Into the Fire

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No Kool-Aid Drinking Here . . .

February 21, 2011

Those of you who recall the Jim Jones cult recognize the Kool-Aid reference. It was the method used to exterminate a group of messed up followers. A few drank what Wikipedia reports was grape flavored, cyanide-laced Flavor Aid willingly, knowing it was laced with poison. Others were forced at gun point to down their death mixture. If they refused, they were executed.

Many years later the expression “drinking the Kool-Aid” refers to buying into a philosophy that’s off the mark. Those who follow the leader(s) of said philosophy, even when its weaknesses and untruths are glaring, are referred to as having “drunk the Kool-Aid”.

Publishing has its Kool-Aid drinkers too. For the consummate article on writing, trendy rules, and the sometimes off the mark claims by the powers-that-be, read this by Award-winning author Athol Dickson:

http://noveljourney.blogspot.com/search/label/Athol%20Dickson

Brilliant.

Father, watch over us. Help us to follow your rules and to enjoy your measure of creativity invested in us. May we honor you with our words. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

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8 responses to “No Kool-Aid Drinking Here . . .”

Normandie

February 22, 2011

Nicole,
I thought that one might catch your eye!

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Brenda Anderson

February 22, 2011

That was an inspiring blog post, wasn’t it? But then, I rarely read one by Athol that’s lacking.

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Brenda

February 22, 2011

Yes, that was a terrific post. I always look forward to hearing what Athol has to say.
BTW–on a different note, did you see the 2/21 post over at Novel Matters? I was struck deeply by that one. In short, the first 3 samples of that post show what happens when you follow a particular one of the “Rules of Writing” and allow it to be pounded into your head until your own writer’s instinct is drowned out. The purpose of that blog post was NOT a rant about the rules of writing. Nevertheless, it served well to show the grief that can be caused when people get assimilated by them.
If I had my writing journey to do all over again, I would write a bunch of manuscripts first and THEN study the craft, once my own personal writing instincts were deeply entrenched.

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Nicole

February 22, 2011

“If I had my writing journey to do all over again, I would write a bunch of manuscripts first and THEN study the craft, once my own personal writing instincts were deeply entrenched.”
Brenda,I had five novels written before I learned that they were all “too long”, two of them had male protagonists in romance/women’s fiction, etc. Not necessarily the best way to go about it, but you’re right: I knew what I liked and what I wanted to write. The fine-tuning came with the other stuff that made sense to me.
I think the plain old common sense factor is what inspired me about Athol’s post–that he nailed the stubborn trendy dials set by current professionals and their unflinching police-state barkings about what “good” writing is. N and B. A., you know me too well. 😉

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Kristen Torres-Toro

February 22, 2011

Wow.

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Nicole

February 22, 2011

Yeah.

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Jessica Thomas

February 25, 2011

Great article. The novel I’m reading right now is first person and it’s GREAT…and Catcher in the Rye is one of my favorites. I write in 3rd person, pretty much all the time, but now I’m inspired to try others. I’ll have to experiment and not worry about what the “people in the know” think.

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Nicole

February 25, 2011

My seventh novel is mostly first person (from a male protagonist’s POV). The other six (and eight and nine) are what they call now [I guess] close third person. It was fun to write in first person but beware: once you do it, you’re tempted to stay in that mindset and keep writing in first person.
Many years ago I used to hate first person. Really did. In recent years if I decided I still hated it, I wouldn’t have many novels to read. There’s a ton of it out here.

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