Sometimes I believe that writing is the best thing in the world. I've read so many great essays, articles, novels, short stories that truly impressed. And guess what. They aren't even published. They aren't even agented.
As I've said before, I have also read stuff that made me shake my head at how lousy it was. And yeah...it's agented...and published. Yeah, I don't want to beat a dead horse, but this is an issue. Hey, I don't know how to solve it. I wish I did. I believe a lot of it is timing...AKA pure luck. If it's something that an agent or an editor is looking for at the moment it crosses his/her desk, then that writer is in luck.
Of course, if the writing is not good, then that's that. Or is it?
I remember reading an agent's blog about a year ago, and she posted some paragraph from somewhere, and she was just gushing about how great the writing was. I read it. There was a good first sentence, to be fair...but I swear to goodness, the balance of the paragraph was just not good writing. Period. This agent said that she wished she could represent the person who wrote that paragraph, but unfortunately for her, he was already agented. OK. Good for him. I mean it. Good for him...I hope he gets published, and if he is already published...well, good for him.
But I am dead serious. I just didn't see what this lady was raving about. It was, to me anyway, nothing near as good as a lot of stuff I read on the blogs from writers still looking for representation. Someone even commented, (not me) on that particular blog post that he didn't think that it was good writing at all. He pointed out the flaws, and I found myself agreeing with everything he said. I felt like putting up a comment of my own in support of his comment, but I refrained. He already said it. The point was made.
So there you go. Right back to the subjective thing. But if you don't think it's true, you'd better think again....it's also about timing, and just plain luck.
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