“You know who breaks this rule? Neil Gaiman. One of the few living writers who’s both a commercial and critical success, a man who must just about need a second house by now in order to store his awards.
“On the other hand, you know who isn’t Neil Gaiman? You.”
– For the book version of The Well-Presented Manuscript.
If Stephen King and Neil Gaiman had stored all of their accolades aboard the Titanic it would have sunk days before reaching that fateful iceberg.
I’ll play devil’s advocate about what you seem to be discussing here, and ask you to please take a look at this blog post of mine:
Mike Spinak I don’t think that applies to manuscript presentation. When the editor doesn’t know you from adam, you don’t get a bye when you send an MS that doesn’t follow their submission guidelines.
The rule I was talking about (which is really, of course, a guideline) is “use a stronger verb than ‘to be’ wherever possible”.
My argument is that Gaiman gets away with it because everything else he does is amazing. If you’re not telling a story as rich and compelling as he is, you can’t afford to make avoidable slips.
You have to be the best you can be. That probably requires strong verbs.
Having said that, there’s much to your post, and I will contemplate it.
Thanks, Mike. I do agree that you have to be the best you can be, and I also agree that your guideline is reasonable.
If the goal of your life is to be a published author and have a bestseller, maybe. I have a rich mix of active and passive voice in my writing and thumb my nose at detractors. Because I write for myself first, and anyone else second, if at all, and have no aspirations towards being published.
To get past the gatekeepers, be a shiny well groomed sheep. On the outside, anyway.
One useful question that a lot of need to be asking as we read these thing is: “How much of this also applies when it comes to readers?”
For a determined indie like me, the immediate reaction to “this is what you need to appeal to publishers” is “who gives a rat’s ass?” On the other hand, not all of this is just to please publishers. Some of it makes sense as guidelines for making writing stronger, which matters to readers as well.
Exactly the position I’m taking, Brian Rush.
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