This quote has been memed into the ground, but I really connected with it when I first saw it, and I wasn’t totally sure why until just recently. (When I started drafting a new novel! Which is going shockingly well at the moment, knock on wood.)
Bottom line is: It’s concisely representative of the kind of stories I want to tell as an author.
Ideally, the things happening to my characters are worthy of becoming mythos in their universes—the kinds of events people (in their world) will look back on in ten, twenty, fifty years and start to see as legend, good or bad.
That’s not to say the scope becomes such that the story is impersonal—much the opposite in fact. The readers are getting to see first-hand the human impact of significant events, the small things that made it go, the way decisions weighed on the people making them, the losses they endured, the triumphs, the humanity behind the broader drama.
Not that I’m necessarily even -remotely- successful at it—it’s just one of many goals, a thing to strive for that may or may not ever be attained, but hones an otherwise unwieldy creative drive into something more focused.
From a career perspective, it also gives an understanding of -who- I’m trying to reach with my writing. Which is something I find myself thinking about more and more as 2019 disappears into the void and 2020 (aka release year 😬) approaches. I don’t -want- to worry about making my stories marketable, but I -do- worry about it, so the more reminders I have of who and what I’m really writing for, the better.
That’s not to say I won’t change my approach in the years to come, as I grow as a writer, as I find myself a niche as I start finding my audience. I’m open to wherever this ride takes me. But considering the stories I’ve written thus far and the ones on the docket, it’s safe to say that’ll be a key feature of my work in the years (and years and years) to come. (B/c publishing is slow, y’all 🙃) And that’s where the adage “write for yourself” becomes a buoy in the waters—as long as I’m always writing something I would die to read, it’ll be impossible to be disappointed.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this #Friyay existential mind-dump, author edition.
Back to drafting.
All the drafting.
Have you discovered any broader themes to your writing style?