I’ve been
contemplating some of the questions I am often asked at writers’ conferences
and clubs. It seems to me, contrary to obvious assumptions, that the simplest
questions draw the most complex answers.
For example, there’s “What
should I write?” If the person asking is seeing me as a fellow writer, they
might really want to know what books are selling right now. If they see me as a
publisher, they may really be trying to find out what my company is looking
for. Either way I tend to take the questions literally. Therefore I answer the
question with a question: “What do you read?” When I get a quick, strong
response the rest is easy. If you’re an avid reader of romance or legal
thrillers or horror tales, that’s what you should write. Write that book you
really want to read. Occasionally someone is honest enough to admit they don’t
read much. In which case my answer is: “Don’t write.”
Almost as often I’ll
be asked something like, “What’s the most important part of a story?” Among
fiction writers, this is sometimes a confusing issue. The person I’m talking
with may want my take on whether fiction writing is an art or a craft (of
course, it is both, and they are equally important.) Or they may be focused on
the so-called elements of fiction. Perhaps they’ve written a character driven
novel and are being told that a story is all about the plot. Or they have
something to say, a strong theme but their first readers say it’s the dialog
that pulls the reader into the story. Or they’ve created a wonderfully complex
universe in their speculative fiction story, and a good friend has tried to
help them by explaining that world-building isn’t what people want. They need
to have a unique voice.
I get it. We all want
to assemble the parts and build a sturdy novel or short story, and we want to
know what part to focus most on. Sadly, the true answer is to the “most
important part” question is: “All of them.” A great story with weak characters
is as big a fail as wonderfully developed characters who spout weak dialog.
Every one of those elements is vital to a great story. And the worst part is,
you can’t even develop them separately. Those elements grow organically, like
crystals, and rely on each other to grow strong. The setting helps shape the
characters whose actions drive the plot that expresses the theme revealed in
the dialog IF the story is being told from the right point of view.
That said, the
elements of fiction can be discussed separately, and I’ll try to do some of
that in the next few blogs.
