Right off the bat, I’d like to say that I think readers are incredibly smart. Genius even. That’s what happens to people who read…they get really, really smart. I also count myself as a reader and I’ve been known to be relatively clever. And because I’ve received emails from readers that are articulate and insightful, I happen to believe that my readers are especially gifted in the intelligence department.
Unfortunately, sometimes people in the publishing business don’t give readers enough credit.
Now, first off, I want to make it perfectly clear that I’m not talking about any of my editors or publishers. Brenda Chin (Harlequin), Amy Pierpont (my former editor at Pocket, now she’s at Grand Central) and Laura Cifelli (at Signet) have never, ever asked me to do anything like what I’m about to discuss. This blog topic came from one of my writer’s lists where authors were discussing how many times they’ve been asked to expurgate foreign words, customs or phrases from manuscripts because “readers wouldn’t understand” or because certain elements of a story would turn readers off because it was unfamiliar. Things like someone actually surviving an airplane crash. Because apparently, no one ever does that.
In fact, just to prove my editors aren’t the ones in question, Laura recently asked me to add more Aussie-isms (our terms for Australian slang) to my manuscript of KISS OF THE PHANTOM, which features a Australian ex-patriot who has been living in the US for a decade. In the first draft, my heroine uses a few Aussie-isms in the first part of the book, but I dropped them by the end and she lost some of her “flavor” that Laura asked me to edit back in. I had a great time brushing up on my Aussie-speak (mostly by monitoring bulletin boards of Aussie natives trying to explain their vernacular to foreigners) and subsequently, adding a few “mates” and a “billabong” to keep Mariah sounding real and authentic. I had a real V-8 moment in one scene where Mariah says something about an alligator. A gator? Can you hear the Florida girl saying gator? Um, yeah…but to my Aussie heroine, it’s a croc. (Scientific distinctions aside, this was in a metaphor, so she’d definitely think croc and not gator.) Laura caught it. Good on ya!
Personally, I like reading books set in Australia or London or Cuba or where ever that includes lots of local customs, foods, phrases, etc. That’s how I prefer to learn about these things—from books. Movies are great and I did watch several Aussie-produced movies like Priscilla: Queen of the Desert and Strictly Ballroom in my initial research. But I like reading books written by people who live the life I’m researching. And if I don’t understand something, I can look it up. I’m smart that way. To hear that some editors require their authors to strip their manuscripts of those flavorful tidbits because they are unfamiliar is very distressing to me as a reader.
As a contemporary writer, I also do a lot of research. I can’t set every book in Florida and all my characters can’t have my ethnic and cultural background just to lend authenticity to my stories. PHANTOM’S TOUCH, for instance, is set in Los Angeles amid the film industry. I’m so fortunate that my literary agent, Helen Breitwieser, is located in LA and that she is connected to the movie world in many ways. Instant research source!
I sent her email after email during the writing of that book, checking on neighborhoods, on landscape, on architecture, driving distances…and that doesn’t even touch on all the film industry lingo, which I checked and double-checked with multiple sources, including a former television writer! I remember that the copy editor (not Laura, but a freelance editor hired to check “facts” and grammar) for that book twice questioned my decision to put my actress-heroine’s “trailer” inside the soundstage rather than outside. Was it an odd choice? Sure. But Hollywood is filled with odd. And soundstages can be huge (see above.) I took care to say that this one was over the top and had been used on multiple films in this series. Besides, if an A-list star wants her trailer on the roof, I’m pretty sure she’d be accommodated. (Though it’s not on the roof, just inside the massive building so everything she needs/wants is on this stage where they’ve built many expensive sets for a film series that have been used multiple times.)
Is my little detail typical? Probably not. But is it plausible? I think so. So much of Hollywood is about pampering and success. I actually visited LA before I’d finished writing the book and there were so many details I wanted to include, but they just weren’t important to the storyline, so I couldn’t. But I knew them and I think that’s important in order to create authentic characters.
So, readers…do you like reading books that are authentic to the time, place and culture? Not so much historicals…I know readers want those authentic! I’m talking about contemporaries. Will you give a writer leeway or do you expect everything to be “as seen on TV?” Do you like flavor or is that distracting?
By the way, I’m guest blogging today over at Riding With the Top Down. Please stop by and say hi!
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Warm wishes for a Happy Birthday go out to Plotmonkey pal Rachael Dimond today! We hope you have a fabulous, fun-filled day!
By all reports, Julie Leto was a sweet child once, somewhat shy, preferring to play quietly in her room making up stories. However, being raised with three brothers in a loud, primarily Italian household did have its influences and Julie discovered her inner tough girl. That’s probably why most of her heroines kick serious butt. Writing sassy heroines has worked out, as she’s sold over forty books to four publishers featuring strong, confident women. Julie lives in Florida with her daughter, a spoiled dachshund, a haughty lynx-point Siamese and a wide range of relatives all within driving distance.
Destiny
Dirty Little Secrets
Once Upon A Valentine
Through The Night
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Happy birthday Rachael!
Oh definitely, I love a book that comes across realistically about a topic, like the language and slang someone uses, customs based on someone’s cultural background, or an inside view into places like the music or movie industry. Not many of us get to see into worlds like that, so to have a writer do the research and show us a sneak peek totally enhances the story. I totally am all for it. Give me some flavor!
And as you said, readers are smart, and we don’t want to be short-changed either. Use big words (although don’t use 10 of them in one sentence – total overkill). If nothing else, we can look it up. There are all kinds of readers out there, and we’re smarter than publishers/editors think. Bring it on :)
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I am with Stacy on this. I haven’t read Phantom yet, I am saving it for the train trip next week, but I love it when there is authentic detail in a book. But it has to be authetic. I can’t stand it when an author is writing about something I know about and makes stuff up. It makes me question anything that i have read of theirs that I didn’t know anything about. Does that make sense?
Since we head to Hollywood in just a few weeks for kidlets entry into the film world, no matter how small at this point, I am really looking forward to the new book. Give me some insight into what she will be getting herself into I guess.
Her going away party is this Saturday and naturally we are supposed to have a snow storm Friday night into Saturday.
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Happy birthday Rachael.
I like my contemporaries to be true the setting, etc. When I was in Oz I did my best to find books set there because I was soaking up the country. I love when a book is set around an area if it is a made up town and I recognize the flavor of the area. I’m reading a cozy mystery set in CO that is similar to the town where my sister lives. I can picture the area very well even though she has used fictional places for her setting. She based on something tangible.
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Please remember that we are expatriates (not in our home countries), not ex-patriots. I am as patriotic as the next guy and I vote in every election. Sorry, that’s a button pusher for me (and most of us out here).
And yes, I love local flavor. That’s the reason we look to interesting characters and locales to choose our books.
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Ann M.- Which cozy mystery series is it? I read a bunch of them and am always looking for a new one, although I think I might be reading the one you are talking about. :wallbanger
Nine more days until :mickeyland!!!!!
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I also agree with Stacy. I’m loving Phantom’s Touch! I really love reading about places I’ve never seen. Gives me some ideas of places to put on my travel wish list.
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I love stories set in other cultures and laced with the flavor. The topic of “big words” has come up a few times on the RWA online boards. It’s always the same debate…do “big words” that the reader doesn’t understand pull them out of the story and do you risk losing them?
I think it comes down to what you said, give the readers credit and trust them to understand. I’ve never heard it worded exactly that way and the next time the subject comes up I’m going to pass on your wisdom!
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Happy Birthday, Rachael!
If I am reading a book and the character is an Aussie ex-pat, I expect the character to talk like one (to use an example). That’s not really how I learn about other places (through fiction), but it does give me wonderlust.
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Happy Birthday, Rachel!!
I love to read authentic details in a book. It helps bring the setting to life and it’s gives a sense of authority to the author who is telling the story. Without those all important details the story doesn’t sing for me personally. In writing I think it’s not only character and plot that bring richness but the setting as well. I want to see it, feel it, taste it, touch it, and hear it when I read.
Cher
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Oops, I forgot to say Happy Birthday!!!!
Rachel!!! Hope it’s a fantastic day!
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Absolutely! The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck taught me what China was like back when I was in grade school. Various books, mostly fiction, taught this native New Yorker are living in the American South (which I now do). I just finished reading Cutting Loose by Nadine Dajani which features two Lebanese women and one Latina. I learned an awful lot about Lebanese culture by reading it.
I hope dumbing down the books isn’t a trend but just poor judgment on the part of a few editors/publishers. Readers are smart, and we get smarter by reading and learning about things we don’t know.
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Big words in books challenge me, I have a dictionary!! Usually if you aren’t familar with a word the sentence, paragraph, scene gives a clue as to its meaning. I like authenticity in a book if it is about a place that exists. Fiction does give an author some leeway but I still want the authenticity there as much as possible. I would hope that no one in the publishing/editing world would think the readers are not smart, to me that would be /is a big no, no. What a good discussion for the day Julie. I can’t wait to get Phantom’s Touch to read.
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To carry it one step further, I remember listening to an audio book written by a very famous author. It was set in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The correct pronunciation of Willamette is wi-LAM-it. The reader obviously never heard the word and didn’t do any investigation into the correct pronunciation before recording. I cringed every time (which was often) it was mispronounced willa-MET. Now the readers mispronunciation is not the authors fault but it did make me pay closer attention to other facts in her descriptions about the area. This in turn did lead me to believe the the author sketchily researched the setting as opposed to doing in depth research or even visiting the area. I can’t say I’ve ever been tempted to read another of her books.
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Hi, everyone! Sorry I haven’t been able to check in much today. I’m using my laptop, which doesn’t agree with me signing in on Plotmonkeys, for some reason.
I’m glad to hear that my assumptions about readers being very intelligent weren’t off the mark! I know that most of us want to be entertained, but challenging us isn’t bad either.
Alannah, on “big words” I think they work as long as it works with the character. The heroes of the Phantom series, for instance, tend to have a more formal rhythm because they are from a different century. Alexa, the heroine of my first book who is extremely well educated might use the word “erudite” for example, but the heroine of PHANTOM’S TOUCH, Lauren Cole, probably wouldn’t. She’s a dropout and self-educated and while she’s quite bright, she’s not the kind to use that word. And that’s okay. So I think vocabulary should be completely dictated by the characters.
TerryS, please don’t blame the author if a name of a place was mispronounced. I had a book recorded as an audio book and the reader was…well, not good. I hated the accents she gave my characters–especially since my Chicago born and bred hero suddenly sound like he was from New Jersey. Ugh!
Also, I’ve had readers tell me I had stuff wrong about Chicago (where I’ve visited a LOT and have family) and then other readers who write to praise how much I got right. Sometimes it’s subjective, I think. That said, I’ll never forget the local author who put a very famous local Krispy Kreme on the wrong side of a major road.
:giggler
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I do like my stories to authentic and as real as theny can be.
Unless it is a fictional city or place then the writer can have free reign since it is their city to build. But I do love the using of foriegn slang and such. I feel like I am learning something new.
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I definitely like a book to be authentic to time, place, and culture. It makes the story so much more believable.
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Wow, great subject today, Julie. Sorry for the virus. Hope the PC feels better soon. I was asked to “tone down” the local accent of a character in the MS that’s at Silhouette at the moment. Granted, I was “writing” conversation in the dialect and after further review, I saw/heard what the editor did. I changed much of the dialogue and only used *localisms* sparingly, but to effect. Slang, though…An Aussie says, “G,day, mate.” And other terms/phrases that define them as Aussie so much quicker than “He was a man from the land down under.” (Brownie points to anyone who recognizes that phrase.
)
Big words? If that word says exactly what you want it to say, use it. I think readers are a lot smarter and more sophisticated than editors and publishers sometimes give them credit for.
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Dang. I knew I forgot something. Authenticity. I HATE it when an author uses real places and ignores the actual geography. Google maps is my friend if I’m not familiar with a setting. Their “street view” is awesome for getting an idea of the buildings and the drive from one place to another. I want to be as accurate as possible. Granted, I’m providing a fictional story with fictional characters but I want a contemporary to feel…real. If that makes sense? Brain is not firing on all cylinders today.
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An authentic feel for the setting is a plus for me. It helps me get into the story and makes the story more real.
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Oh, I definitely want what I’m reading to have authenticity to it. I even went out of my way to order to British versions of the first two Harry Potter books so I could read ‘jumper’ instead of ‘sweater’. That kind of stuff definitely adds to the story itself and doesn’t distract me at all. I love it!
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Ev,
I’m reading a knitting mystery series that takes place in Colorado. It is based on a real knitting store in the town where my sister lives. They have the characters go up to the mountains and I can imagine doing it.
Ann M.
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Personally, I think that if an author is using a real place such as Chicago or NYC then they should make sure details are true to the location. However, because I choose to read fiction, I see nothing wrong with authors using poetic license where they feel it appropriate.
In terms of editors asking authors to take out “foreign” words etc, with Google making it so easy to research things, I can’t understand the motivation behind this. I figure it is up to the reader to choose what they want to read – if they have a problem with foreign phrases, then a person can choose not to read that author or series.
Some of the books I have read wouldn’t have been as good as they were if it wasn’t for the foreign language parts of them.
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Julie,
looking forward to you ‘Aussie’ book.
Being an Aussie, I set most of my books here (particularly Melbourne, my home city.)
I like to choose cultural hubs (mostly involving food!) and love hearing from readers who ask ‘is Acland Street real?’ (a Melbourne street filled with cake and pastry shops from one length to the other.)
As for Aussie-isms, I try not to make my books too ‘ocker’ as readers overseas might not get it