Fiction Death
Scroll down Warren Adler's home page to find Fiction is Dying. Yet Again? where he says:
the schism develops into "literary" vs. "commercial". Is it a range of quality? Some think so. This conflict isn't new, and it isn't limited to the field of creative writing. I can remember the deep disappointment I felt when I learned how much commercial pandering it takes to try to make a living by painting pictures, or even to support painting watercolors as a hobby. I'm not certain many artists are self-supporting. [fiction creativity]
There is a strange disconnect going on in the world of fiction writing and publishing. Less and less fiction is being published by adult trade publishers and magazines and more and more wannabe fiction writers are flooding creative writing courses in colleges, universities and boutique schools offering such courses ... the gateway to novel publishing is now in control of the bean counters, whose limited vision and obeisance to the powerful commercial Gods will, for a time, cripple but not kill, works of invention and imagination, meaning fiction.He extends the left brain/right brain character of the book publishing industry which pits creativity against the logic of business. I hear the same anguished arguments from the wannabees Adler mentions in online writing forums and informal writers' groups. Within fiction,
the schism develops into "literary" vs. "commercial". Is it a range of quality? Some think so. This conflict isn't new, and it isn't limited to the field of creative writing. I can remember the deep disappointment I felt when I learned how much commercial pandering it takes to try to make a living by painting pictures, or even to support painting watercolors as a hobby. I'm not certain many artists are self-supporting. [fiction creativity]
3 Comments:
I think only the rarest of artists make a good living from their work.
I hope the internet will be what breaks the publishing industry's hold on what makes it and what doesn't
Oy! I hate the Blogger commenting system! It always cuts me off!
Well, I do know a number of writers who are or have made their living as fiction writers, but it is certainly true that the bean counters reign. I've had personal experience where that's concerned.
In publishing, as in most arenas, the pendalum swings, and I think it will fall back again into the fiction realm. The trick is to be ready for the fall.
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