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Do you ever get confused by writing advice? We've all heard the common ones — avoid adverbs, no exclamation marks, start books with something other than the weather, et cetera, et cetera. Depending on who you talk to, opinions differ on the value of this advice.
In Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve Ben Blatt combines two of my favorite things: big data and books. The result is an analyses of bestselling fiction, literary fiction, and fan fiction to see how well authors follow the advice, and by inference how well respect the advice is among authors. If you're interested in self-publishing, then this will give you tons to think about. |
Ben Blatt presents the data in a clear and concise manner and though a statistician the book isn't heavy on jargon. I like big data, but I don't like statistics that much. This strikes a good balance.
Elmore Leonard, bestselling author of 3:10 to Yuma, Last Stand at Saber River, and Get Shorty (among others), once wrote “Never open a book with weather.” Since then it's been repeated time and again in books on writing advice. But how well do the big authors do? Do they take it seriously? Blatt presents the graphic below.
Elmore Leonard, bestselling author of 3:10 to Yuma, Last Stand at Saber River, and Get Shorty (among others), once wrote “Never open a book with weather.” Since then it's been repeated time and again in books on writing advice. But how well do the big authors do? Do they take it seriously? Blatt presents the graphic below.
Danielle Steel is clearly out front with 46% of her near 100 novels starting with the weather. But then the numbers drop. Notice Elmore Leonard himself opened two of his novels in breach of his own rule. Ben Blatt goes into why some of these examples occurred, and is always interested in authors who ignore their own suggestions. He looks at the difference between mass market best sellers, and literary classics, and female and male writers.
You'll start to see that every rule can sometimes be broken — and sometimes it depends on what you write. We've all heard we should avoid cliches like the plague. Ben Blatt put his massive database to the test and checked for cliches.
You'll start to see that every rule can sometimes be broken — and sometimes it depends on what you write. We've all heard we should avoid cliches like the plague. Ben Blatt put his massive database to the test and checked for cliches.
Not surprisingly, cliches are more common in easy reads and mass market books. The more literary the book, the less likely it is to use cliches. Authors can then get a sense of what they're aiming at in how strictly they follow this rule.
This book is well worth the read and can be downloaded for Kindle. To buy go here.
This book is well worth the read and can be downloaded for Kindle. To buy go here.