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A quick hit of hard truth about writing
Apr. 3rd, 2009 09:29 amThis post has me wearing both Writer Hat and Editor Hat (which is actually a dashing fedora with two feathers stuck in the brim)
Thinking today -- always a bad sign, that -- about what makes a story work.
I'm not talking about the technical aspects here -- I'm going to assume you've got a working relationship with sentence structure, POV, plot logic, etc. No, I'm talking about what makes the reader interact with your story, to the point that they not only keep reading, but want more, both of the story, and of you.
If you're looking for a great long complicated breakdown of the magic, sorry. I got one word for you.
Empathy.
You-the-writer must have empathy for your characters. You have to like them -- or hate them. I'm not saying believe they're real -- that road leads to the Palace of Psychosis, and nobody will visit you there except to mock -- but you have to let them into your heart as well as your head. It's that emotional connection that allows you to care about them, not as the means to deliver a message, or to flip a twist, but as actual individuals going through hell. Once you care about them, you can make other people care about them, too.
If you don't? if you're emotionally removed from your characters, or see them merely as markers to be moved along the story, in order to achieve a final goal? The most brilliant prose in the world won't do you for damn.
Oh, you might win awards, and be well-considered by the literarti...but you won't light that spark in a reader; your world won't ever come alive.
The trick, of course, is to combine technical brilliance with emotional comprehension. Do that, and you're, well... you're probably Neil Gaiman. I rest my case.
Thinking today -- always a bad sign, that -- about what makes a story work.
I'm not talking about the technical aspects here -- I'm going to assume you've got a working relationship with sentence structure, POV, plot logic, etc. No, I'm talking about what makes the reader interact with your story, to the point that they not only keep reading, but want more, both of the story, and of you.
If you're looking for a great long complicated breakdown of the magic, sorry. I got one word for you.
Empathy.
You-the-writer must have empathy for your characters. You have to like them -- or hate them. I'm not saying believe they're real -- that road leads to the Palace of Psychosis, and nobody will visit you there except to mock -- but you have to let them into your heart as well as your head. It's that emotional connection that allows you to care about them, not as the means to deliver a message, or to flip a twist, but as actual individuals going through hell. Once you care about them, you can make other people care about them, too.
If you don't? if you're emotionally removed from your characters, or see them merely as markers to be moved along the story, in order to achieve a final goal? The most brilliant prose in the world won't do you for damn.
Oh, you might win awards, and be well-considered by the literarti...but you won't light that spark in a reader; your world won't ever come alive.
The trick, of course, is to combine technical brilliance with emotional comprehension. Do that, and you're, well... you're probably Neil Gaiman. I rest my case.
