The Writers Curse
Posted on Wednesday, March 9th, 2011Earlier this year, I noticed that I was having troubles reading one of the books I was leant by a friend. I’ve also noticed that a few of my favourite old books I have a bit more trouble reading than I used to. Movies don’t seem to hold the same enjoyment for me… Well, I’m sure you’re getting the picture. It all came to a head when my husband asked me to watch a movie with him. I agreed, but the movie he chose was called All-Star Superman.
This tells four or five different stories but all of them tell a part of the story of Superman’s Death. It’s a very fanboy-ish tale where Superman gets super-powered by a plan of Lex Luthor’s and eventually dies(I would say “Spoiler Alert” – but the death of superman was told long ago and lets face it… at this point, we all know that he gets better). I hated it. Not for any one reason but for a few different ones.
The first, stock dialog. Now I realize that it’s Superman and Lex Luthor and that by this point in their mutual careers they don’t really try anymore. It’s all been said, as the saying goes. They didn’t quite get down to ‘You’ll never get away with this” stock dialog, but what they did have wasn’t much better. Secondly, they’re not trying to do anything that they haven’t tried to do before and that makes for a story that comes across as uninspired. Not that the story wasn’t interesting mind you, but the way it was told came across as very “ho-hum this is my everyday”. I didn’t see much in the way of an internal fight within Superman… even with his death immanent, everything he did was very blasé. It couldn’t have happened differently, because he didn’t want it to come out differently.
Thirdly, for me at least (and this is very much a personal annoyance of mine), they only vaguely told the death of Superman. It felt like they were trying to tell four or five distinct stories and everything felt over-hurried and under-explained. I was informed by my husband that most of that was due to me not understanding 30 or more years of Superman history that the fanboys(the target audience) already know. There is little to no explanation of who/where/what/why and how’s of any of the story from the basic story of Superman to who the characters are (a superhero by the name of Samson? I’ve never heard of him, though I’m sure in the comics he had 3-5 books serve as an introduction). This is definitely not a story for those that don’t know the history.
What really bothered me in the end, was my husband’s insistence that it was good and he liked it. I know that my husband is going to have likes and dislikes that are different from mine but I couldn’t understand what he saw in it (I should add in the caveat here that he knew all of the characters and much of the history). Finally he reminded me, “You would have liked it two years ago. Even a year ago you would have still thought it was okay. You just can’t seem to move past your ‘training’”. I suddenly realized that he was correct.
Back when I was just starting down this path, I resolved to learn all I could about the craft of writing. I wanted my mind to subconsciously start adding things into my stories, helping me to foreshadow, plot, to write better than I was. And to my own credit, it worked. Though I still have a lot to learn and all of my writing will still need plenty of editing, I know that my writing has improved by jumps and leaps in the last year. Unfortunately, it also means that the Writers Curse has hit me.
Yes, writing is such a dangerous vocation that we have our own curse associated with it. I was told by a few of my favourite authors (both of whom I respect, for their impressive skill and because they both deign to discuss the art and craft of writing with me on occasion), Philippa Ballantine and S.M. Stirling, that the worst part about learning all about the craft was that eventually you reach a point where you can’t look at something just on an ‘entertaining/not entertaining’ level anymore. In my arrogance, I heard this but never really thought it would happen to me. Had I not been trying to do this for over two years at that point? I still enjoyed most of my old books and it couldn’t really happen to me anyway. Well, from my wisened old position of 3 years (face palm), I can tell you that it sucks.
Things that I used to like? They’re only okay. The product hasn’t changed since I bought it and yet, when I read them, I’m invariably putting them down, making excuses for not going back to them. Things I didn’t like are getting cleared out and given away. Things that I like… well, the ones I’m willing to go back to over and over again are becoming fewer and farther between.
It’s actually bothersome to realize that I cannot simply turn off my mind and enjoy a book or movie anymore, to know that for now at least, I’m too critical to enjoy many of the arts. I can only hope that soon I’ll either grow past it or that I’ll learn to embrace it.
Tags: Novels, Philippa Ballantine, SM Stirling, writers curse, Writing
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