FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR NOVEL

where there's love, there's drama

 

No matter what genre your story is, whether it’s fiction or creative nonfiction, you want the reader to not only enjoy it, but to love it. You want the reader to fall in love with it. The only way to make that happen is if you are in love with it first. You must love your story. You must love the characters, the settings, the conflict, and the plot in order to keep building that world. If you are not in love with everything about what you are creating, you will not have the energy, fortitude, diligence, or motivation to keep creating. Skillful artistry is important, but it won’t be enough to carry you through those painful moments of writer’s block, rewriting, revising.

Yes, there will be painful moments in the process. That’s because it’s not a short one. In any long-term relationship there are highs and lows, good times and bad. But when you really love someone, you are able to work through those times and come out better in the end.
Your first task, then, is to come up with a story and character that you love and can live with for a long time, through sunshine and storms, sickness and health, till death… Well, you know what I mean.

Your second task, before you even put pen to page or fingers to keyboard, is to not think about the finished product. Too many writers stop the process because they are focused on selling the book before it’s even written. If in the beginning stages of writing your story you start researching literary agents and dreaming of seeing your name on the New York Times Bestseller List, you are more likely to never finish the book. It will become too frustrating, the process too wearisome.

Like the concept of show, don’t tell, the process of writing a story, especially long-form fiction or creative nonfiction, is an elusive one. Many writers don’t know what to expect when starting their project. It’s not uncommon to think that all you have to do is sit down and write and once you’ve reached the end, you’re done. They don’t think the process is that complicated, that it’s simple: start, write, finish. I can tell you, the process isn’t complicated, but it is complex, which is a different thing.

Good stories and great stories require a lot of attention. They are like puppies. They start out messy, piddling on the carpet, tearing up the sofa cushions, running around without direction, getting under your feet. It takes a patient puppy parent to train little Fido. You love Fido, so you’re willing to do the work and suffer the shredded loss of your favorite pair of Nikes. You know it will take time for Fido to become that loveable, obedient, good boy. And you know the only way to get to that point is to start the process of training.

 

Where to start your story

For some, the hardest part of writing a story is getting started. Because there are countless ways to start, it can be overwhelming. One logical place to start would be at the beginning before any of the conflict or action even occurs. There is a common human impulse to start with the backstory and work forward, to lead in with where it all began.

In the beginning, God created heaven and earth.
Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away…

These lines suggest that there are other stories to be told that will lead up to the main plot, things that happened before the conflict that you want the reader to know before they get to the real meat of the story. If you are writing a biography that could make for a successful start, because the goal of a biography is to trace a person’s history from the day she’s born to the moment the book is finished. Those types of books are mainly reserved for celebrities or super famous people like Walt Disney or John F. Kennedy. The reader already finds something fascinating about these people and is eager to learn the details of their lives. Those kinds of details can be beyond boring if they are about someone you’ve never heard of before, like the protagonist (main character) of your story.

Even the details of notable or momentarily famous people can be boring if there is no substance behind it. For example, Olympic gold medalists are fascinating when we are watching them win. But other than wondering what kind of parent takes their six-year-old to the gym at four in the morning to watch them fall off a balance beam a hundred times, do we really want to know other things, like the kid hates Brussels sprouts? Probably not for the simple reason there is not enough drama to pique our interest.

But when 1994 U.S. Olympic skating finalist Tonya Harding got embroiled in a physical attack against her competitor to try to take her out of the competition, not only did we break out the popcorn, we yearned to know if the hamster she accidentally dropped and killed when she was five had any impact on her life choices. Actually, I did the hamster thing, not Tonya. The point is the general public would have likely forgotten who Tonya Harding is, much less care about her history if it were not for that drama. She didn’t receive any medals in that competition, ranking eighth in the Lillehammer Winter Olympics, while Nancy Kerrigan, the skater her ex-husband clocked in the knee with a baton, earned a silver medal.

But because of the scandal, Harding has been the subject of dozens of books and media projects, including the 1994 biography Fire on Ice by Abby Haight and J.E. Vader, and the biographical 2017 Steven Rogers screenplay I, Tonya, directed by Craig Gillespie and starring Margot Robbie.

So, even for biographies, the reader wants the drama first and then the backstory. Unlike biographies, though, you are not writing about your character’s entire life. Even if you are writing memoir your goal isn’t to give the reader every detail of your life since birth. That would be an autobiography, which, again, is mainly reserved for super famous people. A memoir isn't an autobiography. An autobiography details every aspect of your life from the day you are born until the moment of writing the book. A memoir focuses on only one integral part of your life. It is a story, much like a novel, but nonfiction and the protagonist is the author of the story. For example, if someone survived addiction and wanted to write his story about that journey, he would focus on only what led up to his addiction, how he overcame it, and where he is today.

Fall in love with your story and embrace the drama. Don't keep the drama your dirty little secret or make it a surprise. You can add twists and turns to your story along the way, but the main drama, or conflict should be in the spotlight right from the start. Few people love drama when it surrounds them in real life, but boy do we love it when it belongs to someone else! 
Good luck and happy writing!
Eileen 
(This segment is taken from my upcoming book on writing titled Glittering Little Stars. Check back for information on the release date.)