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My revisions for Novel #5 are done, I'm ready to query (just waiting on feedback on my query materials from someone who hopefully will respond this week), and now I'm trying to refill my creative well because I'm feeling drained of ideas.
And...I'm not having much luck.
While I've read some books I've enjoyed so far this year, none of them have "wowed" me. Even my four-star reads are books that I mostly forget about a week later—which is deeply painful, given my autistic self loves nothing more than to latch onto a new special interest and obsess over it for a month.
I have yet to rate a book 5 stars this year. Even books I've enjoyed have had issues that prevent me from loving them: character development that wasn't done well enough, wooden dialogue, meandering plot, "show don't tell" problems. As one example, I tried reading Darker By Four by June Tan, which just recently came out. And I just...became too aggravated to keep reading by the 20% point. All of the characters were paper-thin and poorly established. The beginning had no plot momentum. I couldn't believe the book was published like that, when any debut author trying to get a book like that published would be laughed out of the industry by editors.
I don't know what the problem is. Quality of books declining due to editor burnout, or the industry's focus on hook and premise over execution? Gatekeepers doing a poor job of publishing books that are actually compelling? It's interesting to watch Goodreads pages for upcoming books and see there are books that lack buzz from advance readers—sometimes due to the quality of the book, but sometimes this happens to books that are reviewed well. Books that were enjoyed by most of the readers who read them, yet not enough for readers to rave about them to their friends.
Honestly, the books I find myself most excited for these days are danmei novels. :( Because I can at least be guaranteed a plot that moves and interesting characters that I care about. Meanwhile, reading tradpub releases feels like playing roulette: Am I going to enjoy this book, or am I going to hate it?
And...I'm not having much luck.
While I've read some books I've enjoyed so far this year, none of them have "wowed" me. Even my four-star reads are books that I mostly forget about a week later—which is deeply painful, given my autistic self loves nothing more than to latch onto a new special interest and obsess over it for a month.
I have yet to rate a book 5 stars this year. Even books I've enjoyed have had issues that prevent me from loving them: character development that wasn't done well enough, wooden dialogue, meandering plot, "show don't tell" problems. As one example, I tried reading Darker By Four by June Tan, which just recently came out. And I just...became too aggravated to keep reading by the 20% point. All of the characters were paper-thin and poorly established. The beginning had no plot momentum. I couldn't believe the book was published like that, when any debut author trying to get a book like that published would be laughed out of the industry by editors.
I don't know what the problem is. Quality of books declining due to editor burnout, or the industry's focus on hook and premise over execution? Gatekeepers doing a poor job of publishing books that are actually compelling? It's interesting to watch Goodreads pages for upcoming books and see there are books that lack buzz from advance readers—sometimes due to the quality of the book, but sometimes this happens to books that are reviewed well. Books that were enjoyed by most of the readers who read them, yet not enough for readers to rave about them to their friends.
Honestly, the books I find myself most excited for these days are danmei novels. :( Because I can at least be guaranteed a plot that moves and interesting characters that I care about. Meanwhile, reading tradpub releases feels like playing roulette: Am I going to enjoy this book, or am I going to hate it?
