Of Stores and Cemeteries

Today during lunch I got off my butt, left the internets behind, and went for an inspirational walk.

I was beginning to feel hopeless about the novel that I haven't even started (because all my ideas are crap and I couldn't possibly write something worth reading). I've already started and abandoned several--okay, dozens--of novels and plays for exactly that reason.

But then I took a walk, to re-inspire myself, and disovered two great things:
1. There is a Border's Books & Music 5 minutes from my office, and
2. There is a small, old (1876) cemetery on the way.

I love old cemeteries--wandering there, wondering about the people whose lives are captured in such brief words on granite. And the names! My favorites of today: Hepzibah and Hester. Nobody uses those any more.

At Border's, I wandered around, thinking about whatever books caught my eye, and expanded/refined my lists of what I do and don't like in novels. A sampling:

Some Themes/Things I do like:
Plucky female heroines
People triumphing in the face of adversity/extraordinary/calamitous circumstances
People sacrificing everything for love
The family ties that bind and gag
Dark/sad/serious novels
A quick, terse writing style, that assumes the reader is intelligent
Realistic (truthful) relationships
Stories based on true stories/art/other novels
Subtle but important moral themes

Some Themes/Things I don't like:
Vapid chick-lit that focuses on shoes, sex, shopping, and landing a huband/dreamy boyfriend
Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels
Romance novels
Mystery/Thriller novels
Dialogue that is too "on the nose" (too obvious and unrealistic)
Un-funny humor
Intellectual for the point of being intellectual, not artistic/good noveling choices
Novels bogged down in historical details
Obvious and forced moral themes

Now the trick is to choose a subject/themes that I do like, and not fall into something I don't like because I think I should or it would be easier.