![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I love Mark Twain--doesn't everybody?--and while re-reading one of my favorite of his essays, I had a thought. The essay is "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," a hilarious critique of "The Leatherstocking Tales" by James Fenimore Cooper, the only one of which you have likely heard being The Last of the Mohicans. Although they were hailed as classics and great works of literature in their day, they've largely fallen out of circulation, largely for the reasons Mark Twain lists. (Though a modern critic would add quite harsh words about the overwhelming levels of prejudice and condescension towards non-whites in the stories.)
Anyway, the point is, that most of the problems Twain lists can also be found in the worse kinds of fanfic, the kind that make discerning readers hit the back button quite quickly. I know that none of you, dear Readers, would ever commit these heinous crimes against the Literary Art, but in the hope that some among you may find them Useful, I hereby present "The nineteen rules governing literary art in domain of romantic fiction" as given by Mark Twain, with some additions by myself.
There will always be bad!fic, if for no other reason than that every writer has 1 million bad words in zir, and zie just has to write until zie gets them out. (I know there is a great deal of my early work--two whole novels, and some other stuff--that will never see the light of day again.) Still, it's a lot quicker to get those million bad words out if one has some idea of what to look for in good work, because if you can find it in your own, it's a lot easier to polish what you've got.
Anyway, the point is, that most of the problems Twain lists can also be found in the worse kinds of fanfic, the kind that make discerning readers hit the back button quite quickly. I know that none of you, dear Readers, would ever commit these heinous crimes against the Literary Art, but in the hope that some among you may find them Useful, I hereby present "The nineteen rules governing literary art in domain of romantic fiction" as given by Mark Twain, with some additions by myself.
( Nineteen Rules ).
There will always be bad!fic, if for no other reason than that every writer has 1 million bad words in zir, and zie just has to write until zie gets them out. (I know there is a great deal of my early work--two whole novels, and some other stuff--that will never see the light of day again.) Still, it's a lot quicker to get those million bad words out if one has some idea of what to look for in good work, because if you can find it in your own, it's a lot easier to polish what you've got.
