Has Social Media, Television, and Movies Changed the Way Novels are Written? a Post by R. Clint Pete

In my endeavors to be a better writer, I have primarily focused on understanding the three writing books suggested by my friend.  Additionally, I have been reading other authors in my genre.

As I reported in a previous post, there is a significant division in the quality of the books I have been reading.

The authors I have been reading are in the action-adventure genre, and they have been FREE.  Without going into the ratings I gave the books, from 1 to 5 stars, and the reasons I gave those ratings, I’d like to address another issue I have noticed:  the need for an author to turn his or her novel into a screenplay.

The first author I relentlessly consumed in high school was Isaac Asimov.  The second author was John D. MacDonald.  I am confident I have read everything those two put on paper.

But those books were different than the ones I am reading today.  In one of my recent reads, there was a crisis on every page, action on every two pages, and more blood, guts, gore, and dead bodies than the local cemetery could handle.

In the Travis McGee series by MacDonald, the hero was in a fight every fifty pages and there was perhaps only one dead body in the whole book.

I think the problem is social media and television.  A hit TV show must get as much action packed into 44 minutes as possible.  That concept has transferred to wiring books.  The author must pack enough action, suspense, and dead bodies in 200 pages to draw the reader in for the sequel, which is also 200 pages of action, suspense and dead bodies.

I saw a recent comment by an author who was lamenting the length of his novel.  He’d stopped at 194 pages, but thought he could have gone to 300 or more.

I read somewhere that the “perfect ” novel was between 75,000 and 100,000 words.  At the moment, Prerogatives (my almost ready to declare finished book), is at 99,446 words.  I am confident the book will increase in word count.  I am at page 37 of 230 pages in my editing and I tend to add a couple paragraphs every page.

However, I didn’t write this novel to be used as a segment on NCIS (although Mark Harmon would do well as one of my heroes.)  Prerogatives won’t make a good NCIS or Blue Bloods.  There are crises in the book, and a little blood and gore, but not on every page.  Not even on every other page.  There is intrigue, action, adventure, and a dead body, but CSI is not looking for me.

When I took a good look at the books I read that were all action, I discovered I had no affiliation with the characters.  They were just flat cardboard cutouts.  The action was what drove the book.  And it didn’t drive it very far.

I think that social media (the requirement to provide a thought in 140 characters), television (cram enough action into 44 minutes to keep the sponsors paying for the show), and movies (again, cram the action into the movie to keep the audience coming back for more blood and guts) has removed the thoughtful author from the word processor, and has replaced him or her with an ad manager with a list of the thirty items which must be packed into the 44 minutes of fame the author is looking for.

I have read perhaps twenty five books in the last three months.  No one was approaching the qualities of an Isaac Asimov or a John D. MacDonald.  Based on my friends evaluation, I might not yet know how to be a good author, but I know what I like to read.  And some of what I have been reading might only be good for lighting a campfire.

#RClintPeters #TheAuthorsClub