Sime~Gen(tm) Inc.

Where Sime and Gen Meet, Creativity Happens

WorldCrafters Guild

Workshop:  Focus and the Editor's Job, & HOMEWORK

 

 

Cheryl Wolverton wrote:

..the romance industry buys just about anything as long as the focus is on ROMANCE....However, I will hint that suspense is the selling thing right now;)

JL here: Cheryl introduces a marvelously vague technical term here - focus. How many of you can read a stack of 10 novels and nail the "focus" of each on the first read -- by the first 20 pages, for example?

That's what purchasing editors and slush pile readers do for a living. They don't judge artistic merit -- they look for "focus".

Now for the Lichtenberg angle: I don't think the Romance Industry buys just about anything as long as the focus is on romance. I think that anything that has Romance as the "focus" is automatically labeled "Romance Genre" regardless of what else might be in it. Just as anything with a vampire in it used to be automatically shunted to the editor of the Horror Line who would refuse to buy it because the "focus" was on Romance.

I could go on and define in depth what "focus" is and how to recognize it and how to engineer any story to have whichever focus is selling right now.

But I'd rather see you people wrestle with this concept for a while. It's a doozie -- like "strong characters and fast paced plotting". It's harder than it looks. So think carefully before you post your answers to the following:

"Define Focus" --

"Where in the structure of the PLOT/THEME/SITUATION/CHARACTER mix that we've discussed do you find the "focus"?"

"How many "focuses" can you name in the genre structure of current category publishing?"

"What "focus" is required for a Best Seller?"

Essay question for extra CREDIT!!! "Discuss three Best Sellers with different "focus" elements."

That last about "Best Sellers" is in there because this workshop is about commercial fiction writing and how to make money from fiction. The more copies you sell, the more money you make under the current system. I think that system is doomed by the Web -- but the List not WORK is the place to discuss "the shape of the Artist's revenue model to come."

(1999 comment: about two years after I wrote the above comment, here we are launching Sime~Gen Inc. -- our answer to these questions!)

BTW: I don't know the answer to that essay question and I should. I'm going to discuss something like this in an upcoming column but it hasn't crystallized yet. There's a very readable F. Paul Wilson novel called THE SELECT which is now being remaindered in hc which is blatantly modeled after THE FIRM. It has the same "focus" as THE FIRM.

Keep in mind that the word "focus" trips lightly off Cheryl's tongue for a good reason. She's a natural born Romance Writer who learned action plotting with gritted teeth and hasn't mastered it yet. Read her stories that are posted on Rimon's Library  - study them because when her new piece is finally posted (it's being copyedited now and Karen Litman is combing for inconsistencies) (1999 note: that story is now availabe in Companion In Zeor #12 posted online) we're all going to have-at poor Cheryl. Now that she's published, the standards she's held to go up another (large) notch.

BTW: the reason I tore into her so mercilessly about the new piece she's roughing out for us is that she's a full fledged professional now. I don't scold and debride beginners in public unless they volunteer. Don't be afraid to present your work if you're not a pro already. Each writer's product is measured by a standard unique to that writer -- and then the standard rises as the writer masters skills.

Live Long and Prosper,

Jacqueline Lichtenberg