This is a dialogue
between an author and reviewer that I found fascinating- so I thought
you might too!
A wonderful discussion on the craft of writing between Ed Morawski, author of View and Avenue of the Gods,
and reviewer Araminta Matthews
Hi
Araminta,
First I’d
like to thank you for taking the time to read and review my book: View.
With
your
credentials, I’d be a fool to ignore the opportunity for constructive
criticism
and to open a dialogue and benefit from your expertise.
Your
review was surprising in two aspects: first, your comments about the
cover art.
I found it strange that you got exactly the impression I was looking
for in
your description of “earth tones” while not liking it at all. A good
friend of
mine does all my cover art (so perhaps I am biased). The usual routine
is to
give him a draft of the manuscript and then he comes back with his
concepts.
Each time I have been quite pleased with his ideas and the results. On View, for example, the earth tones were
meant to signify the character Alicia coming from the earth (where she
was
found) while at the same time being able to escape the earthly realm.
By the
way, I prefer photo-realistic art instead of illustration so he does
work in
Photoshop. While I am rather sad you didn’t like the cover, I wonder if
I should
chalk it up ‘to each his own’ or take this very seriously. I appreciate
any
further comment on this.
Second,
and most painful were your comments regarding ‘sexism’ and
‘characterization of
women’.
While
I am
a man and cannot inhabit a female mind, I take great pains (I think) to
present
females as strong characters. After all, Alicia subverted all the men
around
her and the U.S. government to her will.
Her age is
purposely left vague until the end but no Lolita reference was really
intended.
I wanted to present a young girl who had amazing powers under an
innocent
surface- better to wile the powerful men around her. After all Alicia
never
experienced love- only brutal rape. She was no more capable of love
than a tree
or a bush; she had no idea what it was. So she escaped into her dreams.
And as far
as Max, he didn’t have any girlfriends (only models he photographed);
he was a
loner who was perfect fodder for Alicia’s plans to find a mate. If was
only
after she awakened him that he realized his own power and then was
suitable for
her. I also felt that Alicia’s character and motivations were well
explained in
chapter 25.
Lastly I
guess I have to mention the comment about ‘mundane action’. I am a fan
of
history and like to sprinkle references to historical events in my
writing and
I hoped readers would find it interesting enough to seek out further
information about historical places and characters.
Any
comments would be greatly appreciated.
Ed
Dear Mr. Morawski:
I appreciate your response to my review. Dialogue is always
welcomed and I'm happy to offer more insight. Again, I do think
you are a skilled writer. I think your "mistakes", if I can call
them that, are "shop" mistakes. In other words, they are things
we do when we don't have great editors or when we are "rushed" to
complete our work on time. They are easily remedied and I have no
doubt of your ability to do so.
First, I'll respond to the cover art.
I can certainly understand your predicament: a close friend does
your cover art for you. I have found myself in similar
situations. At the same time, in all honesty, the cover art looks
like something done for a self-publication house. Now,
self-publication is not bad (for, in fact, I have no idea if View was
self-published or not), but it does have a stigma that cannot be
overridden without proper presentation. To overcome that stigma,
I suggest this: less is more. I am immediately thinking of
the covers to many Tom Robbins' novels as examples. Rather than
have a stripe that goes over both sides, a large picture that (at first
glance) is hard to decipher, and dramatic color composition, try a
simpler approach. Perhaps it is a matter of using just one color
for the covers and one color for the text on both (no stripes, no
over-sized pictures, etc.) In addition, I did check out your
website and, consequently, the cover art for the majority of your books
prior to writing my review and was made aware that the majority of your
covers seem to lack a visual maturity in their construct. The
art, itself, demonstrates talent, but as cover art, it lacks some je ne
sais quoi.
Secondly, I'll address characterizing women. Alas, but creating a
character of our opposite gender identity is difficult for most of
us. At the same time, Alicia reads frequently as a "man's view of
the feminine gender role" -- in other words, she presents as one of the
following: virgin, mother, slut, or saint. In most cases,
she presents as a "slut". Her "humanity" is tapered by her
sexuality, which , as you say, is underdeveloped. But, it doesn't
read as underdeveloped. It reads as if she is a stereotype
without any real substance. To get away from that, the only real
thing to do is examine gender from the opposite position. Try a
women's studies/gender studies class. Try reading the feminine
perspective as presented in Jeanette Winterson or Virginia Woolf.
Or, consult many women in an effort to represent the feminine more
accurately -- is the word I think I am striving for.
And finally, I will clarify my point about cutting out material that is
not strictly necessary. The best thing a creative writing
instructor ever said to me was: "Cut out the things that most
readers skip." It clicked. Have you ever been reading a
paper, for example, that uses lots of those indented, reduced-pitch,
single-spaced quotations? And how many of them did you actually
read? The same can be said for many things: song lyrics in
a story, unnecessary or excessive action around dialogue, bland or
mundane image description. Cutting things like this will improve
the readability of any story immensely, I suspect. In truth, I
skipped many parts of View because they just lost my interest --
probably why I missed that Max didn't date the models he photographed,
though those were some of the more intriguing scenes as they involved
stark characterization.
I hope this is what you are looking for from me. I am happy
to clarify any point for you should you request it. Good luck
with your writing. I'll keep my eye out for your future works.
~Araminta Matthews
Hi Araminta,
Thanks so
much for your response.
I
begin to see your point about the cover art- less is more. I will have
to go back to the drawing board on that. As an engineer by trade, I
probably fell into the trap of attempting to explain too much.
As
to your point about sexism, I must admit guilt to a "man's view of the
feminine gender role" : virgin, mother, slut, or saint. Your
criticism
is telling in this regard and it suddenly brought to mind some of my
blunders. I never realized it before although I am very familiar with
these concepts and the Madonna syndrome.
In
my defense I will point to the fact that Alicia is not the ‘slut’ in
this case however. The models represented that role in fact. And you
will note that although they ‘sell’ their bodies in the most literal
sense, they never actually have sex- they only promise it. Alicia
fulfills all the other roles. She is an innocent virgin (although
defiled) who eventually becomes a mother and finally-perhaps-a saint.
Alicia is never a slut, you will notice she only has sex for
reproduction. She is not a seductress and doesn’t even know how to be
one. She escapes into her dreams of fantasy figures she has learned
about and uses those other ‘girls’ to help her seduce Max. At least
that’s the way I intended it to be…
By
the way, as an aside much research was actually conducted into the
historical figures in the book. I found one stood out: La Malinche. Her
story has to be one of the most fascinating and untold stories in
history (not to mention extremely controversial in certain circles). I
urge you and the readers to seek out more, although there is sadly
little out there. Perhaps my favorite is Voice of the
Vanquished: The Story of the Slave Marina and Hernan Cortes
by Helen Heightsman Gordon. Maybe someday someone will write it and
bring it alive and to the masses.
Finally
as to your comments about editors: gee, I only wish there were more
good ones. I have been through two with decidedly inferior results. I
usually find more typos then they do (after publication unfortunately)
and get almost no good feedback such as you have presented. I’ll keep
looking.
Thanks
again for your insight and comments.
Sincerely
Ed
Morawski