 For Authors: April 24, 2013 Issue [#5606] |
  For Authors
This week: Original and Formula Edited by: Annette  
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Original and Formula
Are you writing something with an original message or following a formula?
As creative writers, we all strive to come up with something amazing that will entertain others. How often do we read or hear though that our story has been told so many times before? The human desire to communicate and to create often revolves around very basic needs and desires. That can make it difficult to come up with a new message. After thousands upon thousands of years of human history and writing, most messages have been told.
Heroes and Gods
The heroic sagas fulfill the desire to be protected by something bigger, larger than life. Humans have created hundreds of gods and spirits in their desire to understand nature. Figure out the rules of life, or try to overcome the rules of life. Since the human life follows a basic trajectory of birth, growing up, aging, and finally death, gods and other eternals are a great way to cope with the short time we're given. The theme of the superhero goes back to pre-biblical times and goes all the way to the super heroes of modern times - with new heroes being imagined by the day.
Love and Romance
Love is a huge driving force for humans. Even cultures who do not to embrace the idea of love in common life, and rather use the safety net of arranged marriages, have tomes upon tomes of love stories. Nearly every culture has some variation of the Romeo & Juliet theme where lovers can't be together due to circumstances. Depending on the writer, those lovers find a way to be together, or they die.
Mysteries, Crimes, and Horror
Dealing with the reality of ill feelings have driven many authors to write extensively about the dark side of humanity. The Bible pretty much starts off with curiosity as a crime, then next comes fratricide. There is no way around it, humans do wicked things and others try to understand, make sense of it, and they write about it. Every book store has a section of fictional crime, and also a huge section of true crime stories. The nature of people who do evil things, or what about their action that makes it a crime, fills pages upon pages.
Where does your story fall?
Of course, there are a few more than those original stories mentioned above. Somewhere, they all end up fitting partially into one of those. This limits our ability to create anything original. How do we know if our story will be called original or not? We don't know. We're at the mercy of our readers' perceptions. A story that seems new and exciting to one reader is just a cooked up version of an old one to another.
My best advice is this: Write what you want to read. I did not create this line, but it's the one best advice any writer should listen to. When you try to time the market, find the pulse of the moment, get rich ... your writing has already died. Only when the readers can feel your excitement, your love for your plot and your characters will they fall in love too. Yes, you can take Romeo and Juliet and re-write it to be exciting, new, fun, bubbly, and make a mint. You can also go to a creative writing class, do everything the way your teacher tells you, and come up with a story that nobody wants to read. So, one more time: write the story you want to read. Some will like it, others won't. (We don't worry about the later.)
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For my first "For Authors" newsletter "Quantity or Quality" , I got the following responses:
k-9cooper wrote: Where was this advice three months ago. I have to laugh because I just figure this out last week. I have not been the best editor of my own work. I have been taking the advice of the authors and reviewers of WDC. I thank you all and always take any review as positive. I read once you get an idea for any book just writed down. Anywhere and then put it somewhere permanent later.
Better now than never. I know it doesn't help for your needs months ago, but writing is a journey. You've just added a new piece to your road map.
Doug Rainbow  wrote: The quantity/quality discussion brought to mind a distinction as to what kind of quality goes into a creation. There is quality of thought and there is quality of execution. Quality of thought pertains to the message. Is it original or is it "formula?" Is the message worthy of time spent writing and reading? Is there a creative genius? Quality of execution goes to technical excellence: grammatical correctness, precision of syntax, range of vocabulary, consistency in viewpoint and style. Personally, I feel that a serious writer should always insist on quality of thought. The factors you list in your newsletter may justify compromise or postponement in achieving quality of execution.
Doug, I have to say that your answer gave me a lot of food for thought. I've tried to put some of that into today's newsletter.
Quick-Quill  wrote: I don't think the novel workshop is in service. Doesn't look like anyone is actively moderating it. Disappointing.
I know, it is hard to get in touch with the moderators. I've had to email one of the moderators in person to get access.
BIG BAD WOLF is Merry  wrote: We must challenge ourselves. "Invalid Item"
We do.
blunderbuss wrote: Hi Giselle!
Thank you again for a great newsletter on quantity versus quality. I do sometimes use a bit of that ... thank you for sharing... but only because I've made a few criticisms and I want to end NICELY. I know what it feels like to get those criticisms and, you can't help but focus on them sometimes, and not notice the good points so much.
As to drafts and editing. How right you are - better to get it down first, for yourself, and then re-read later. If I don't get it down quickly it goes round and round in my head until I do. (sleep patterns disturbed!).
Thank you for your kind assessment of the advice I tried to give. It's not always easy to come up with something relevant to many writers.
Mark Allen Mc Lemore wrote: The following paragraph was great:
"Filling in an outline and turning it into a first draft still falls under quantity over quality. You want to shape your story. Designate the beginning, middle, and ending. At the end of your first draft, you have a completed book that is filled with horrid grammar, missing commas, and spelling that will make even the most basic spellchecker go up in flames."
You know what point in this paragraph deserved a repeat in bold, perhaps even phrased like this at the end of the paragraph:
Point is, after this- you have a completed book!
Yes! Put my writing in quotes!  Thank you for reading, commenting, and quoting. 
kenkl wrote: Your article deals with a very important aspect of writing. I don't know whether it's just my perception but I often get the feeling that some well-known authors reach a stage where after producing quality writing in a constant stream to meet the demand of their readers and publishers, they often struggle to maintain this and produce "quantity" works instead of quality.Focusing on that balance you mention is very important.
Yes, I agree. I've noticed that many of us have a few stories in us that we want to tell and we will keep telling it until we've told it enough. Once those are used up, we either start writing in circles (Stephen King) or we are happy with a story well told (Harper Lee).
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