The Perfect Novel

No, this isn't a review of the book to the left, I'm just using the picture.  Rather, this is my attempt to identify masters of the five elements of fiction that I hope to emulate.  Here goes:

Concept:  Michael Crichton.  All books should start with a killer concept--the central premise of the story, or what your story is about.  Michael Crichton is the master here:  scientists create dinosaurs that get out of control, a swarm of micro-robots get out of control, a new species of intelligent gorilla is found in the Congo which is killing explorers.

Theme:  Ayn Rand.  The theme is the big message of the book.  This one is so hard to pull off, most popular fiction doesn't even have a theme because the author doesn't know what to say.  Ayn Rand definitely had something to say, and she said it in her novels.  She was not only a master of demonstrating her themes with her plots and characters, she also had great themes:  individualism vs. collectivism, the central importance of man's mind in human existence, the destructive nature of communism.

Character:  Stephen King.  King is a great writer who has a knack for suspense, plot, setting and writing voice.  But where he really stands out is character.  He lets us into the character's head and makes us care about him or her.  He has created some unforgettable characters:  Carrie, Frannie in The Stand, Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption, Gordie in The Body, and John Coffey in The Green Mile, just to name a few.

Plot:  A Simple Plan by Scott Smith.  Here I'm giving the nod to a single book rather than the author because Smith's follow up, The Ruins, had a lousy plot (although the movie version fixed a lot of the problems).  What I really liked about A Simple Plan was how the suspense and tension were consistently increased throughout the book in a natural way.  The book followed the time-tested structure of set-up, response, attack and resolution and executed brilliantly on it.  Each new plot point followed seamlessly from what happened before and even though things got crazy, out-of-control at the end, it was all plausible and believable.

Writing Voice:  David Gordon.  This is a tough one because writing voice is very subjective and a writer shouldn't try to copy another's voice; he must develop his own.  Having said that, besides Stephen King, the other writer whose prose I'd love to be able to copy is David Gordon.  He only has one book so far, The Serialist, and a second on the way in July 2013, but I really enjoyed his writing in the first book.  Here's an example from The Serialist:

[My mother] wasn’t dead to start with. She was still quite lively in fact, still in the same Queens two-bedroom where I grew up and where, sadly or perhaps happily, I live again now. Sadly because it is a constant reminder of my life’s extremely limited progress, ten feet from the smaller bedroom to the larger. Happily because of the soup dumplings. The Jewish-Italian-Irish neighborhood where I grew up, and which was on its way back then to becoming mainly Hispanic, had taken a wild left turn somewhere and ended up almost completely Asian. Hence the soup dumplings.

And what are they exactly? Don’t I mean dumplings in soup? No, my friend. Let’s say you order six crab and pork. A few minutes later, they appear, steamed, plump as little Buddhas, sitting on lettuce in their tender skins. But don’t bite. Lift one carefully in your spoon and gently nibble its tip. Out dribbles hot soup. That’s right. I shit you not. Soup inside the dumpling. It’s a kind of miracle, a chaste, doughy nipple dispensing warm broth, the sort of thing that makes life worth living and gives you the strength to hang on, if only for one more novel.

Origin, by J. A. Konrath

I'll admit it, I read this book mainly because I thought the cover was cool.  It's the first time I've seen an animated cover--something that's only possible with e-books--and this book is only available as the e-book.  In addition to the cover, I loved the concept:  the U.S. government digs up Satan and keeps him in a secret government lab for a hundred years.  How can you not want to read that story?

So I downloaded the sample--the biggest and most overlooked advantage to e-books, in my opinion--and started reading.  J. A. Konrath is a good writer and that was apparent from the beginning.  After the sample, I was hooked so I pressed my finger on "Buy Now," shelled out $3.99 (seriously, I spend more going to Starbucks for a coffee and pumpkin bread) and kept reading.  My new Kindle Paperwhite even started the new full version where I'd left off in the sample (my 2nd gen Kindle didn't do this).

J. A. Konrath is a big proponent of amazon and e-readers on his blog, and so am I.  Embrace the future because it's not going away.

So what about the book?  I loved it!  The mystery of finding Satan was a great hook and kept me interested during the set-up and all the character introductions.  At first I thought there were too many characters, but Konrath made them all important and made it work.  He went deeper into the two main characters and even developed a love story between them.  The book was too short and moved too quickly to develop the love story more, but that was fine because I was reading it for the story of Satan, not the love story.

One thing I really liked about Origin was that the plot had a great pace and maintained suspense throughout.  I attribute this not only to Konrath's skill as a writer but also his adherence to the standard plot structure:  set-up, response, attack & resolution.  It's such a pleasure to see a story that follows the time-tested structure for suspense and then executes on it.

Other things I liked about the book:  the humor and creepiness.  Konrath injects a fair amount of humor into the story and it works.  But he also wanted to create a horror thriller, and he did this well with the beast's behavior and speech.  I loved how the beast talked, drawing out certain syllables in a creepy manner.

Origin is a great example of what is possible with e-books and Amazon.  This book was never published as a paper book but it should have been.  It's also good enough to be made into a movie, and hopefully it will be one someday.  I know I'll go shell out $15 to see it!

Behold the Dawn, by K.M. Weiland

(Notes at 25% mark)

I'm a fan of K.M. Weiland's blog and enjoyed her book on outlining, so I was looking forward to seeing her advice put into action in her novel Behold the Dawn.  So far, it's a slow start for me.  All the characters have a mysterious past which seems to be connected by something that happened sixteen years earlier, but I'm very confused by who did what to whom, and I'm even confused as to which characters are good guys and bad guys.

Fortunately, the first plot point was fairly clear and now the main character--a sort of Middle Ages assassin--has to transport a lady to a convent.  The lady was the wife of a dear friend who died and was wrapped up in the mysterious affair from his past.  Unfortunately, since I don't understand any of the back story, the motivations for the heroes and the villains are very thin.  As a result, I'm not very motivated to continue reading at this point.  But I'll press on because I want to see where the author takes it.

(Notes at 53% mark)

This is the point where I should have gotten to the second plot point, the point where the hero goes from responding to the first plot point to offensively attacking it.  It was shaping up nicely.  The hero was falling for the girl and vise versa.  The bad guys were pursuing them and they were on the run--perfect response mode.  Then around 50%, the bad guys caught up to the girl while the hero was off on a side quest.  It was all set up for the girl to get taken and the hero would have to go on the attack to get her back, not only to uphold his duty but because he loves her as well.  But then... the girl escapes on her own and we're back to where we were at the beginning of this section (at the 25% mark).  Maybe something dramatic will change soon and be the real second plot point.  But at least at this juncture, it appears that an opportunity was missed for a solid second plot point.

(Notes at end of novel)

 The girl did get taken later, but it was around the 75% mark so it served as the 2nd plot point.  There was a lot of action--horse-back chases, duels, storming castles--but since I never really understood the back story, it was never more than just action.

Overall, I didn't enjoy this book.  Maybe it was because I got confused early on.  Maybe it was because some of the characters felt trapped by destiny but that idea is completely alien to me because I don't believe in destiny or God.  Maybe it was because I'm not very interested in the Middle Ages so the setting didn't draw me in.  Or maybe it was the missed opportunity at the mid-point to ramp up the suspense by having the hero go on the offensive earlier rather than at the end of the book.

It's too bad I didn't like this book because I really like the author's blog.  Maybe I'll give another of her books a try.

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

This is the fourth time I've read this book (!) and I enjoyed it this time as much as the other three.  However, this time around I read it mostly for literary tips and tricks that Ayn Rand used.  Here's what I picked up (there are spoilers below so if you haven't read it, leave now and start reading!):

• She spends a lot of time inside the character's heads and we go deep into their thoughts, especially for Dagney, Rearden and James Taggart.  Conversely, much of the action takes place as exposition and we learn about it as the characters are reacting to it.  This seems difficult to pull off, but Ayn does it.
• The plotting is complex with all the major mysteries and conflicts ending up with Galt.  Even though he doesn't appear until about two-thirds of the way through, he is omnipresent as the destroyer taking away the men of ability, the inventor of the motor that Dagney seeks, the track worker that Eddie Willers confides in, and the man who represents Dagny's ideal who may not even exist.
• The purpose of the speech isn't to introduce Objectivism to the world, but rather to tell the people in the story why Galt went on strike.  It is much more narrow than I realized and I think it is perfectly appropriate for the story.  When I first read it, I was interested in it as an introduction and therefore thought that Rand had included it as such, but it was really put in as a necessary part of the story.
• I think the most difficult job in plotting was to pit the heroes against each other and make it believable, both in the valley and afterwards.  
• She used the same settings repeatedly through the novel, so when we returned we felt at home in some of them, like Dagny's office or Rearden's house.
• The lengthy introductions for Dagny, Rearden and Francisco were time well spent because I learned to love the characters in those scenes and it made my keep reading to see what would happen to them.