Grace asks:
Can a thriller ever be too graphic? If so, do you think authors who go that route are looking to fill space or take the easy way out?
“Too graphic” is in the eye — and gut — of the reader. Novels that I myself find too graphic tend to contain violence and overt bloodshed that don’t relate inherently to the plot, don’t drive the story, and are lingered over (almost salaciously, in some cases). As to why authors write extremely graphic novels — I presume it’s because they think doing so will draw readers.
Ever have a plot idea and feel it wouldn’t fly past the publishers/editors/etc?
Yes. Oh, my, yes. Some reasons I might reject an idea before it reaches an editor are:
1. It’s lousy. Coming up with ideas is easy. Coming up with good ideas is tough. I agree with Robert McKee’s assessment that 90% of ideas are crap.
2. It’s thin. It might sustain a short story, or a slim subplot, but isn’t meaty enough to power a novel. Or it might just be boring.
3. It’s a cliché. Ideas that pop easily into our heads often do so because they’re familiar. They’ve been written about a thousand times, in the same, tired way.
4. It’s too weird, stupid, ludicrous, or ingrown.
As to actual crappy, stringy, trite, wacko ideas I have personally thought up and then rejected, they’re locked in a booby-trapped safe in my writing bunker, so nobody can get to them.
I tried to write “The Mandolin Case” in a way they would get the idea but have to fill in the blanks with their imagination. That way it became a unique story for each reader.
Dr. B
Thanks Meg!