Reasons for Writing Fiction
Sometimes it seems that everywhere I go and everyone I meet is writing a novel.I’ve been puzzling about this, wondering if it’s like when you’re pregnant and you see other pregnant women wherever you venture. But then since these days I’m writing another book about
how to write fiction, that analogy doesn’t quite work. All I know is that almost every email I receive from strangers and every gathering I attend is blooming with wanna-be fiction writers. Now, if you’re a serious writer you know that many of these hopefuls will not be published. I like to give people a leg up in the game, so I think writing fiction should start with desire, coupled with a deep understanding of the underpinnings of fiction. And fiction writing just isn’t for everyone. It’s a marathon not a sprint, and it requires a blend of skills that are nothing less than astounding. Thus, here are reasons you might want to consider for writing fiction:
1. Because you’ve been an avid and omnivorous reader since childhood when books whisked you away to faraway worlds, where you met ordinary and magical types, and were wrung dry with worry over fantastical or believable situations. This love of story has never left you and sometimes you feel so alive in the midst of the story that the everyday world exists as an irritant or interruption.
2. You love words and have a passionate and respectful involvement with them. Words excite you, give you a sort of high, and you’re always on the hunt for perfect language to match exactly what you need to say.
3. You love to write. This sounds like an obvious point, but some people prefer to have written and find most aspects of the writing game excruciating.
4. You’re able to spend long hours in solitude with characters and your imagination for companionship. If the alone part is too much of a burden, you can always drag your laptop to a coffee shop and the caffeine just might give you an edge.
5. You’re analytical and a problem solver and are part puzzle-meister, part engineer and can not only wrestle with story problems, but can also devise elaborate situations that unfold on the page and fit together like the hundreds of parts and gizmos of an airplane. You understand that characters including their back stories comprise the wings, conflict is the engine, suspense if the fuel, and the body of the plane is a situation where fascinating story people are embroiled without parachutes.
6. You’re not afraid to edit and revise heavily. In fact, you can unflinchingly hack out chapters, change the viewpoint if the one in use is not working and trim scenes, beginnings, middles and endings. On the other hand, when some aspect of the story is thin, you’re also able strengthen it and build in complications and subplots to increase conflict and prove your story world is a vivid and complicated place.
7. You’re capable of handling criticism and using it to better your work.
8. You’re in it for life. Fiction isn’t for dabblers and it’s important to understand that agents and publishers are interested in writers who are in for the long haul. They want to know you plan on building a market segment of faithful readers and you’ll deliver the goods to these readers again and again.
9. The more you read, the more you long to write your own stories. Sometimes this urge comes from dissatisfaction with books you’ve read, that “I can do this better’ feeling. Sometimes you want to write novels because other writers have sparked story ideas or the beauty of their language or depth of characters propels you to write your own.
10. You relish a challenge. Unless you’re climbing Everest or attempt other feats of derring-do, in writing fiction you push yourself more than you can in everyday life. You explore the truths, hurts and hungers of the human experience with more scrutiny. You enter the minds of madmen, the fears of children, the lust of lovers, the promise of redemption.
11. You’ve tapped into all the rich mythology and archetypes of humankind, that fascinating history of the human heart as told in stories. You believe the world is told in stories, and is built of stories. You dream in stories and when you’re in a bar or coffee shop, you’re inevitably telling stories to the guy in the next stool.
12. You find fiction writing therapeutic and cathartic, and like the mystery maestro P.D. James believe that “Through fiction I can deal with strong emotions by letting my characters feel them. You also find whacking a bad guy or three cathartic, and making love to the man or woman of your dreams almost as good as the real thing."
13. When you read and write fiction, all your childhood beliefs of Santa and fairies and kingdoms beyond the sea can be entered into. Let’s face it: life can be hum drum, jobs can be sucky, kids often don’t listen to our wisdom. Life also can also be frenetic, or demanding while fiction is simply magic. And life sometimes offers a short supply of magic. You’ve discovered in real life that happily ever after usually doesn’t happen, nor are bad guys punished and in fact, are often in positions of power. But in fiction often the scales of justice balance out and the plain Janes and Johns of the world, the ones with the wicked sense of humor and amazing Scrabble scores, also score the man or woman of their deep desires. Writing magic beats the heck out of folding sock and emptying the dishwasher and writing memos for a boss who you suspect can barely read.
14. You’re lucky. Ever since you and your best pal, Chris Schofield, a chubby asthmatic, won the three-legged race in fourth grade because the other teams toppled over on the wet lawn, most things you touch turns golden. You own a horde of door prizes, raffle prizes, radio show call-in prizes, golf tournament prizes, and a gleaming new Chevy won from the local mall lottery is parked in your driveway.
15. You’ve tried your hand at short stories, but the ones you craft are so long, textured, and involved that they need a novel format to make them work. reason of all: you have a story you’re burning to tell. It won’t leave you alone and fills your imagination with its potency and you’re convinced it belongs in the larger world, your characters starring in readers’ inner cinemas.
If these reasons fit, then join the tribe of fiction writers.Your tribe is filled with noble and potent people. Now, sure there are no-talent scum bags who get published, but the more published authors I meet, the more I’m astounded by how many are great and good humans. And if none of these reasons fit, well getouttahere—how many reasons in the world are there to write?.
which explains how vocabulary boosts can energize writing--or overload it. He writes: "For special purposes, a writer's word can be anything from firkin to floccinaucinihilipilification. But to earn a place in an author's working vocabulary, a word should be at least one of the following:
Posts
