I have been a full time novelist for just over 13 months. In that time I have had around twenty short stories published and two books, with a third novel coming out this summer, and a fourth planned for around Christmas. On the scale of great writers, I am not even on the scale. I learn through constant research, other authors, critique groups, magazines, reading a lifetime of books and trial and error. I suspect this is how all writers learn their trade. I say this because I am no expert yet, nor may I ever be. However, as I learn things, I plan to put these very basic and obvious lessons on paper, in hopes they may save a fellow writer a bit of their own agony along the way. Feel free to disagree with me, as with all things, I may be totally wrong.
1) Know how long your story is going to be? You don’t need an exact wordcount or number of pages mind you, but some idea. Is it tweet fiction, flash fiction, a short short story, a long short story, a novella, a novel, first in a series? The reason this is critical, is that the number of themes, characters and story and development arcs vary widely based on the length. I wrote some tweet fiction that got published. It has to be entire stories that fit in one tweet, like 140 characters or so, not words, characters. There is very little in the way of development, conflict, suspense building, intrigue and character arcs in 140 characters. Throw those rules out, trust me. In a short story, you make your point, you take a slice of the pizza, wanting the reader to eat the rest, but they only bought one slice. In a novel, which I find is my most comfortable length personally, you have lots of time for nuance, discovery, character arcs and adventure. So, I always wonder how someone as a fellow author says, I am not sure how long this will be. I don’t know how you can write it without some idea.
2) What is the Story? I am not big on outlines and planning out the entire blueprints ahead of time because it takes some of the fun of creation away from me. But I have read portions of books that were very strange to me. It starts with an interesting character, then an interesting place, then a hint of murder or mystery, then a historical event, then something, then something else. I ask, what about this guy at the beginning? Oh, he’s not that important. What about that cool town? Oh, I don’t come back to that. Sometimes stories can be about too many things. Sometimes one story could be eight great books instead of one really long confusing one. I would suggest that even if you aren’t sure where things are going, knowing the main characters, setting, and kind of an idea of the ending helps.
3) What is the Perspective? Is it all seen through the eyes of one person as they do it? Is it remembered? Is it revealed through a series of events or letters? Is it third person omniscient? Is there a narrator, what is the narrator’s voice? Do we get to see inside anyone’s thoughts? I find myself challenged a lot in my writing on this one. It is easy to have your narrator start sounding like your main character, opinions and all. It is distracting when some side character reveals their deepest thoughts out of the blue and never again. Perspective is probably the most important decision in a book in my opinion. Maybe that is because I am so limited in my mastery of it. I wish I could write first person as it happens. Those authors dazzle me, what power! If you are confused by the topic of perspective, you should probably read up on it, or buy a beer for a starving author and pick his or her brain.
4) What is the Genre? People glare at me when I ask this. Sometimes it is followed by a general defensive argument about why genres don’t matter. But they really do matter in my opinion. I like to read science fiction, history, fantasy, heroic fantasy, adventure, military history, and science. I like to sample other genres, but if I know something is romance, religious, memoirs, or slice of life, I’m not going to buy it. My wife is the exact opposite. She rarely reads anything I am interested in, and I rarely wish to read her stories of three Chinese sisters who grow up in messed up times, suffer, then come to America and smile while washing the dishes. The thing is, all genres have their audiences, and those audiences are drawn to them for certain types of reasons. Cross genres, mixes, whatever is fine by me. But if you as the author do not know what genre(s) you are writing for, it will be hard to know what the reader wants. Heck, it will be hard to tell the bookstore which shelf to put it on.
5) What is the Point of Your Book? Why Would You as a Reader Tell People to Read it? Again, there are no right or wrong answers, but there should be an answer. Do you have this idea burning inside you that has to get out? Are you trying to jump on the YA vampire band wagon? Do you want people to laugh, to cry, to learn? Are you making a political or social statement? Is it just so good of writing that each pages glows and the wise will use it to discourage future MFA students with its sheer unatainable brilliance? Again, I know many authors, many quite good, who stumble over this answer.
I will answer this question for you from my own reasoning. When I was young, I had a terrible childhood. I learned to read at a young age and was able to explore the world, ancient cities, conquer evil wizards, and live hundreds of lives and go to places which took my mind off my own horrible existence. The point of my books are to provide that same experience to others. My books are to be fun and enjoyable to read. I want a reader to smile when they are done and say to themselves, “I really enjoyed reading that.” It takes the pressure off too, because I never have to try to be an awesome literary star, dazzling with my prose and perhaps never being good enough. But having read thousands of adventure fantasy books, I know what I enjoyed about them, and I try to bring that same sense of fun and adventure to others.
Let me know what you think. Am I all wrong? If you think this is genius, make sure to comment, as writers have fragile egos which always appreciate stroking…
Michael Bradley - Time Traveler 