Solemn Fiction Face

[mrissa]

I just got another rejection letter that said that they didn't want a story because it was "too much fun."

Well, for heaven's sake, I can understand that. Who would want it to be fun? Fiction is a Serious Business, after all. This is me making my Solemn Fiction Face: ... oh, right, I don't have any photographic record of my Solemn Fiction Face. Well, trust me, it's very solemn.

This just sounds like something some loser would post in his journal: "They reject me because I'm too much fun for them, maaaaan! They're just too uptight for my funky fiction groove, maaaaaan!" But it's what they themselves wrote, and, seriously: what kind of person can write that with a straight face? Now I know, I suppose, and will attempt to only send that editor fiction no one could possibly have any fun with.

I've told several of you this: when I was little, I thought I didn't like fun. No thanks, no fun for me! I'll just go over there and have not-fun. I thought I didn't like it because every time someone's mom said, "Oh, come on! It'll be fuunnnnn!", I ended up miserable. But I grew out of it and figured out that the problem was with their definitions, not the term itself.

This book is a pretty serious thing. It has moments that I think are pure fun, because, hello!, I do not write castor oil. A few of my first-readers have talked about how they felt like they'd been kicked in the stomach after reading The Grey Road (that's my second book, for those of you who didn't buy the souvenir program at the gate), but it still has moments of people being wry or sarcastic or just silly at each other. Because that's what people do, and because I like that stuff, and because it belonged in there. I'm the author, and sometimes that means it's my job to make you smile while I'm kicking your solar plexus. You can thank me later.

Writing for adults, I'm telling you. It's for the birds. Don't know why I do it, except of course that this book right here, it is not a YA, and it's what I had to write. So. Back to Chapter 43, wherein the main character falls over unexpectedly. Unexpectedly for me, I mean. The reader, it is to be hoped, will not be particularly surprised.

Too much fun. Good grief.

Comments

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Momma don't allow no guitar pickin' 'round here.

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

I get a lot of "This is too fun(ny)" rejections as well.

[sraun]

My darling wife has a related problem - she's writing two things right now. Humor, and 'Space Opera Meets Bertie Wooster'. You have to find the exact right publisher for humor - there are so many different kinds!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

But it's not humor. Only about half of the "too much fun" rejections actually seem to apply to stories that are funny.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

That's... mystifying. Your phrasing in the first sentence indicates that this is not the first accusation of "too much fun," or am I reading this wrong?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Not at all wrong: I have gotten "too much fun" from several different anthologies and magazines. I've also gotten a few "too funny" comments, but I distinguish between the two. (I don't think of myself as a funny writer in the first place, though.)

[pameladean]

I used to get comments like that on my papers in graduate school. Because you can't ever acknowledge that, like Shakespeare's comedies are funny. I roll my eyes.

Pamela

[pameladean]

I leave out commas, too. Sheesh.
Pamela

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, of course Shakespeare's comedies aren't funny. They are Very Serious Art. If something sounds like a juvenile sexual reference, it's something very deep you do not properly understand. And if there did happen to be something funny, it was carefully calculated by Shakespeare as a release of dramatic tension and certainly didn't actually amuse him or anyone else.

Aren't you glad we got that cleared up? Honestly, some people's former grad students.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Well, right, I distinguish between fun and funny, as well. I've gotten too funny (for our magazine, anyway; the editors otherwise seem to enjoy laughing). But never "too much fun."

Uh, yeah. Hm.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but that one wasn't *too much fun*.

Sheesh. :)

[chance88088.livejournal.com]

hee. did i mention you all are just too much fun?

oh, at least you aren't getting the "this story/you are all kinds of insane" rejections. well ok, i kinda like being called insane, but that's just because i am perverse.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I am simply staggered. Obviously this editor is not aiming for my book-buying dollar, that's for damn sure.

[blzblack.livejournal.com]

"I do not write castor oil."

Ha! Save that quote!

Trent

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh no! Too much fun personally! I-the-person am sure to be rejected by the Chance soon. Sniffle.

Huh?

[dendrophilous.livejournal.com]

That's just Too Weird.

I want to know what magazines publish stuff that is Fun, because I am tired of the depressing stuff.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

For God's sake, what is WRONG with these people?

I think that some folks are too into the "art is Very Serious Business" shit, and don't actually consider that things should be enjoyed for being enjoyable!

I mean, Shakespeare's stuff can be quite funny! (Especially Romeo and Juliet...but then, I have a sick sense of humor.) And Charles Dickens certainly had quite the sense of humor. Certainly Jane Austen was no stick in the mud...

Oi. I blame the schools.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

To be clear, I would like to draw a distinction between recognizing that someone is trying to be funny and actually finding them funny. I hate Charles Dickens (his books, at least; I have nothing against the man himself, and we've tried to be more careful about that phrasing now that things like "I'm going to throw Jo Walton on the counter while we eat dinner, okay?" are actions I can actually picture). When he is trying to be funny, he almost never tickles me. That doesn't mean he was always deathly serious, though, just that he isn't to my taste. I find him hilarious sometimes when he wasn't trying, though....

I blame the schools, too. Not everybody's freshman honors English teacher croaked "bullshit" in a frog voice when reading the appropriate play. Poor things.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Heeheehee. I'm picturing this and giggling muchly.