Musings on Writing

I am currently reading “The Bourne Sanction” by Eric Van Lustbader and Robert Ludlum. It is a really good book. I haven’t read the three previous Bourne installments, but I have watched their respective movies. I wished I had read those three books that have been written by the late Ludlum himself, so that I can do a better appraisal of the prose of this book. Nevertheless, it has a superb prose and I like it very much.

Thrillers like other kinds of literary work consist of several dimensions. One dimension is the element of suspense and plot. No objection to that. But the prose is important, as well. One of my favorite authors, who is a bestselling author in the thriller genre, does not enjoy a particular power in writing fluent prose. This I regret. He is my real favorite because of his school of thought and so on.

The importance of the element of balance cannot be overemphasized. I hate books laden with lengthy, descriptive passages which are of no avail to the main objective of the book. There are plenty of such compulsory writers, some of them even famous in literary circles. But for someone like me who is interested in good thriller books, the artistic element of the book must be in a delicate balance with its being a hilarious thriller.

The element of humor and the writer’s personality sometimes gets very outstanding and ruins the book to some extent. The mood and morality of the author should not be conspicuous in a fiction book. This is another place where balance plays an important role.

So much for musing in a field I have no expertise in. Today, I became 38. On to a better year I hope.