The Reigate Squires: Discernment

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Title: The Reigate Squires: Discernment
Author: gardnerhill                        
Word Count: 60
Rating: G
Warning: None.
Summary: It’s not just knowing how to write, but what to write.
                                                                                       
***

Holmes frowned at my manuscript. “You immortalise a petty family squabble over land but not the broad-reaching villainy of Baron Maupertuis?”

I hid my smile at his pique over Paget’s illustration of his feigned faint. “That case showed your gifts at their best, truly. But Strand readers would yawn over the details of Dutch stock market fraud. A murder, however…”

Comments

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Aw. Holmes' ego's bruised a bit. Makes me wonder who's in charge of the illustrator.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Apparently no one, at this point.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Watson knows his audience well.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

As did Doyle, and anyone who wrote for mass-audience consumption in the fiction magazines of the time. Rule 1 is Don't Bore the Reader.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

It's a very good point. Must admit I never read the bit about Baron Maupertuis and think: "Ooh, wish Watson had told us the full story." I get to 'politics and finance' and my mind wanders. Not proud of it but there you go.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

"To fully understand Holmes' brilliance in taking down the villain Baron Maupertuis, my readers must first understand the role of credited debentures in a stock reversal. The following quotes by four leading economists will...Hey, don't put me back on the newstand!"

[debriswoman]

You are not wrong, Watson:-)

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Watson, like any good writer of fiction for the market, knows that just because you CAN write about something doesn't mean that someone else will want to read it.

[grrlpup]

A murder with fake fainting and blaming overturned furniture on someone else! Baron Maupertuis would have to cut quite a caper to compete.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

I can see the Baron fuming in prison - bad enough he's foiled by Holmes but Watson doesn't even think he's interesting enough to write about.