(really, writers who DIDN'T) Re: Writers who jumped the shark

In article <MPG.19666fb7d15d28398b139@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Eric Jarvis
<web@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> prolific authors I'm more worried about are Ian Rankin 
> and Carl Hiaassen...both of whom seem to be painting 
> themselves into a corner...Rankin because he keeps 
> returning to a character (Rebus) who seems to be 
> "developing" by going in circles...and Hiassen because 
> there are only so many books you can write about hard 
> bitten, disillusioned local re****ters before it starts 
> seeming cliched...I suspect both need to stretch 
> themselves a bit or they'll start getting very dull

I think you have put your finger on what a prolific writer needs to do. 
Others in this thread have pointed out that Terry Pratchett and J. K.
Rowling haven't gotten dull; they seem to improve as time goes on. The
canonical, and horrific, example of failure to improve is David
Eddings.  

I'm way behind in reading Pratchett, so I can't say for sure that he
has grown wiser, as well as funnier, with time.  That's my impression
however.

Rowlings gets darker and more complex with every book.  There were
rumours that she had this all planned out even before the first book
was published.  That, if true, is awesome.  I bet that many novelists
don't look ahead more than one book. Dickens seldom made it even that
far.

-- 
Chris Henrich
"Similarly, while 'trading' we should not introduce errors through
sloppiness,
we should do it carefully and systematically ... ."
                             E. Dijkstra, _A Discipline of Programming_,
p. 56