Andrew Krause's Blog
April 18, 2013
Unhappily Ever After
I have another confession for you. I suck at writing endings.
Apparently anyway, according to those who have taken the time to review my new book. I just finished up a four day run of a KDP select giveaway, which allows for anyone to download a free copy. The upside to it is that people pay attention to the words 'FREE' in a way that they would never normally pay attention to a dystopian fictional book about sex-trafficking. So I get a lot more people reading my stuff than I normally would. The downside to that is that people who normally wouldn't read a book like mine are now reading my book. Though 'The Woman They Kept' sounds like a harlequin romance novel, I assure you it is nothing close to that.
The reviews have been pretty bad, though it is not about the writing. Actually, even when they are giving me a bad review they are complimentary of the writing. One lady said I write with "a great sci-fi bent," and that she would read my stuff in the future. The caveat to that, however, was that she would only read it if it had a happy ending.
Now, I'm not trying to single her out, I appreciate her feedback and she's got as much a right to her own personal tastes as anyone else. The thing I don't like is this emphasis on happy endings. People seem entitled to them, and I'm really trying to figure out whether it's justified or not.
My problem is that I always take the representative sample most available to me: ME. I tend to forget, though, that not everyone in the world is like me (thank goodness for that, otherwise this place would go to hell far too quickly). You see, I like unhappy endings and sad songs and movies where everyone dies. Don't ask me why, I'm sure more than a few wires got crossed somewhere down the line.
Happy endings feel good, and if you've taken the time to know and care about a character, you want to know that when you put that book down they'll be okay. I understand that feeling completely, and I have felt it myself. Currently I'm reading R.L. Stine's foray into adult horror, and damned if I don't want the entire family to end up okay and for those two psycho twins to be punished. So I get it, I really do.
But the thing is, as a writer, even a hack writer like myself, happy endings sometimes just don't make sense. In 'The Road,' Cormac McCarthy's novel about a father and son struggling to survive after the world starts to die, it would have felt wonderful to have them end up in a happy go lucky little paradise that survived the apocalypse, but it also would have been wrong. It would have been a cheap cop out, and he was right to end it the way he did, even though the ending angered some people (read the one star reviews on that book, they get pretty bad).
So it's a toss up, some stories deserve happy endings, some don't. I'm just going to throw this out there - whether you're reader or a writer, you shouldn't EXPECT anything. A lot of the power of fiction comes from surprise. Don't EXPECT a happy ending every time. But maybe that's just me wanting to rant because people don't like my works as much as I do.
As for me, I'm going to try and write some happy endings for stories that truly deserve happy endings, and work on developing a thicker skin about those that don't. Signing out from the shitty cold of Minnesota, here's looking at you.
-A
Apparently anyway, according to those who have taken the time to review my new book. I just finished up a four day run of a KDP select giveaway, which allows for anyone to download a free copy. The upside to it is that people pay attention to the words 'FREE' in a way that they would never normally pay attention to a dystopian fictional book about sex-trafficking. So I get a lot more people reading my stuff than I normally would. The downside to that is that people who normally wouldn't read a book like mine are now reading my book. Though 'The Woman They Kept' sounds like a harlequin romance novel, I assure you it is nothing close to that.
The reviews have been pretty bad, though it is not about the writing. Actually, even when they are giving me a bad review they are complimentary of the writing. One lady said I write with "a great sci-fi bent," and that she would read my stuff in the future. The caveat to that, however, was that she would only read it if it had a happy ending.
Now, I'm not trying to single her out, I appreciate her feedback and she's got as much a right to her own personal tastes as anyone else. The thing I don't like is this emphasis on happy endings. People seem entitled to them, and I'm really trying to figure out whether it's justified or not.
My problem is that I always take the representative sample most available to me: ME. I tend to forget, though, that not everyone in the world is like me (thank goodness for that, otherwise this place would go to hell far too quickly). You see, I like unhappy endings and sad songs and movies where everyone dies. Don't ask me why, I'm sure more than a few wires got crossed somewhere down the line.
Happy endings feel good, and if you've taken the time to know and care about a character, you want to know that when you put that book down they'll be okay. I understand that feeling completely, and I have felt it myself. Currently I'm reading R.L. Stine's foray into adult horror, and damned if I don't want the entire family to end up okay and for those two psycho twins to be punished. So I get it, I really do.
But the thing is, as a writer, even a hack writer like myself, happy endings sometimes just don't make sense. In 'The Road,' Cormac McCarthy's novel about a father and son struggling to survive after the world starts to die, it would have felt wonderful to have them end up in a happy go lucky little paradise that survived the apocalypse, but it also would have been wrong. It would have been a cheap cop out, and he was right to end it the way he did, even though the ending angered some people (read the one star reviews on that book, they get pretty bad).
So it's a toss up, some stories deserve happy endings, some don't. I'm just going to throw this out there - whether you're reader or a writer, you shouldn't EXPECT anything. A lot of the power of fiction comes from surprise. Don't EXPECT a happy ending every time. But maybe that's just me wanting to rant because people don't like my works as much as I do.
As for me, I'm going to try and write some happy endings for stories that truly deserve happy endings, and work on developing a thicker skin about those that don't. Signing out from the shitty cold of Minnesota, here's looking at you.
-A
April 12, 2013
A Love Affair With the End of the World
I have a confession to make. I believe I am immortal.
What else am I supposed to think? I survived not only the Mayan apocalypse, but also the May 2011 Rapture, Y2k, and the Heaven's gate doomsday scenario. That is four apocalypses within my short lifetime that I have come through unscathed. Of course, it helped my cause that none of these things actually happened, but I prefer to think along my own terms.
It makes you wonder, though, what humanity's fascination with the end of the world is. Scan any bookshelf or page on amazon and you'll find apocalyptic scenarios from zombies to nuclear war to otherworldly eleven year-olds (I'm looking at you, Good Omens).
But why? Why do we love it so much?
I have a theory that our fantasies about the end of the world really point to a dissatisfaction with how complicated our lives are currently. Notice I didn't say good or bad, just complicated. We have to manage multiple accounts online, we're never more than five feet from our phones, and the bills and taxes we have to pay overwhelm us. What was initially a convenience now makes us have to work harder. Our bosses expect to be able to reach us at any time, even when we're not on the clock. People check their work emails from home late into the night.
But with one little T-Virus, all of that goes away. Suddenly, we are free.
Of course, that freedom comes with the extreme anxiety of having to survive, and though it may be more stressful, you can't argue that it's not simpler. What do I need? Food. Shelter. Water. People.
Those four are the most important elements. That's what your life boils down to the minute your neighbor starts looking at you like a pork chop.
You can't decapitate the IRS man like you can a hungry zombie, as much as you may want to. Car payments won't be taken in canned food. Your boss won't accept the excuse, 'I was saving my family from violent biker gangs,' even if he might chuckle at it. But with apocalyptic fiction it all goes away, if only for a few hours.
The greatest thing I've always found from reading or watching these types of scenarios was the emphasis on the last of the four necessities I listed up above. As soon as the lights go out, no matter what we were fighting about before, we're in it together now. That sister you were arguing about the phone bill with? She's now helping you fortify the house. Problems get put into the proper perspective, and I think it's very satisfying for us to feel that.
So as long as we have these stresses in our lives, we're going to have fiction that fantasizes about it all going away in the span of a few shuffling moans. And that's probably a good thing. So the next time that bills are stressing you out or your boss is calling you 24/7, remember the lesson that these works try and teach you. Pull your children close and thank your lucky stars that they haven't turned into mindless zombies.
As Red Green used to sign off with; Remember, I'm pulling for you, we're all in this together.
What else am I supposed to think? I survived not only the Mayan apocalypse, but also the May 2011 Rapture, Y2k, and the Heaven's gate doomsday scenario. That is four apocalypses within my short lifetime that I have come through unscathed. Of course, it helped my cause that none of these things actually happened, but I prefer to think along my own terms.
It makes you wonder, though, what humanity's fascination with the end of the world is. Scan any bookshelf or page on amazon and you'll find apocalyptic scenarios from zombies to nuclear war to otherworldly eleven year-olds (I'm looking at you, Good Omens).
But why? Why do we love it so much?
I have a theory that our fantasies about the end of the world really point to a dissatisfaction with how complicated our lives are currently. Notice I didn't say good or bad, just complicated. We have to manage multiple accounts online, we're never more than five feet from our phones, and the bills and taxes we have to pay overwhelm us. What was initially a convenience now makes us have to work harder. Our bosses expect to be able to reach us at any time, even when we're not on the clock. People check their work emails from home late into the night.
But with one little T-Virus, all of that goes away. Suddenly, we are free.
Of course, that freedom comes with the extreme anxiety of having to survive, and though it may be more stressful, you can't argue that it's not simpler. What do I need? Food. Shelter. Water. People.
Those four are the most important elements. That's what your life boils down to the minute your neighbor starts looking at you like a pork chop.
You can't decapitate the IRS man like you can a hungry zombie, as much as you may want to. Car payments won't be taken in canned food. Your boss won't accept the excuse, 'I was saving my family from violent biker gangs,' even if he might chuckle at it. But with apocalyptic fiction it all goes away, if only for a few hours.
The greatest thing I've always found from reading or watching these types of scenarios was the emphasis on the last of the four necessities I listed up above. As soon as the lights go out, no matter what we were fighting about before, we're in it together now. That sister you were arguing about the phone bill with? She's now helping you fortify the house. Problems get put into the proper perspective, and I think it's very satisfying for us to feel that.
So as long as we have these stresses in our lives, we're going to have fiction that fantasizes about it all going away in the span of a few shuffling moans. And that's probably a good thing. So the next time that bills are stressing you out or your boss is calling you 24/7, remember the lesson that these works try and teach you. Pull your children close and thank your lucky stars that they haven't turned into mindless zombies.
As Red Green used to sign off with; Remember, I'm pulling for you, we're all in this together.
