Contest Judge Dean Wesley Smith discusses why he rejects stories

@tj_knight Thanks for sharing! This is also a very good example! 😊

And based on the above thread I am now looking much forward to your either delighted or outraged review on that story 😄

@patricia-a In the case of Nick Aames, it was largely subconscious. I'm very much a pantser at heart. I often make a decision and see where it goes with no conscious plan. I started the first Carver and Aames story in the POV of Carver, very much for the same reasons as Watson, and as you noted: It lets Holmes/Aames have secrets from Watson/Carver, and thus from the reader; and it lets the reader empathize with Watson/Carver and learn to like Holmes/Aames.

But after three stories in a non-Aames POV, I found a certain power in this. Nick Aames is not, in one sense, a character: He has no character arc, he doesn't change. He's a force of nature who causes changes in other characters. (In The Last Dance, which includes all these stories, he has a crucial character change at the end; but is it really a change, or just a consequence?) The stories are about how other characters react to Nick, and what that tells us about them.

There's also the fact that I'm obsessive about consistency. Since I started telling the first stories through other POVs, I determined to tell them all that way.

Posted by: @patricia-a

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@tj_knight Thanks for sharing! This is also a very good example! 😊

And based on the above thread I am now looking much forward to your either delighted or outraged review on that story 😄

Sadly, I gave up. Made it 15% of the way. My reason, ultimately, was taste. The schmaltz was strong with that one. And if I heard whiskey-colored eyes one more time I was likely to throw my phone across the room.

I'm listening to On Earth as it is on Television now.

Posted by: @tj_knight

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Posted by: @patricia-a

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@tj_knight Thanks for sharing! This is also a very good example! 😊

And based on the above thread I am now looking much forward to your either delighted or outraged review on that story 😄

Sadly, I gave up. Made it 15% of the way. My reason, ultimately, was taste. The schmaltz was strong with that one. And if I heard whiskey-colored eyes one more time I was likely to throw my phone across the room.

I'm listening to On Earth as it is on Television now.

 

Then I can share my secondhand spoiler! He’s not just mute, he’s imaginary! Sorta. Only she can see him.

Posted by: @martin-l-shoemaker

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Then I can share my secondhand spoiler! He’s not just mute, he’s imaginary! Sorta. Only she can see him.

Oi! Not sure if that makes it more or less interesting. Suppose that's a cool twist, but we spent half of chapter five learning about him from the townsfolk. Like, she interviewed everyone she could find about the bearded, mess of a guy who ignored her in the parking lot after she dropped her groceries.

Some folks call that stalking. Others call it a bestseller (Kidding, kidding).