The jurors felt that the style was great but that the story lacked substance.
This grant-award committee judgment of The Big Cinch bothers me much less than it would have ten years ago, but still triggered a twinge of pain when it landed in my in-box. If I examine the negative space around my lack of production lately, I’m sure I’ll find a subconscious reaction to the news as well.
What is Literary Substance?
I’ve been sitting with my feeling over the value of my latest book for a few weeks now, trying to imagine what these jurors were looking for and didn’t find. But that’s a fool’s errand. I’ll never know. And anything I imagine they thought should be there is just that, my imagination.
Of more utility, I think, is a dive into what substance in story means to me. Basically, I don’t think I’m alone in believing that a story’s most important job is to engage its audience: to entertain, to captivate, to inform, to enrage—the audience reacts, and the tale becomes an interactive process. Without engagement, nothing happens. Without engagement, the book can be as beautiful or edgy or wise or outrageous as it wants to be: no one will pay attention. It needs an audience who appreciates whatever it is the book is selling.
Built-In Substance
Should an author set a “substance intention”? Decide on a story message and evaluate the writing for practical importance, meaning, and usefulness as it unfolds? That sounds as dangerous to engaging storytelling as trying to choose the theme in advance.
Unless we are writing parables, fables, allegory, etc. (which are great! Stories of this style have played an important role in world literature and continue to do so.), generally modern writers let the story figure out its own theme. Often it takes an outside reader or a lot of separation from the work (like re-reading after many months) for the author to find the themes. I think the same might be said for substance.
Entertainment is Job One
To me, a story has substance if it interacts with life outside of the tale told between the book’s covers: for example, it has some comment or counterpoint on the human condition. I’m still too close to my own work to have an opinion about its substance. Deeper meaning or not, I aim to entertain the reader.
Don’t miss The Big Cinch from Montag Press, a supernatural noir adventure by Kathy L. Brown. Sean Joye, a fae-touched young veteran of 1922’s Irish Civil War, aims to atone for his assassin past and make a clean, new life in America. Until he asks the wrong questions…
What stories do you think of as substantial? I’d love to hear your examples. Comment on the blog. Navigate to my website, click blog title, and complete dialogue box that will open at the end of the post.
If you enjoyed this journal entry, you might like to read An Author Gets the Twisties.
I started this blog thread on the gritty details of the writing process over on my Facebook Author page, @kbkathylbrown, but think I might be better served putting it over here. If you’re interest in following my writing process in an informal way, you’ll find a few posts on Facebook that might interest you. You can subscribe to the blog from the website landing page (scroll down).
And Now a Word from Our Sponsor
Check out my latest release from Montag Press, The Big Cinch, an award-winning supernatural noir adventure by Kathy L. Brown. Order today. Sean Joye, a fae-touched young veteran of 1922’s Irish Civil War, aims to atone for his assassin past and make a clean, new life in America. Until he asks the wrong questions. . .
Love Letters to St. Louis is an adorable letter-shaped volume of short stories, poems, essays, and illustrations and includes my first science fiction story, “Welcome to Earthport Prime: A Self-Guided Tour.” A perfect gift and profits benefit the guild’s young writers’ program. Available on Amazon and local St. Louis bookshops.
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