Too Gimmicky?

1swollen1 · Mar 26, 2012

If a story had a basic letter code for instance on the 7th day of August as the title. And then in the story every 7th letter when put at the back of the book gave a different story or gave a website or some kind of answer through a riddle like that, as long as the story carried it's own weight would that be accepted or is that way too Gimmicky? Havn't really seen it done. Not trying to be fake or sound fake I just have been thinking weird lately.

HoneyBadger · Mar 26, 2012

What do you think Finnegans Wake was?

It was a cleverly disguised Ovaltine ad. They just forgot to mail out the decoder rings.

1swollen1 · Mar 26, 2012

how did that go over.............were they blasted by consumer's or was it accepted?

Cyia · Mar 26, 2012

Dude, if you could pull that off, I think it would be both a gimmick and awesome.

HoneyBadger · Mar 26, 2012

Some things people tell you will be lies.

totopink · Mar 26, 2012

HoneyBadger said:
It was a cleverly disguised Ovaltine ad. They just forgot to mail out the decoder rings.

I have never wanted something on the internet to be true more than this.

Sage · Mar 26, 2012

I'm pretty sure I've heard of something like this before. I think it was published, but I can't tell you the name. There's a lot of examples of this kind of code in fiction.

Every 7th letter would be pretty hard to pull off for a full length novel. If you could pull it off, you'd definitely earn the gimmick

1swollen1 · Mar 26, 2012

Well I would eventually like people to by books that I write.......I don't want to piss people off right off the bat. I thought it would be kinda cool I don't want to include anything like a decoder ring...I was thinking about changing the font on certain words or letters.

HoneyBadger · Mar 26, 2012

Well, now you're talking crazy talk.

Darkshore · Mar 26, 2012

Personally I think it would be much better for you to just focus on writing and finishing your novel or novels and worry about adding things to them later

. Most authors end up writing a lot of full length novels before they are picked up by an agent, and these are the big time names like Butcher and Sanderson.

veinglory · Mar 26, 2012

If you could do it without making the prose suck or going insane, it would be pretty cool.

quicklime · Mar 26, 2012

Darkshore said:
Personally I think it would be much better for you to just focus on writing and finishing your novel or novels and worry about adding things to them later . Most authors end up writing a lot of full length novels before they are picked up by an agent, and these are the big time names like Butcher and Sanderson.

this.

if the writing can't stand on its own, no gimmick is going to rescue it. If it can, no gimmick is needed.

Nimram · Mar 26, 2012

1swollen1 said:
how did that go over.............were they blasted by consumer's or was it accepted?

Maybe you should start with more reading.

layzerphish · Mar 27, 2012

quicklime said:
this.

if the writing can't stand on its own, no gimmick is going to rescue it. If it can, no gimmick is needed.

But you know, if the whole stories was based on cracking this code or whatever the case may be, I think something along those lines would be very cool.

But like mentioned before, it would be very difficult to concentrate on the quality of the story while making sure that the code was consistant. Why not give it as try... The worst that would happen is you would learn that the concept is very difficult to write haha

quicklime · Mar 27, 2012

layzer phish said:
But you know, if the whole stories was based on cracking this code or whatever the case may be, I think something along those lines would be very cool.

But like mentioned before, it would be very difficult to concentrate on the quality of the story while making sure that the code was consistant. Why not give it as try... The worst that would happen is you would learn that the concept is very difficult to write haha

YOU do.

a publisher needs to count on at least several thousand people feeling that way, and I'm not sure how likely that is. For me I get a gut reaction of "oh, bleeding christ," which is exactly what you DON'T want. The real issue is how many people skew towards the "gag reflex through indifference" portion of the spectrum and how many would actually consider it a reason to buy.

I'm betting the "would buy" isn't (unless the thing was done flawlessly, and perhaps not even then) a large enough crowd to sustain a print run.

Taylor V · Mar 27, 2012

House of Leaves does everything you've described and more, and it's been fairly successful, I think.

HoneyBadger · Mar 27, 2012

I actually was going to suggest reading Danielewski as a jumping-off point for the aspiring experimentalist.

dpaterso · Mar 27, 2012

Yeah too gimmicky -- and definitely not the kind of gimmick you want to announce in advance. This is something you'd want readers to discover for themselves. Before this happens, you need to write a good novel that sells, or readers aren't ever going to find the easter egg surprise.

-Derek

seun · Mar 27, 2012

Gimmicks like this almost always put my back up. I can see people who don't care in the least about the most important issue (the writing) getting all excited about it and not giving a toss about the story or characters. Fair enough, it would still equal a sale to them, but I'm more interested in writing a good story with realistic characters.

Buffysquirrel · Mar 27, 2012

I think this would be an interesting way to enhance a good piece of writing. It wouldn't save a bad one. And Honey Badger, lol.

Jonathan Dalar · Mar 27, 2012

Bleh! For me, it would be a reason to close the book and put it down.

Besides, the amount of edits you really need to polish a book would make this a damn-near impossible feat anyway, or at least it should if you're editing enough. Just write the story.

PPartisan · Mar 27, 2012

Has anyone seen the movie The Number 23? This happens.

Too Gimmicky?

Where I do all of my reading.

terribly loud, emotionally distant

Where I do all of my reading.

Rewriting My Destiny

terribly loud, emotionally distant

Supreme Guessinator

Where I do all of my reading.

terribly loud, emotionally distant

Stranger

volitare nequeo

all out of fucks to give

sometimes woefully inaccurate

all out of fucks to give

terribly loud, emotionally distant

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

Horror Man

Science fiction, horror and fantasy

<><'ing for compliments