Should the book be fun? Should the work be fun? If it’s not—in the immortal words of Ben and Jerry—why do it?
I’m wrestling with this question within my own work (KJ here): The Chicken Sisters, my most successful book, is unquestionably “fun”. Fun hook, fun competition, fun setting, even the drama fits into the category of “fun”. And I like to read fun… some of the time. But not all of the time.
That said, I don’t read things I’m not enjoying (with some exceptions). I mused on that more than a little bit here, in #AmReading:
and also here:
And now I’m trying to answer the same question in writing. As a reader, not every book has to be The Blonde Identity. As a writer, not every book has to be The Chicken Sisters. But if it’s not “fun” what is it? What should that be?
I put that question to Jennie on the podcast in which we’re checking in pretty much weekly on her progress in turning her non-fiction blueprint into a book, and mine on doing the same for my novel, and here’s what she said:
