28 thoughts on “Expectations and Mediocrity”

1. I have noticed that nothing is universally loved or hated. People pass judgment on dog videos, babies, and books with vengeance!

   If a writer writes what I think of as an average book I don’t cross them off my future read list. Stephen King, Harlan Coben, and Ace Atkins, have all written a book that when I read I thought “meh”.

   I think writers are like baseball players. If they are coming to the plate to bat, I appreciate their efforts. Sometimes it is a single, and sometimes it is a home run. I always appreciate the attempt.

   • Good points, all, Warren. Pick any popular book and check out the online reviews. Not everyone loves it. And most of the time, their likes/dislikes will be for different reasons.
     The question for me is, “Did that author know this book was not their best work when they wrote it?”

2. Terry, your photos are beautiful and stir my wanderlust. Thanks for sharing them!
   I studied Jason’s before and after shots, and of course it’s obvious that the edits did their job. But he didn’t add anything artificial. He tweaked it and worked it until he revealed what was already there just waiting to be uncovered. His eyes saw what the camera didn’t, so he used his knowledge and skills and brought light to a dark image, made it true to life.

   In writing, we strive to describe the pictures/movies in our minds in a way that allows the reader to see them as we do. We try to have our characters speak and move and do what a real person would do. I’ve read far too many books and watched too many movies where I think that’s out of character, or that would never happen in real life. We need to gain the knowledge and skills to pull readers into the world of our stories, make them so real that when the last page is finished, the reader feels a loss, is reluctant to let the story and characters go. I once read a book four times in two weeks because I didn’t want it to end. I bought all the books by that author (which sadly, isn’t very many) and have studied them. Did the author write them that way, or like James Michener, is a ‘masterful rewriter’ and knows how to bring light to them? Good writing, like good photography, is a life-long learning process. Reading TKZ every morning helps. Getting varied points of view from lots of different writers helps. But in the end, we each have to take what we study and find our own way.

   • Thanks so much, Becky. Some say “Writing is Rewriting” and for me, that’s true, although I still try to get my best words down on the first go.
     I’m reading a book right now where a main character shows up and is doing things I think are stupid. The book is a collaboration between two well-known authors, and I’m wondering if they wrote their sections separately, or if they actually talked to each other during the process.
     But others, I’m sure, will accept what the character does because it adds conflict and tension.

3. Love puffins! What a treat it must’ve been to watch them in their natural habitat. Enjoyed your photos. And your son? Wow, he’s a gifted photographer.

   As for our work, mediocre is never good enough. Like you, if my name’s on the cover, it better be perfect (or as perfect as I can do).

   • Thanks, Sue – the conditions weren’t ideal for my camera kit, but for most people in my audience (readers) looking at them, they turned out fine. And yes, it was fun just to watch them.
     Yes, my son has the photography chops. He’s always telling me “get this” or “do that” and I remind him that our audiences aren’t the same.

4. This post & discussion on mediocrity also ties in to the recent post discussing “classic” fiction. To your point, not everyone views a book in the same manner. I have found some books designated as classics to be quite mediocre while others believe it was one of the greatest works written.

   We want to write the best book we can. But then there’s also perfectionism to deal with. Perfectionism prevents mediocrity because you don’t even put your work out there. You gotta have time to grow and get better, so some level of mediocrity, it would seem, is inescapable. The key is not to stay there.

   • Thanks, BK – nothing will be perfect for everyone. Each of us has to make the decision of what quality of work we want to present to the public.

5. The challenge as a writer is to continue to improve. If I ‘settle’ for less than my best, I’m not only cheating my readers but also myself. In my opinion, the longer I write the harder it gets because I expect more from myself.

   • Exactly, Jane – we want each book to be better than the previous one, so the bar keeps getting higher.

6. Terry, fabulous photos! Thanks for sharing.

   Excellent analogies between writing and photography, esp the before and after shot by Jason–so gorgeous. As Becky noted, editing brings out the potential that’s hidden in a first draft.

   Writing a story is like building a bridge. A lot of planning, hard work, and skill goes into it that most drivers never recognize or appreciate. They want to get from Point A to Point B and don’t care about engineering calculations, metallurgy, and plan specs. As long as the bridge doesn’t fall down, they’re happy. With a story, readers want to be entertained and don’t usually care that the writer avoided adverbs or stayed consistently in one POV/scene.

   But we’re the story engineers (hat tip to Larry Brooks) and we do care about our craft. We want to create a quality product that satisfies and resonates. We work hard to make it look easy to readers. Mediocrity doesn’t stand the test of time. Quality does.

   • “Mediocrity doesn’t stand the test of time. Quality does.”

     Good point, Debbie, and glad you liked the photos.

7. What a wonderful trip, Terry. The Faroes look like the perfect setting for that mystery.

   I love your photos. Your son’s are terrific, too, needless to say, but you excelled in ones you shared. That light house is a compelling subject, as is the shot of the cliffs (which remind me of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland). I think within the context of what you chose to photograph, and how you approached it, you excelled.

   Which, I believe, each of us here at TKZ is striving to do with each book—excel. In this alleged age of “A.I.” what we writers have to offer is our own individual vision, imagination, concerns, passions etc, in our own idiosyncratic style, and to the best of our ability.

   • You bring up a good point, Dale — nobody sees the rejects and first drafts. My son said he culls his 3000 photos down to 300 that he thinks might be worth a second look. Most of those get rejected, too.

8. I love the images, Terry. How delightful to see puffins in the wild.

   I think it was Steven James who said, “Rage Against Mediocrity.” I have that quote on my whiteboard, so it should tell you where I stand on this issue.

   I especially like Warren’s analogy with baseball players. They never get up to bat hoping to strike out or to hit a short fly to the second baseman. They always try to do their best, and it takes years of practice and hard work to get there.

   • Thanks, Kay.
     I think it was Roger Federer who pointed out that he won only about half his points, despite all his Grand Slam wins. You have to do your best, and accept that it’s not going to be easy, but that’s no reason not to give it your all.

9. Most readers may not know WHY a book is mediocre (and be able to identify the nuts and bolts) but they do FEEL it. That’s really what the craft is about, isn’t it? It’s not to impress our critique group; it’s to weave a dream for the readers and not jostle them awake with needless bumps in the road.

   • Well said, JSB, although my book club experiences have leaned more to the members liking books that fell into my category of mediocrity.
     We did all agree that the last book we read was flat through the first 3/4, and that it was because the author failed to get us into the character’s head and we felt no connection.

10. You said it best when you wrote: readers don’t read like writers. Readers read for story, not format. Readers don’t care about meeting rules written and changed numerous times by who knows who over the centuries. As for the Faroe picture comparison: I know what I saw when I was there (yes, I love Puffins too!), and the edited picture–beautiful though it is–is not what I saw on a gloomy day.

    • The gloom lifted from time to time. Plus, a long exposure and the right filter can work wonders. The camera captures more than the eye can see.

11. Excellent blog about craft, Terry. I enjoyed your photos, and your son shows real talent. Thanks for sharing your trip.
    Elaine

    • My pleasure, Elaine. I’ll be going through my pictures for some time yet.

12. It’s an interesting subject. Many readers are not critical or discerning. They’re happy with mediocrity.

    It’s the mental equivalent of eating at McDonald’s.
    But who can blame them? They buy the books.

    It’s the writer’s obligation to create the best they’re able to do. If, knowing this, they prefer to generate swill (as my mother called it) to produce revenue or say “Whee! I’m a published author!” on reddit thats another thing entirely.

    For me, whatever the genre may be, the question is this.

    Does the story stand on its own two feet?

    As Ernie H. opined once (paraphrasing), if after reading it the reader puts the book down and says to herself “Yeah. That really happened to that guy.” the writer has done his work well.

    • “It’s the mental equivalent of eating at McDonald’s.”
      Good point. I almost included food in this post, but it would have been too long. My brother’s a chef, and our palates are very different.
      That being said, I’ve considered my books as “airplane reads.” They don’t require a lot of thought, and if you leave them in the seat pocket (back when books were all in print), I wouldn’t be offended. I think ‘beach read’ is the current name.
      But they’re still the best books I can put out, and with my name on the cover, I don’t want to submit anything “close enough.”

13. I started my journey in literature by reading classical poetry, novels and drama. These are books that use elevated language and require a level of intelligence to understand. With time, I became familiar with the language use and it didn’t take me long to understand such work any longer.

    But a time came (I’m not sure this applies to every part of the world or even the US) and it became a norm for writers to use simple and bare language, stripped of colors and figures. I consider this a mediocre way of writing.

    I’m not saying that literature should be difficult to read. But something must show that this is a literary work, not just a piece of writing as you’d find on social media. Sometimes, students have to study these books in school and I have to teach them. It’s one of the worst part of the job for me as a teacher. Even people now write with good mastery of rhetorics on social media.

    I think I should stop ranting here.

    The pictures are beautiful. I checked Jason’s website too, amazing work he’s doing out there.

    • You bring up some interesting points, Stephen (and I sympathize with you having to teach works your students might not want to read, and help them understand it. I taught junior high science back in the day, and faced similar challenges.)
      On a whim, I checked some readability scores for some ‘classic’ fiction (using Flesch-Kincaid)
      To Kill a Mockingbird: grade level 4.6
      1984: 8.9
      The Great Gatsby – 5.5

14. A friend and I recently read a book from an author we both enjoyed. This author had previously put out quality, if fluffy reads with good characters and just enough action to keep it interesting. We both picked up the latest book from a new series, and it was … just … mediocre. The author seemed to have phoned it in. The characters were copies of other characters from other books. It leaned very heavily on a previous book in another series. It was a retelling of a classic book. It was so many things … and it didn’t work. While there were reviews praising it, there were many more reviews complaining that they didn’t like the characters and pointing out that the love interest should have been the shadowy antagonist. When I see a successful author start hitting the stage where they’re bored and churning out books by rote, that’s usually the kiss of death for their career.

    • “When I see a successful author start hitting the stage where they’re bored and churning out books by rote, that’s usually the kiss of death for their career.”
      And who wants to risk that?

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