What are examples of risk-taking writing that come to mind, and what makes it risk-taking? I was justthinking about it and realise that I really don't know. What are your ideas???

I don't know, either! But I think it's not necessarily writing that tackles 'big' subjects.

Frances

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A very good question, by the way!

controversial subjects?

Something like a book written about the London Underground bombings from the justified viewpoint of one of the bombers. That would be risk taking writing.

JB

Rebbecca Ray has just written a book, Newfoundland, that is 1001 pages long, and is about seemingly mundane people/subjects. I'm half way through it and actually it strikes me as a very risky, brave piece of writing, for its ambition and scale and scope. That's a different kind of risk-taking to that mentioned above, but equally valid I think- in an extremely competitive market, bringing out a huge, slow book is quite something.

Also, books that play hugely with form and style- Mark Haddon's Dog in the Night Time in some ways, although now it is such a solid seller it's hard to envisage, and books that are stomach churning in their intensity, like I remember Last Exit To Brooklyn being.

Good call Anna. Yes, there is a genre of writing known as 'high risk' which is mainly hardboiled or contoversial in tone and topic. But to write something against the norm, or outside the stifling parameters of publisher's and agent's desires, is also risky...and to be commended.

JB

I think all writing should be risk-taking, in that it should always be a bit of a leap in the dark. The risks the writer's taken may not always be apparent to the reader.

F

Anna once recommended a book on here called "You Are Not a Stranger Here" by Adam Haslett. It is a collection of short stories, some of which I consider as risk taking because they don't quite conform to the standard flow of a short story. In particular, "The Good Doctor" which is one of the best short stories I've ever read. It ends with a bump, and then you get that wonderful moment of realisation, like looking at the vase and suddenly seeing it as two human faces looking at each other.

Colin

I once read a book while falling out of an exploding areoplane. That was pretty risky.

JB

That sounds like risk-taking reading, JB. What was the book?

F

What a cool new sport. Extreme Reading.

Predictable Surprises: The Disasters You Should Have Seen Coming and How to Prevent Them by Max H. Bazerman.