are, however, people who don't consider his writing amusing. I have to count myself in that group, despite the fact that I love a lot of his work in other media.
There are a couple of lessons to learn from great authors. Firstly, if you're good at a certain style it's worth staying with it, at least until you have enough spare time and money to try something new and work on the problems. Secondly, there's the fact that you will never, ever be able to please every reader: some people will rave about your work and others will rant.
Taking the good with the bad, trying to look behind the complaints to find something constructive and always being willing to learn are essential facets of a writer's character. Remind me of that the next time someone says my stuff sucks, will you?
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Comment by Chris Champion
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
Money Whither
JRR Tolkien was in fact a Greek god with elven antecedents who chose to live among mortals briefly and teach them the art of writing perfection.
Apart from that slight inaccuracy, great post.
Comment by Spike 2
Qwerk
Peanut Butter
Hmm, wonder what's in Mr.Tolkien's pipe....
Comment by Waysouth
Given To Gaming
Waysouth
Spanish Honduras
I made a joke one time about Tolkein, that it looks deep until you realize that it is just about hobbits walking. They walk and walk. So now it is sort of expected that I will make that joke, whenever the movie's on. There's the hobbits, oh look, they're walking.
It's the same when I try to read the book. I'm not a big fantasy person, I also can't ever get into Harry Potter.
Comment by Spike 2
Qwerk
Peanut Butter
Does he do much walking?
Comment by Elizabeth2-7
A shadow of herself
Comment by Spike 2
Qwerk
Peanut Butter