Q – What is the number one UNBREAKABLE rule of fight club? … erm … making art? …
A – Don’t be boring.
I’ve just finished watching ‘Freeheld’, which if you don’t already know, is about a New Jersey cop trying to get her pension paid to her domestic partner, also a woman, set in those prehistoric times in the U.S. when marriage equality wasn’t a reality … oh, wait … never mind. The bad guys refuse and much ballyhoo is raised and eventually she wins, then dies.
It had so many things going for it:
A true story.
A very current and political topic.
Two great actors in the lead roles, Ellen Page and Julianne Moore, and Steve Carell as backup.
Lesbians!!!
Mirabeau is … waiting for the acting to start
And it was a boring 1980’s stereotypical ‘Movie of the Week’! I don’t know what the director was thinking. Even though the dialogue was a bit cheesy, there was no chemistry between the leads. Nothing to get me emotionally hooked, not even ‘she dies of cancer in the end’.
Anyway it got me to thinking about writing and reading and what incites me in both. I distilled several lists down to one thing. Don’t be boring.
Have you every read a book that ‘s terribly written but you can’t put it down? Not boring. Or watched a movie that’s truly cringe-worthy, but you can’t stop watching? Not boring. Love it, hate it, for whatever reasons. Not boring.
So, dear authors of books, whatever your struggling with at this moment, Don’t. Be. Boring!
Don’t worry. I’m planning several explosions and a car chase for my next blog post later today.
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‘Splosions and Vrooooom!!!! 😀
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There is that bit about people finding different things not boring. So maybe: don’t bore your intended audience, and the heck with the rest of them.
My first 2* review said I was too long, the interior monologue was too present, and didn’t like the epigraphs at the heads of the chapters.
My intended audience seems to like those things.
Shrug.
You can’t please everyone, even IF you try.
Don’t try.
Now, if you bore EVERYONE…
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A bit of my reaction was because I wanted it to be good. 🙂 … and yeah, boring everyone is not a good idea. 😀
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One of my oldest friends, a charismatic character who people either loved or hated, once said the worst thing anyone could say about him was that he was boring; another pulled me up short when he said I was. We are still good friends
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Heh, heh, heh … true friendship! 😀
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Your advice can be applied elsewhere – like I do at work. If a meeting is boring, go on a fantasy mind trip. If a person is boring, likewise. Take care.
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Probably a better solution than throwing water bombs at them! 🙂
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Great advice. Sadly, we don’t always know if we are boring or not. Sometimes, what seems extremely engrossing to me as a writer seems boring to my readers. 😦
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Yep, it’s certainly subjective, that’s for sure. 🙂
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What Olga said. According to my reviews, a number of people find a number of my books boring. 🙂
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Well, I never did. 😀
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After 3 chapters, I put down a biography about an English woman born of Victorian times who had adventures galore in the Middle East, including with Lawrence of Arabia. After reading the first 3 chapters, I put down the book and threw it in my “Done” box. I found the writing so dry and monotone that I can’t even remember the name of the English woman who life seemed so exciting according to the book jacket.
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Unless it’s truly atrocious I’ll give a book a couple of chapters too, then it’s off with its head! Life’s too short. 🙂
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If someone dropped a bomb on the characters, would I care? That’s where I draw my line.
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Heh, heh, heh … bomb-dropping-ness is usually the point of no return for me too. 😀
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I find I have less tolerance for boring than I used to. But I also can’t deal with cringe-worthy 🙂 I must be getting old and cranky 🙂 🙂
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I have a smidgen more patience with cringe-worthy, it’s the ‘watching a train-wreck’ syndrome, I suppose.:D
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I think it all comes down to characters and, for those of us who write fantasy/sci-fi, world-building. A book can be well-written, but if it doesn’t have characters we’re willing to root for in a world we can imagine ourselves in, it’s hard to get hooked.
A great, friendly reminder post. 🙂
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All the science-ing in the world won’t help if there’s no hook … except for people who read it like a science textbook I suppose. 😀
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I agree!! Boring is like murdering the plot, not to be recommended at all.
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Heh, heh, heh … nope, definitely not recommended!
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