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Admittedly I am a rookie novelist.
Oh sure, before I published my first novel I'd published some non-fiction articles in several professional journals and a forty-eight page chapter in a legal medicine text, but that was easy compared to writing a novel. Professional journals provide guidelines for submitters and all you have to do is do the research and plug in the information.
Not so with fiction, even though there are many good writing books, considered industry standard “guidelines” covering every facet of fiction writing there is no one sure-fire method. Unlike most baseball caps, one size doesn't fit all.
Mostly, the budding novelist is left with on-the-job training in its finest form.
Of course you can go to school and after the requesite time graduate with an MFA or a Ph.D. but that doesn't guarantee that you will become a James Patterson or a John Grisham. In the end regardless of how many degrees you obtain, how many courses and workshops you attend, or how many books and videos on writing you read and view, published writers write and wannabe writers make excuses why they don't.
Write for your readers
An old maxim in medicine states that, “You go through four years of pre-med, four years of med school, one year of internship, and several years in a residency program before you finally start learning how to be a doctor. There is a reason they call it the “practice” of medicine. One of my all time medical heroes is Sir William Osler said, “To care for your patient you must first care about your patient.” That translates to the writer's world as, “To write for your readers, you must first be a reader who writes from the reader's point of view.”
I've been an avid reader almost all of my life, but it wasn't until 2008, during a long deployment to the Persian Gulf with the U. S. Navy that I finally decided to stop procrastinating and write the novel that I'd been putting off for at least two decades. I purchased books on how to write novels, how to develop a plot, books on style, and dialogue. I took several on-line writing courses. In other words I tried to learn as much about our craft as I could before I wrote the first word. That done, I pronounced myself ready to write, what I hoped to be my “breakout novel,” from the book Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass.
Like most first novels mine started out as a fictionalized auto biography, which almost immediately took on a life of its own, becoming a Coast Guard story that I felt needed to be told. My protagonist young Tim Kelly begins a young Indiana Jones style adventure by running away from home, surviving the mean streets of New Orleans in 1956, and lying about his age to join the Coast Guard at the tender age of fourteen. This is exactly what I did. Hence the reference to a “fictionalized autobiography.” The story was already in my head so I started writing.
Writer's block! Not my problem.
I was about 57,000 words into the manuscript and gaining momentum when I decided to have a best selling author review my work. I had started to read one of his books, on the New York Times best seller list, but got bogged down at about page thirty-five and put it down, never to return. However, it was not one of his novels that influenced my choosing of him to critique my work, but a little book he had written for Writer's Digest on common writing mistakes and how to correct them. I contacted him and he agreed to look over the first sixteen pages for a fee. I don't know what I was expecting. Perhaps, “I wish I had written this.”
Meanwhile, back on this planet.
He ripped my literary guts out!
An all too common comment was, “Why should the reader care?”
My first reaction was anger. Who was this guy to disparage my writing so. I didn't even like his novel. Then I cooled down. After all, I paid for his advice. Why not make the effort to see what he is talking about? So I sat down and re-read every single word, but this time I was Jim Gilliam the reader; not Jim Gilliam the writer. I discovered he was right. As a reader I too asked myself the same questions, “As a reader why should I care about this?” Accordingly, I cut out about 35,000 words and rewrote the book from the reader's point of view. This lesson was far more valuable than the nominal fee that I paid for the critique. Point of view is indeed a powerful tool for any writer.
The best selling author James Scott Bell has graciously granted his permission for me to do a short quote from his book Plot & Structure, available everywhere.
“When my son, Nate, was four, he wrote a novel. It was four pages, each page containing one sentence. Very Hemingway-esque. Nate spelled the words phonetically. Here is the entire novel, sans the crayon illustrations. The spelling has been updated for modern readers: Robin Hood went riding. A bad guy came. They fought. He won. Now it is true he needed some work on pronouns and subject agreement. But the fact is he wrote a perfectly structured story.”
And so he did. It just doesn't get any more basic than that.
There is a simple formula for good fiction: Character + Conflict = Drama.
Nate's novel has it all. I don't know how many times I've related this story to budding novelists. As authors we owe a debt to our readers. They support our work by buying our books.
Our duty is clear.
To keep faith with our readers, we must place the reader on Robin Hood's horse, hanging on for dear life! I write for my readers and if I’ve placed the reader in the scene with my protagonist and the reader feels the same things that he does, and the reader fears for his life, and vicariously for their own, then I have accomplished my ultimate goal and the reader has paid me the greatest compliment by staying with me until the end of the tale.
Top Image: Flickr CC by Here's Kate
View Comments (6)
Great reminder of why we are all doing this thing called writing! Thanks for the little nudge!
Thanks for sharing this, Jim! When I worked in public relations, writing press releases, my mentor taught me to always ask "Who cares?" (another version of "Why should the reader care?") I have tried to heed this advice when writing fiction (or nonfiction, for that matter).
However, I think it's also important to make sure that the person who is asking "Who cares?" actually does enjoy, appreciate, and understand the type (or genre) of fiction you're writing. If the person critiquing your work says he doesn't "care" (about the character, events, etc.) is it because he doesn't have much interest in reading that type of work in the first place? Not everyone "cares" about the same things.
Good point Scotti - if the reader isn't a fan of your genre, they can get it all a bit wrong. But it's definitely our responsibility to make sure the cover, blurb and marketing are pitched correctly.
Thanks for sharing your story Jim, and thanks for giving authors a place to do this and share good practice, Joanna - I have started recommending authors I work with to come over here and have a good old look around.
Sometimes we, as readers, like the characters, sometimes we hate them, but if they all leave us cold, there's no chance we'll care, whatever the exciting events that befall them. Even very well-established writers can forget this (a big favourite let me down recently) so it's well worth remembering right from the start!
A brilliant post on an excellent issue. Also a fantastic point from Scotti - something to consider indeed!
An interesting point here and now, I will keep asking myself, "Why should my reader care?"