A Story Worth Telling

I spent the past few weeks trying to avoid reading a book that I felt an obligation to read because I had told the author I was looking forward to reading it.

Now, this author is not someone I know personally. I only had her sign the book, which I picked up for free, after seeing her give a seminar on writing action scenes. Based on her talk, I really did think I would enjoy the book.

Instead, I can hardly concentrate on the words I’m reading. The writing is good, the descriptions are fine, but the story in the book is completely pointless. Why should I care about the main character? There’s no motivation, no compelling journey, just a good vs evil plot where the good guys are a little edgy and the bad guys are irredeemable. The secondary characters are cliches and the personalities of each individual character seem to veer all over the map according to what the author needs to keep the action moving.

So why do I keep reading? Partly because I’ve gone so far that I’m almost done with the book and partly because I want to see how the heck the author ends such a swampy story. Since it is part of a series I suppose the final sentences will be ambiguous, perhaps a sunset or a dawn on the horizon, with the main character deciding she just might survive her new life after all...

Lesson learned. I have to make sure I write stories that are worth telling.

Amy