I find it romantic, I must admit. Even though I have discovered that when someone says, this is a book I bled to write, the book turns out to be too… small. Biographical, personal, describing some kind of ordinary drama, sometimes hidden behind a plot. The author might bleed, but the reader won’t feel a prick. There are exceptions, of course. Always. Take Wuthering Heights. Its author is now considered almost not quite right in the head. But this is another urban legend, the legend of an extraordinary author, with a bizarre personality, extravagant views, and twisted mind.

Although… a writing mentor I had, long long ago, asked me. If you knew you’d die in a year. Which book would you write?
Maybe that would be the true book of my heart then?

“And most of the time, they’re just full of themselves.”

hehe… they are!

And the social culture places more value on a creative work if its author cried bloody tears and washed Prozac down with pure whiskey while writing it — as opposed to a story which was written by an author snickering over her own jokes, entertaining herself all along the way and having a damn good time in general

Isn’t that the truth? And I, for one, am sick of it.

But I also think that many AUTHORS buy into this mindset as well…they only think it’s the book of their heart if they bleed to write it. And most of the time, they’re just full of themselves. Sorry, but that’s what I’ve encountered. I prefer to be entertained…and in terms of commercial fiction, I think I’m in the majority!

Julie

Although, what do I know? I’ve never had a book that I couldn’t stop telling, a book that haunted me, a book that I simply wasn’t able not to write, a book that was catharsis and suffering and heartbreak, and oh such sweet pain. Jo Beverly’s definition. I couldn’t for the life of me choose just one idea, just one work, to tinker with it for years, or to focus on it completely. My attention span ain’t that big

But at the same time, once the “external” changes are needed–i.e., the changes I didn’t originally want or plan–the book goes away from my heart and enters the wallet zone. The book of my heart, in my own definition, is simply something written to please no one but myself. Not the editor. Not the audience. With not a care what anyone might think. Although by a whim of fate, it can be as commercial as they get. I have one like that.
So far, I’ve been lucky to have pretty light editing, but I’m dreading the time when I get ten pages of edits and realize I think they are all wrong.

Actually, that was my point. About the voice and marketability. You seemed to describe a situation in which a BOYV is basically a commercialized BOYH–but to be able to do that, one needs to have a pretty commercial voice to begin with. I.e., the market potential is already there, it just needs to be brought to the surface. In a way, it sounded almost as if finding one’s voice “helps” to make a book more commercial.

But most authors who have problems with their BOYHs being unsellable–well, most authors I know, anyway–have distinctive, developed voices. Their issue is the voice itself being not very commercial–and at the same time, fully developed–so that a radical change might be extremely difficult or cripple them creatively.

And I agree completely. It’s not good advice. It leads to “they say if you write a good book, the cream will rise to the top. In which case, my book must suck.”

Actually, some of the importance placed on BOYH–the only book worth writing–might be because for many authors, their commercial work is a game of sorts. Enjoyable. While a BOYH is an emotional storm, challenging, demanding, turning upside out. And the social culture places more value on a creative work if its author cried bloody tears and washed Prozac down with pure whiskey while writing it — as opposed to a story which was written by an author snickering over her own jokes, entertaining herself all along the way and having a damn good time in general

Which is precisely why it is not good advice for someone (an editor, an agent, a fellow writer) to tell you to “write the book of your heart.” Your heart will not necessarily guide you to what is commercial and will actually sell. And so many writers get so upset when the “book of their heart” is rejected. It’s so personal!

You do have a point that my voice is naturally commercial. Always has been–hopefully, always will be! My first three books didn’t sell b/c I simply hadn’t found my voice yet. Luckily, once I found my voice, it happened to be the right time for it in the marketplace. Luck, luck, luck.

But the whole point of my article was to dispel the notion that the book of the heart was the only book worth writing. I have no problem if people want to write a book like that, but as I said, most of those books are not commercial and therefore, a writer who follows the BOYH advice may be in for great disappointment. I’m not talking about people who are writing for themselves, but those who are writing to SELL.

Diana, thanks for bringing attention to the article!

Julie

If I’m not putting my heart into a story, if this isn’t something I feel I need/want to tell, then what I’m doing isn’t going to come easy. Doesn’t make it a book of your heart, though — those can be like kudzu in your brain.

You should totally try first person! Didn’t I read you once saying that you pick a new challenge every year — one year it was to write as sexy as possible (A+, btw), the next year was plot, etc.?

(Of course, I must warn you that the danger in that is that now that I’ve done 1st person, I don’t want to go back! LOL)

Does it stirke anyone else as odd that the password of the day is sukymlux? It seems somehow *dirty*.

What she does say is:

One last note about that troublesome book of the heart–Several editors at NINC noted that in about half the cases they’d seen, The Book of the Heart was dark and depressing. That too many authors are using the “book of the heart” as a catharsis and while sometimes it works as both a healing tool and a means of entertaining readers, most times it does not.

So these “angsty” books are in SOME instances the author’s therapy. She’s not saying that BOYH is always angsty and BOYV is always light. But if you want to be successful in the realm of commercial fiction, then you should be entertaining, whether you are entertaining with deep angst and emotion, with fear, with fantasy, with comedy. That’s what commercial fiction does. It’s an entertainment.