My Favorite Author

Genesis one
Lesson two - written assignment

My Favorite Author
by
Sunshine

It’s hard to pick a favorite author when you are an avid reader. There are so many authors that I enjoy, and many reasons I enjoy them. It is important to me for an author to have good descriptive skills, to tell a satisfying story, and portray characters that I can connect to.

Being a fan of the fantasy genre means having the desire to “go somewhere” entirely different from the normal routine. Being able to clearly describe a planet with three moons, the castle wizard school by the lake, or the “murky” forest, with big spiders, that the “quest” has to get through to reach the dragon is a necessary skill for the authors I enjoy. I want to see it. I also want to hear, feel, smell, and sometimes even taste it. I like nothing better than to totally immerse myself into the little details that make their world different from mine. Tolkien was a master at this, especially with The Hobbit. I can still picture in my mind Murkwood forest and the dragons mountain lair, even though it has been quite awhile since I last read it. Rowling’s wizard world is also a great example. The fact that the movies often look extremely close to how I imagined it tells me that she described it well enough for there to be a universal understanding of her ideas.

To keep a reader satisfied there must be a compelling story. There needs to be a clear plot with just the right amount of conflict. Too much conflict can be confusing, and too little will be boring. I like an obvious main conflict with a few subplot twists. However, if there are several strong conflicts, and each character is involved in several plot twists, it is too difficult. If I need to take notes just to keep it all clear, then it becomes work instead of pleasure. While it can be dull for a story to be too predictable, some level of predictability is comforting to the reader. Any major surprises need to be logically explained. Rowling is very satisfying in this area. There is the main conflict of Harry-vs-Voldemart throughout all seven books. This makes it predictable for the reader to know that there will be a final showdown at some point. There are several other subplots that also push the story forward, and are resolved along the way. This gives the reader a sense of satisfaction while waiting for the big conflict to be resolved in book seven.

Sometimes the setting is great, and the plot moves well, but the characters fall flat. To make my favorite author list, the writer has to portray characters I can connect to. I want to feel as though they live, breath, and could actually do the things they do. I want to feel like I could step into their world and actually meet them. I may not like them, but I want to understand them. This was the case with Voldemort. I didn’t like him much, but I understood him completely. Rowling gave enough background information for me to grasp his motivation and personality. This allowed me to understand the fear of the other characters better also. She also did a great job with Harry, and the natural stages he went through growing up. At first, I didn’t like book five because I didn’t like the way she portrayed Harry. I felt he was too emotionally volatile, and came off sounding self centered, rude, and thoughtless. Then, my son turned 15. She was pretty much dead on target.

As an avid reader I have many favorite authors. To be on my favorite’s list a writer must use all of the senses to bring me into their world, provide a detailed and interesting story, and fill it with complex, meaningful characters. There are so many authors that fill these requirements, it would take more than one assignment to share them all. A few worth noting are Tolkien, Rowling, Mercedes Lackey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, David Eddings, and Anne McCaffery. If you enjoy fantasy, you are fairly certain to enjoy any of these authors.