Next up for review at the christian manifesto by Davis Bunn Book of Dreams. I’m a bit puzzled by this one. Bunn breaks the first rule I was ever taught, and tells everything. He doesn’t show characters being happy, he tells the reader that they are happy. He also uses a mirror to ‘info dump’ about the main character ( for my non-writing friends this is a HIT THE WRITER ON THE NOSE WITH A ROLLED UP NEWSPAPER BAD WRITER BAD thing for us to do) and sets up a character that is introduced in the first chapter as DEAD MEAT. He is so heavy handed with descriptions to make the reader care, and makes sure that the reader understands if this person dies, they are going to heaven. I will be shocked if the character is alive when we get back to them. It makes me want to tear my hair out, or chew pens. Why? Remember my bag?
That rule still applies today. It hasn’t changed. And yet, books like the one above totally and completely ignore it. And get published. And sell millions of copies. While books that follow that rule, like A Star Curiously Singing, sell only thousands. Someone, explain this to me. Tell me why it is that a book that breaks all the good writing rules flourishes, and one that meticulously keeps them, struggles to find its audience. I don’t care if you tell me that the fae are behind it. Just give me an answer!
