What I’m Reading Today: Just starting China Miéville’s Kraken. I really like it so far.
China Miéville gives the greatest author interviews. I love that he looks like ~ I don’t know the exact term ~ an alt thug, British street, yet he is one of the most eloquent writers I know. He always has such smart things to say, and I’m invariably bowled over. And I really want to like his fiction, but I haven’t really read any of it, so I’m starting Kraken.
In a recent interview, China said, “It’s not your job to do what readers want. It’s your job to make readers want what you do.”
How fabulous. Writers can’t chase the market. We can’t have focus groups to tell us to change this or change that. It results in mediocre work. If it’s to be any good, we have to put our heart and soul into it. Only by being as brave and honest as we can be, laying it all on the line, can we write something that will move people. You have to dazzle them and charm them and seduce them so well with your wit and craft that you hook a vein.
Be brave, be intrepid, roll on the ground and lay bare your belly to that big bad monster.
Questions of the Day: How do we make readers want what we do?
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