Just Dead

[threemonkeys]

There must be some proper term for it. Over the years I have thought that there is a quantity in novel writing that should be measured alongside plot, character, pacing, setting etc. For want of a better term (there must be one) I call it pageturnability - that quality which makes the reader just want to read the next page to see what is going to happen. Some authors seem to have only the ability to produce this characteristic and none of the others - you often find them on the best seller lists. Of course some top selling authors have the other factors as well - it is just one factor in the big picture. I.e. quality and pageturnability are not mutually exclusive - just independent variables. There really really must be a term for this.

This came to mind as I was reading Dead Famous by Ben Elton at a very late hour. It certainly has pageturnability. It is supposed to have humour but never raised a chuckle. It is supposed to have satire, but trying to be satirical about reality shows is really quite self defeating - it is difficult to be more ridiculous that the real thing. It is supposed to have mystery, but the murderer was so predictable that they were obvious as soon as they were introduced. That is all pretty harsh I suppose as it was pleasant enough and if there were no actual laughs it has a few wryly amusing moments. But still it had more pageturnability than anything else.

There really really really must be a proper term for it. I suppose whoever has the proper term also has identified the elements that make it up - ones that come to mind easily are simple language, lots of small rolling crisis points, cliffhanger changes in focus. I wonder if the people who run writing courses teach this stuff?

Comments

[grant-stone.livejournal.com]

I don't know what it's called either, but Ben Elton's got it in spades. One of my guilty pleasures. And hey, he's still miles better than Dan Brown...

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I would say that Dan Brown has a fair bit of it too. Just not much else. Although with Ben Elton, you don't get that nasty taste in your mouth afterwards.

[grant-stone.livejournal.com]

I don't get Dan Brown at all. Got exactly one paragraph into The Da Vinci Code before the book met the wall. Alan Gold did it far better years ago.

But it's definitely a thing and needs a name. Turnability? Inverse sleep index?

Best book ever for it: Stephen King - Misery.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

I've never read Misery, but other SK books I have read have had pageturnability in large amount.

[deborahb.livejournal.com]

Pageturnability. I like it! And I like that it's actually a *different* quality to plot, character, etc.

That totally explains how I got to the end of The Da Vinci Code (though I confess I didn't actually *read* all those pages).

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Likewise, I got through the Da Vinci Code very quickly for the same reason.