In writing, this keeps me up at night. It is a question that arises out of nowhere, usually before I even put one finger on the blank sheet: Is this the best I can do?
It feels more like a reproach than an actual question.
Is this story that just fell into my lap one morning the best it could possibly be, at least, the best I am able to come up with? I am talking about Spellbloom, the fantasy story I have been working on for almost a year. In writing, everything is possible, yet sometimes I feel strange limitations weighing down on me.
For one, so many stories have already been done, told and written, and well at that. I know I won't re-invent the wheel with mine. So what is it, I hope to achieve with my story? Write a mediocre one and hope to find an audience who doesn't know any better? I know it shouldn't be like that, I do loathe the idea of advantageous writing like that. As a reader it makes me angry. Sometimes though, I find myself hoping that no one may notice my amateurism.
Or do I find the strength to see writing as my personal agenda, my inner calling. At times I find it ridiculous, but on the other hand, artists are a ridiculous and self-absorbed bunch. I have Bukowski's quote in my mind. Don't ever write a novel unless it hurts like a hot turd coming out. - And sometimes it does hurt. Other times however, I feel as though I am looking for the easy route, not the complicated one, avoiding the one that would make the story more intense and less predictable. I feel limited by my own inability to "torture" my characters. I know that I must do it, in order that the reader may see what those characters are made of .
George R. R. Martin said in an interview that one particular part of Book 3 was the hardest thing he ever had to write, so he put it off until the rest of the book was written. When I read A Storm of Swords, I suffered through that part with him. It was one of the most heartbreaking moments. In hindsight, it was one of the best moments. So, I know I have to overcome this. My inner voice may be right to remind me of that.
 |
| Mieze likes... |
I like this post, Dana. I have wondered the same. My musings on the subject are often precipitated by having just read another author bemoan low book sales and how they can't climb out of the glut of ebooks. The bottom line (I think) must be something like this: Not everyone writes the next big thing. Some people write books that fall short of having what it takes--even if their books are reviewed by the NYT and PW, they're never going to rise to the top. Are they entertaining? Maybe. Probably to someone.
ReplyDeleteI like that you brought up mediocrity. It is a BIG subject, and a big question. What is mediocrity in books? Because it is quite subjective. And, is there an audience for it? This is what I mean when I ask that question. My mom and all four of my sisters read Harlequin (romance) books when I was growing up. I never read one. I started to read one, and I recall thinking that I see how a person could read them, but they lacked punch, originality, or something--they just lacked something. I never finished the book. I was a young teenager, and didn't understand that what the book lacked was an exciting plot and deeply fleshed out characters. I can laugh about it now--but then, I didn't know what a book needed within its pages to make me laugh, cry, hurt for the characters, and be unable to set it down till I finished it. Now I understand how books speak to a person. How a story can follow a person for years, sort of haunt them because it was so good. When that happens, I know a book stepped past mediocrity.
Having said all that, I want to go back to those Harlequins--still alive and well and providing steady paychecks to some of those authors. Is there a shame in mediocrity? I can think of a dozen books I've read since the beginning of the year that in all honesty, were middle of the road. They were entertaining, but nothing about them knocked my socks off. If I had a crystal ball, maybe I would have skipped them, but since I finished them, they were good enough to have entertained. So, I think there is a place for those books.
Whether that place is where the authors thought they would land is another story. I don't know. If an author pens a tale believing it to be the next Fire and Ice, Harry Potter, or Shades of Gray, and it falls short, there is bound to be disappointment. But, how many of us write books believing we have mega hits on our hands?
I don't really think that is the case. I think we are searching for an audience that likes our work, that is entertained by our work. And I don't know about you, but I am entertained by my characters when I write them, lol...I get to meet them first. (Pantser here, not plotter) and I get to discover their quirks, their insecurities, the strengths, and I am the first to see where their travels take them. I know...it is just a side bonus of writing.
Along with that side bonus, I climb inside their heads. I suspend my disbelief, and I react deeply and emotionally. I empathize with the people in my books, and that is (I think) the secret to having the readers empathize with the characters.
Try immersing yourself in their world, their heads, their predicaments. Try facing their struggles, their risks, their letdowns, their triumphs.
ReplyDeleteDon't slip into standing back and watching them from the outside. Because the reader will too. And that makes a disconnect.
And...write in rough draft. Period. Don't try to edit as you go. I know that will be extra difficult for you-- with your editing analytical mind. :-) But you can do it.
And take all of this advice with a grain of salt. I am still unpublished ;-) All I draw from are my little triumphs--like having readers stay up all night to finish my book, sobbing openly several times, and wanting to throw the manuscript against a wall ( I didn't stop smiling all day when she told me that). I have no formal training. No creative writing classes behind me. All I can go by is the advice my daughter gave to me in 2005. "If you don't feel it while you are writing--don't empathize with your characters, then your reader never will either."
I think that is the difference between books that entertain, and books that are above and beyond.
And since you brought up torturing characters, --Across the Night Sky is book 1, Book 2 "Across The Rim" is written (380 pages) and Book 3 is soundly stalled in the middle of plot conversion. I have left three characters stranded on a sandbar with savages (2-legged upright predators) advancing on them. Help is on the way--a search party. But one of them has been attacked and is already bleeding to death. Two of those characters were introduced within the first 6 or 7 pages of book 1. It tortures the characters, it tortures the readers, and it is torturing the WRITER--knowing that I have to eventually return to it and finish off a character I've already tortured with poppy addiction and loneliness--now I have to write his death. *sigh*.
Oh, did I just go off an another tangent? :-) lol...
I have to go edit now, but before I go, I just want to tell you, I think you are a marvelous writer. We all feel insecure from time to time. Give yourself permission to step inside your characters. Choose one. Become him/her/it, and write about what's going on, how you feel about the other characters, what you like, what you are afraid of etc. Explore them (by inventing them).
A big hug to you. :-)
Lol, you amaze me, Teresa, and your musings on writing always have so much wisdom to them, it makes me glad we met all anew :)
ReplyDeleteOhooh harlequin romance novels, I've had my share of experience with those, I must admit. And while they - as you said - oftentimes lack in the idea department, some of them make up for it in writing. Ok, I don't know if it's offensive to call Victoria Holt (which is the one I'm referring to) a harlequin romance writer - since it's more in the historical romance fiction department, but it sort of plays in that corner. I guess you're right in your assumptions on why they lack the "certain something" other recommended bestsellers do. Still, they may be the closeted bestsellers no one knows about because NYT usually doesn't recommend the guilty pleasures.
But regarding your question, the big one, "Do you write because you believe you have a big hit on your hands?" We may forget it sometimes, and this belief is not the reason why we started writing, but it may in my case be the reason I haven't given it up. I see some similarities in you and me regarding the urge to write, I think.
You have these big ideas and a whole story-universe all mapped out, and a very unique point of view to portray all that, I can feel all of that in Across The Night Sky. You are a serious writer. I am convinced the story could be a big hit. I sort of believe my fantasy story could be successful too, at least the idea is, if I weren't such an execution-dork spoiling important scenes and key moments with bad writing... well, that's my baggage :) But I believe in the basic idea.
Your advice on editing hits the nail exactly where it hurts.. that IS my problem, over-editing and SSS may have taught me some bad habits in that area - the six sentence editing technique.
Thank you for the last paragraph... all of it is true. Yesyes and yes, I couldn't agree more: I need to first step outside my head, then inside my characters so to speak, that's what I have to do and you know it! :D