Immortal Story, Mortal Patience: Anne Rice Critique Inspires a New Story
Immortal Story, Mortal Patience—and an Unexpected Story Idea
Sometimes complaining about a book is apparently productive.
I recently decided to stretch my writing muscles by entering a Vocal challenge centered on critiquing something popular that you don't think is quite as wonderful as everyone says it is.
Critique is NOT my natural habitat.
If I don't like something, I normally stop reading, watching, or listening to it and wander off toward something I actually enjoy. 😂
But I love a challenge, so I chose Anne Rice's Ramses the Damned.
Years ago, a dear friend recommended the book after discovering that I wasn't a fan of Rice's vampire novels.
The premise sounded fantastic: Ramses the Great, immortality, ancient Egypt, resurrection, Edwardian London, Cleopatra, supernatural chaos...
That should be VERY much my thing.
Unfortunately, I remembered the experience of actually reading it somewhat differently:
Good God, woman, get to the point!
So, for the critique, I attempted to revisit it via audiobook.
Attempted being the important word.
I shut it off twice.
Eventually, I accepted that I already knew what I needed to say. I love Rice's concepts. I understand why so many readers adore her lush, elaborate, atmospheric style.
I simply possess considerably less patience than her prose requires.
Thus was born:
Immortal Story, Mortal Patience: A Critique of Ramses the Damned
But something rather fun happened while I was working on it.
My dad has always had a simple philosophy:
If you don't like something, go make your own your way.
And I realized that although I don't enjoy the execution of Ramses the Damned, I still LOVE the basic storytelling territory it occupies.
Ancient history meeting the modern world.
Immortality.
People and relationships surviving far beyond the time when they should have ended.
The consequences of dragging something—or someone—out of the past.
So now my critique has accidentally spawned another writing project.
Not Ramses. Not Rice's story.
Something of my own, wandering around that same delicious playground of ancient history, immortality, and supernatural trouble...
...only perhaps with a little more urgency.
Because apparently the appropriate response to yelling “GET TO THE POINT!” at someone else's book is to go write one that does.
Fair enough.
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