Writing for the Masses...or for Yourself?

"Never, never try to scope the market. You've got to write what you're passionate about. Otherwise you'll produce juiceless, flavorless fiction." -Dean Koontz

 

I love this quote, and it was sent to me recently at a time when it was most needed. I just finished my latest novel (a supernatural suspense thriller) which was very different from my last novel (a technological thriller called Stolen Lives and coming out in just 39 days from River Oak!), and was wrestling with the idea of my next novel. For a long time, I'd had this idea in my head and tossed it around. The plot was there, the characters were there, and it had the potential to be a good novel. The problem? No one I talked to about the novel became nearly as excited about it as I did. Folks understood the concept I was presenting, and could see the possibilities with it, but it didn't light a fire in anyone so they had to say "Oh, I want to read that one!"

 

As I approached the final chapters of the supernatural thriller, I began to seriously consider the next book I would write. Would I press on with the idea I'd toyed with? With no other good ideas in mind, it seemed a given--but I'd lost the enthusiasm I'd once had for the book. My balloon had been deflated, and I was writing it more out of need than desire. I needed a new spark.

 

Then it came! I had an idea for a story so different I can honestly say it had never been done in Christian Fiction before. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. And when I started researching it, everything I turned up gave me a little bit more fodder for the story. Soon my tiny seed of an idea had grown into a beautiful plot with some of the most exciting characters I've ever seen. This was good stuff!

 

My problem? As I said before, it has never been done before. It would be pushing the envelope in some areas (nothing dirty or anything...just opening a new door in Christian Thrillers/Horror), but I believe there's an audience out there for it. When I discreetly asked a few valued friends what they'd think about a book like it, they were thrilled and wanted to read it as the pages came out. That was what I was looking for!

 

So here I go, working hard on a novel that may be hard to sell to a publisher right off the bat...but it's got an audience and it's something I'm passionate about. The characters are fresh, the story is strong, and the protagonist is perhaps the creepiest you've ever seen. This is juicy fiction!

 

If you're trying to figure out a direction for a book, or if you're floundering over something you've written already, just remember you have to be true to yourself in what you write. Unless you're under contract to a publisher for a specific type of novel in a specific time frame, you have free reign and creativity in what you write! Go out there and push the limits (in a good way) and see what happens. Christian Fiction (and most any type of fiction now) is more open to new ideas than ever before. If the story thrills you when you think about writing it, I promise it will produce the same reaction in your readers when they read it. Write for yourself! Write with your pen on fire!

 

Powered By Qumana

No Other Feeling On Earth

Any writer will tell you there are times while writing your novel that are more emotional than others. The initial rush of a new idea is the first. You have that perfect plot concept done in just such a way that's never been done before. You hurry to the laptop and begin to pound out the story. The prologue and first chapters fly from your imagination faster than you can type. That's the first feeling.

 

Halfway through the book, you begin to a get a new feeling. It's sort of like that downer you get after a sugar rush of 3 Hershey bars has worn off. It's not quite as fun anymore, some of the characters are really starting to get on your nerves, and there are plot threads dangling you can't control. You've been living with this story and these characters for weeks or months now, and it's getting old, to say the least. You have no idea how this is all going to turn out, and you're sorely tempted to forget this book and move on to another idea that's just come into your mind. This is "the wall" for a writer, much the same as a marathon runner might face. Pressing through this is the challenge.

 

The next comes when you can see the finish line coming. A new type of euphoria sets in as you start that last chapter. Those dangling plot threads have all been neatly tied up (or left dangling as seed for a sequel). Those annoying characters have either matured and grown, or been killed off by whatever means necessary. And then you put that last period on the last sentence...

 

There's no feeling on earth like that. To be able to stand up from your desk, walk away and say, "I've finished another novel. I've proven to myself yet again that I'm a writer." Of course, there are the messy rewrites and edits that pretty much destroy the story you created at first (usually turning it into something a lot better), but there's nothing like the feeling of accomplishment that comes from completing another one.

 

Except, of course, that rush of typing in a new title on a fresh document and having a blank slate to work with yet again...

 

Powered By Qumana