A Defense Of Mediocrity

I write novels, but I don't write great novels. All my knowledge of what makes a novel great comes from reading.

It's pretty simple, really. A character-driven plot. That's to say, a story where strong characters make decisions that result in the novel's action. The characters are believable; the story is believable under the conditions that the characters find themselves in.

Of course, a good book cover also helps. And an enticing blurb.

But since we can't all be great writers for various reasons, (in my case, laziness, time constraints, possibly no talent), is there a place for the mediocre novel? The topic interests me because I'm a mediocre novelist who puts my novels online. I speak only for myself, of course. I'm too busy writing my novels to actually read other people's online novels, so I'm no expert on the subject. But I get a lot of e-mails from people who are experts on the Free Online Novel. A lot of them are at work, bored, and looking for a quick online fix. A large number are from outside of North America , people who want to read anything in English.

When I pay $30 for a novel I expect about 500 pages of memorable characters and plot twists. But I don't feel bad putting a 100 page novel online. For one thing, short chapters are easier to read online. But most importantly, a free novel is a gift.

I do my best but my best wouldn't make me money or fame. But I like to tell a story and something in me just wants to sit down at a keyboard and pound away until something like a story emerges. It has lots of clichés, I'm afraid. And I've had an e-mail from someone telling me that so-and-so in one of my novels wasn't very nice and he was my favourite character. Someone wrote me to tell me that I should change my ending. (I don't believe in happy endings.) I was just thrilled that she'd made it to the end.

These days, the internet is God's gift to writers. Write, write, write, until YOU are completely satisfied with what you've written. You're the only one you have to satisfy. Put it online and SOMEONE will read it.

There are great writers writing great novels. I'm not one of them. But my stories have been read and I didn't have to submit them one hundred times to a publisher. (I strongly believe that even if I did submit them to one hundred publishers they still wouldn't be published.) And the characters that came alive in my imagination have come alive in someone else's.

And maybe amongst my mediocrity, you will find a twinge of greatness.