Précis 4

Please Stop Writing!

Why do even the best Novelists lose their literary magic after a few books?

Link: http://www.newsweek.com/2011/03/20/please-stop-writing.html

The article's author is very partial to mystery and detective stories. A good story and its hero can make even a many hour wait at the station bearable, if not too short. Finding such a writer is a falling-in-love sort of experience, but the real mystery is why these authors stop writing great books after a while.

David Baldacci, Alan Furst, Janet Evanovich and Stephanie Meyer, all authors of serial, many volume novels, are among those who should have stopped writing a while ago. One may only hope that J. K. Rowling will stick to her shrewd decision to write only seven Harry Potter books.

Some writers, like Michael Connelly, try to escape that fate by writing several series at once – and it seems to work. Others, apparently in search of continuing profits, use Conan Doyle's device of his hero Holmes' faked death, which was used when the author succumbed to his readers' pressure. It is understandable that writers find it hard to part with the characters that made them rich and famous, but their decision to continue at all cost often seems wrong.

With literary writers, the question 'when to stop' is equally valid, even though there are many answers to it. Some, like Harper Lee, are the authors of just one novel. Others had a long career with its peak at the end. A few, like Normal Mailer or L. M. Alcott, switched genres successfully.

Unfortunately, while the authors keep agonizing over this question, to their readers the answer is pretty obvious all too often.

Vocabulary:

1. hunky (adj, informal) - attractive and usually well-built: the film's hunky leading man; That actor is so hunky!
2. firecracker (n, countable) - a small paper cylinder that is filled with an explosive and that produces a loud noise when it explodes: boys setting off firecrackers
3. gambit (n, countable) - a planned series of moves at the beginning of a game of chess :A gambit usually involves losing a piece, such as a pawn, in order to gain an advantage later in the game.
   - something done or said in order to gain an advantage or to produce a desired result: a conversational gambit; Their opening gambit in the negotiations was to demand a wage hike.
4. condo (n, countable, AmE) – condominium - chiefly US : a room or set of rooms that is owned by the people who live there and that is part of a larger building containing other similar sets of rooms; a building that contains condominiums
5. to stall (v) - to avoid doing something or to delay someone in a deliberate way because you need more time, do not want to do something, etc. [no obj]: Please stop stalling and answer the question. [+ obj]: Try to stall them until I get the place cleaned up.
   - to stop progressing or developing [no obj]: The economic recovery has stalled. His career has stalled in recent years. [+ obj]: Budget problems have stalled the project.
6. to summon (v, formal) - to order (someone) to come to a place: The queen summoned him back to the palace. She was summoned to (appear in) court.
   - to ask for (someone or something) to come: She summoned a doctor. - to get (the courage, energy, strength, etc., that you need to do sth) by making a special effort : She couldn't summon [=muster] the strength/energy to finish the race. He finally summoned up the courage to ask her out on a date.
   - to ask or order a group of people to come together for (a meeting): The president summoned a meeting/conference.
7. fallow (adj) - not used for growing crops, not planted: fallow land/fields; allowing several fields to lie fallow
   - not active or productive: a writer who has been going through a fallow period ; There were too many promising ideas lying fallow at the company.