Comments on: Guest Author: Sharon Cullars

by: Teresa W.

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 03:20:44 +0000

Enjoyed the interview and the book sounds great!

by: Jambrea

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 02:47:44 +0000

I enjoyed the article and agree about writing out side the box. Every person will have their favorite and there is no getting around that. I know that I enjoy a good story no matter the genre or race of the characters. To me…a good story is a good story! I can’t wait to read “Again” it is now on my list! : )

by: Roslyn

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 14:04:21 +0000

Its funny to me that people in a ‘creative’ industry is so insistent on conformity. They do it in movies as well. Someone gets a hit, and every movie you see for the next ten years is based on that same theme. I remember writing up promos for my book and being asked if there were any books that were similar to mine. I couldn’t really think of any. I guess that should’ve been a clue, huh? I guess with entertainment being such an expensive industry, its easier to go with a known quantity, but it definitely stifles creativity.

by: kim h

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 03:36:38 +0000

the books sound great

by: k

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:18:15 +0000

Oh, Ms. Cullars, thank you so much! I watch GH regularly now and I was pretty sure nothing that awesome had ever happened on that soap. (I watch, I snark, I love because of very very low expectations.) But apparently it was the same *town.* I love the actress, I’m not surprised she was made of awesome in the part.

by: Kristie(J)

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:02:26 +0000

I prefer books written outside the box. Some are a bit too far outside my own personal one, but even though it is, I still admire the author for doing it. Sadly, I find that box almost getting smaller and smaller anymore.
BTW - I just recently read The Object of Love - and I think Bam’s review was one of the reasons I picked it up - and I loved it!

by: Sharon

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 21:29:40 +0000

Wow, thanks for all the responses. The thing is, writing “inside the box” has proven to be profitable for business and makes it easier for publishers to categorize fiction. Still, the crux of publishing books should be promoting good literature, and that box is stifling for anyone who wants to break free of what I’ll call pre-fabs. Remember how the first suburbs had the pre-fab homes that looked alike without much variation - until people tired of them. There’s definitely nothing wrong with writing what you know, which Ms. Due did with her characters, but then a writer should expand on that with nothing limiting creativity but the stratosphere. And that may involve seeing protagonists as more than idealistic figures. Flaws can be fascinating when written well.

Jane, regarding IR lit, unfortunately for some, that is still a taboo subject, although it definitely shouldn’t be. Literature, whether literary or genre, can provoke even as it entertains and the provocation shouldn’t dispel the enjoyment. Forcing your audience to rethink concepts and stereotypes broadens thinking.

One of my favorite YA books is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine D’Engle and in one of the chapters presents monstrous-looking creatures as benevolent and nurturing whereas the human looking residents of a planet are the real threat, having given themselves over to comformity. “Ugly” being presented as good was a reversal of a presumption dating back to medieval times. Sci-fi author Greg Bear’s Eternity presented a world where some characters were one-celled ameobas which threw me at first, but then made me think later, why not? Although scifi/fantasy is more open to expanding out of the box, I don’t see why other genres can’t be more flexible with that box.

Like Billy Preston once sung, “I got a story without no moral, where the bad guy sometimes wins…” Imagine a book like that - then imagine the eight seasons of The Sopranos.

By the way, k, that soap opera was Port Charles and the couple were named Matt and Ellen. One of my fav TV couples.

by: Bettie

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:51:53 +0000

I wonder if publishers are more responsible for “in the box” writing than readers are.

Most readers appreciate creativity - it’s why we read fiction. Booksellers and publishers, on the other hand, need categories for their sales projections and shelving. “Out of the box” is difficult to categorize and difficult to create sales projections for - but as soon as an out-of-the-box book makes bank, it seems like publishers redraw the lines and start turning out similar offerings.

by: AnimeJune

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:09:57 +0000

Well, when people say “write what you know,” they probably mean “apply what you know to what you write.” I write fantasy, for instance, and I’ve never had a half-parrot brother or been granted three wishes or encountered a wizard, etc. etc. But parts of my experience and my doubts and my hopes still end up in the story anyway.

by: Roslyn

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:32:49 +0000

I just wonder who made up these rules and how many writers have been crippled by them? I’m so grateful that when I wrote my book I didn’t know there was a non-celebrity ‘rule.’ Writing is too damned hard to writing anything other than what you want to write. If that’s the case I might as well go back to the 9 to 5.