So Molly Ringwald not only wrote a novel, but it was published recently by HarperCollins. There was a review by Dan Kois of When It Happens to You: A Novel in Stories in yesterday's NYT, and I'm going to quote a chunk of it:
"...the stories feel less like narratives than like exposition uploads, with action happening mostly in the past or in characters' imaginations. Ringwald's characters feel rather than do, and their feelings are often expressed schematically rather than dramatically. 'Pain, regret and guilt mingled just under the surface,' we're told of Greta's mom, 'the aggregate of all her profound sadness.' That's really a lot of profound sadness. But it's not a story. Most M.F.A. students would hear this in the first week of class. They wouldn't have the bad fortune to have their still-unformed stories picked apart in public. On the other hand, most M.F.A. students wouldn't have the good fortune to get their debut collection published by Harper Collins."
We can debate about what a story is and about the doing and feeling of characters, but most novice writers, whether or not they're in an M.F.A. program, have their characters observing a lot and feeling a lot instead of doing a lot, and that's just a part of the journey of becoming a fiction writer. It takes guts and skill and practice to get your characters to start taking action, to start making decisions, and this is one thing that separates the novice writers and the professionals writers.
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