Author envy

Sai · Jun 15, 2009

Have you ever read a book and found yourself thinking 'Wow, I bet the author had a lot of fun writing that'? I'm reading 'The Pillars of the Earth,' and there's a section where an awful thing happens to a couple of the main characters. From there the bad things just keep piling on and on, until finally the heroine is able to fight her way tooth and nail out of their predicament.

Even though it was tough to watch such bad things happen to sympathetic characters, I couldn't help but think that this would have been a fun chapter to write, where you place challenge after challenge to the characters but they're still able to overcome them in the end. Or maybe I'm just a sadist ^_^;;.

I was just curious if anyone else has ever had a similar experience, where they stopped what they were reading and thought that it must have been fun for the writer to write that part.

C.bronco · Jun 15, 2009

If it's a good book, I just get sucked in and don't think about the process.

Salis · Jun 15, 2009

Only published author who has ever made me feel completely inept/bad is Douglas Adams, but he is so far beyond everyone else that that's almost expected.

I also have a friend who is similarly hilarious in his writing who I really envy.

scarletpeaches · Jun 15, 2009

Heh. I've read some Douglas Adams books and tossed others aside out of sheer boredom.

AuburnAssassin · Jun 15, 2009

The first John Grisham novel I read, The Firm, had all these really cool scenes where the hero was trying to dodge the bad guys and/or not be followed. I thought it was really interesting how he'd take the elevator to floor x then take the stairs to X-Y floor, then do this and that, etc. I hadn't read anything like that before (maybe all crime dramas were already like this but I didn't read em so it was new to me) so I was in awe at the time. Of course, many of his successive novels also used similar tricks but the magic was gone by then.

Jerry B. Flory · Jun 15, 2009

I like reading the short story The Library Poleethman and thinking Stephen King can be a real bastard to his characters.
Bad things don't just happen to his characters, he has to rub it in afterward.

ccv707 · Jun 15, 2009

It's more a healthy dose of respect than envy; I'm too focused with trying to establish myself in the literary world to be caught up with being like anyone else. When I read Gene Wolfe, Neil Gaiman, Harlan Ellison...it reminds me of where a person's imagination can take them.

blacbird · Jun 15, 2009

With me, it's not so much a matter of envy as it is of dismay. I can't imagine ever being as good a writer as any of the people whose books I admire.

caw

JonSwift · Jun 15, 2009

I'm with blacbird. But I do feel like the more I write the more I learn. And reading authors I'm basically envious of helps tell me what works and how to do it.

fringle · Jun 15, 2009

I feel that way sometimes. Every so often, I'll come across a scene in a book that is exactly to my liking, making me wish I wrote it. I torture my husband by either reading it aloud to him or making him read the scene. He hates it when I do that.

Acoustic · Jun 15, 2009

Every time I read something by Neil Gaiman I can just imagine him sitting there typing away with a huge smile on his face.

Tanya Egan Gibson · Jun 15, 2009

When book takes place in an interesting setting, I often find myself thinking about what fun the author must have researching the time and place. When it's an invented setting (e.g., future or other world), I do think about how much fun he/she must have had creating it.

Marcus · Jun 15, 2009

I read a book one time, the main character was named Felix, and he was a scout....

Halfway through the book he made it back to his ship for the 14th or 15th time....

The doctors asked, "How many drops have you made," his replay, "This last one was the 15th drop."

The doctors proceeded to erase his data file because he was obviously insane to think that, No One had survived even 5 consecutive drops.

I believe the book's title was called "armor" ???? Its been a while. Almost the entire book put the reader (at least me anyway) on the edge of your seat.

willietheshakes · Jun 15, 2009

Acoustic said:
Every time I read something by Neil Gaiman I can just imagine him sitting there typing away with a huge smile on his face.

Fountain pen in hand, actually.

Somewhere on his site are scans from the handwritten manuscripts of American Gods and The Graveyard Book. Cockle-warming, they are.

Acoustic · Jun 15, 2009

willietheshakes said:
Fountain pen in hand, actually.

Somewhere on his site are scans from the handwritten manuscripts of American Gods and The Graveyard Book. Cockle-warming, they are.

Ah, the fountain pen - a worthy instrument.

Now that I think of it, I think I've seen the American Gods manuscript scan thingies. D:

blacbird · Jun 15, 2009

It must be nice to be good at this. Maybe that qualifies as envy. But I'll never know.

caw

10er · Jun 15, 2009

I actually had a bit of trouble dealing with it a few weeks after I seriously picked up writing for the first time. Every time I read something really good, a voice at the back of the mind was nagging. "Dammit, why didn't you come up with this?" and yes, also "Oh man, that sounds like so much fun to write..."
Or if something wasn't so good and still popular: "Dammit, you could do better than this hack."
But I've gotten over it mostly. It was a little scary, I was fearing I'd never properly enjoy a book again.

blacbird · Jun 15, 2009

10er said:
Or if something wasn't so good and still popular: "Dammit, you could do better than this hack."

There's a worse thing:

"Dammit, this hack does better than I can."

caw

10er · Jun 15, 2009

No way! That's just more motivation for me.

SilverPhoenix · Jun 16, 2009

I just enjoy the reading

Sometimes I'm surprised by how clever authors really are tho (when you get those twists that take you totally by surprise) so I guess there's a bit of admiration there.

Libbie · Jun 16, 2009

Sai said:
Have you ever read a book and found yourself thinking 'Wow, I bet the author had a lot of fun writing that'? I'm reading 'The Pillars of the Earth,' and there's a section where an awful thing happens to a couple of the main characters. From there the bad things just keep piling on and on, until finally the heroine is able to fight her way tooth and nail out of their predicament.

Even though it was tough to watch such bad things happen to sympathetic characters, I couldn't help but think that this would have been a fun chapter to write, where you place challenge after challenge to the characters but they're still able to overcome them in the end. Or maybe I'm just a sadist ^_^;;.

I was just curious if anyone else has ever had a similar experience, where they stopped what they were reading and thought that it must have been fun for the writer to write that part.

I loved The Pillars of the Earth!

Give me a big, fat historical novel any day.

I'm really envious of Ted Kosmatka. Most of you probably haven't heard of him. So far, he's had only a few short stories published, but all in excellent sci-fi markets. The first of his stories I "read" (actually listened to on Escape Pod) is called N-Words, and it uses a future where Neanderthals have been cloned and raised alongside modern humans to explore racism.

It is probably the most beautiful piece of science fiction writing I've ever read. And the idea is just incredible. It's perfectly executed in every aspect. I totally envy the brain that can come up with and pull off such a magnificent piece of fiction. My husband and I listened to N-Words on a drive and I just kept saying, "I WISH I'D WRITTEN THIS STORY!" I finally had to email Mr. Kosmatka and tell him how much I loved the story, and his web site led me to the rest of his fiction. It's all equally fantastic. He's got a novel in the works. I'm sure it will be great.

I also wish I could play with words and rhythms as well as Nabokov could. I'm working on it, but I'm sure I'll never get THAT good.

MsGneiss · Jun 16, 2009

Neil Gaiman and Douglas Adams both. Whenever I read their books I envy the fun they must've had writing them. I don't think that a fun book necessarily means the author had a great fun writing it, but in those two cases, I definitely get that impression.

NeuroFizz · Jun 16, 2009

ccv707 said:
It's more a healthy dose of respect than envy

I'm with cc on this. These people are our teachers. When we find an amazing story or an amazing scene, we can investigate just what it is that makes it so appealing and so effective. From these teachers we see different literary approaches to storytelling, and we see the individuality of each work as well as the voice a writer develops. All of these lessons are not for outright copying, but for our personal experimentation in developing our own voice and our own approach to storytelling.

donroc · Jun 16, 2009

Also respect not envy, and when I was younger the authors I admired inspired me to write and write better.

Sai · Jun 16, 2009

I knew putting envy in the topic was going to be a sticking point. When I mean envy, I don't mean envious of their talent, but more envious that they must have enjoyed writing a particular passage and it shows

. Like (warning: stupid metaphor ahead) watching someone go down a water slide and thinking 'Geez, that looks like fun. Maybe I'll give it a try.' That kind of envy.

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