Do you ever receive manuscripts that have such "flowery language" that it feels like the author is intruding on the story? Do you ever read manuscripts where the language gets in the way of the story and it feels like the author is trying to impress you with his/her writing instead of simply telling a story? Do you publish them? What's your preference?Yes.
Yes.
No.
As a publisher, whatever is currently selling best. As a person, there is a time and a need for both--sometimes I want to soak in beautiful language. Sometimes I want a quick escape.
The technical term is "literary novel." It's hard to do well.
2 comments:
It's true that many literary novels do use flowery language, but that's not necessarily a requirement of the genre. A literary novel is generally one that doesn't wrap up everything for the reader, but leaves things a little open-ended for the reader to decide for themselves what happens next.
Most of the time, flowery language and descriptions are used by people who believe those are the hallmarks of a good writer. Most of the time, it's an amaturish attempt and should be edited out with a very fine rake.
Beulah
True, but in today's publishing world, you are more likely to find flowery language in literary novels and noticeably missing from other genres.
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