Are you writing what you should be writing? There's so much advice out there. "Write what you know." "Study the market and write for that." "Write what you like to read."
Too many signposts. Which one is the right one?
Are you compelled to write stories that rise out of you, or do you approach it as a businesslike task as if to manufacture a marketable product?
Some writers start with a shoe that doesn't fit. It took Becky Motew, author of Coupon Girl, three runs at the hurdle before she cleared it. In her post on M.J. Rose's Backstory, Becky says, "I had written two unpublished books earlier, one called COUPON MURDERS which wasn't unlike the eventual CG, only it had a murder in it. Yikes, those are hard. I wouldn't want to write another one. Okay, let's put a dead body in a dumpster. Yeah. That's good. And in addition we'll have the main character's purse be in there too, in the dumpster with the body. That will really implicate our girl and people will think she did it. Man, I am clever. So then this niggling question starts: how did a woman lift a dead body into a dumpster by herself? OH MY GOD I DON"T KNOW. This is a very queasy feeling to have when you're clicking along a hundred pages in. See? Don't try this at home.
"After that experience I wrote a 'serious' book. I labored over it. It had a complicated plot and flashbacks, multiple pov's and a prologue. Almost everyone who read it asked, "Is it a satire?" NO. IT'S A SERIOUS BOOK. WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME THAT?
"And so I realized I'm not meant to write books like those. I'm
meant to write a book like this. Why, I asked myself, would I write
anything else? The authors I've loved and admired since I was a kid
"Do your armadillo thing. Suck up those ants. You'll be much better off and hopefully you won't end up as road kill."
Sounds like good advice to me. The problem with writing from my inner beast, though, is that I love and read all sorts of fiction, and now it seems to be melding into…what? For most of my youth, I read science fiction and fantasy. As an adult, I now indulge in thrillers a lot. So maybe it's predictable that my first novel, We the Enemy, takes place in the near future and has a suspense/thriller-type plot.
I call it "speculative suspense." The only trouble is that it's having an identity problem. If an acquiring editor has expectations of a thriller, the speculative part seems to interfere with its appeal. If they're expecting speculative fiction, it's not really sci fi enough. Expectations…if it's not a proper pigeon, it doesn't fit into the proper hole.
Then there was novel number two. I also read mysteries, and have devoured carloads of Westerns. Maybe that's what led to a mystery set in the old West. But that one's not easy to categorize either. It doesn't meet the expectations of a genre Western, and the setting isn't very mysteryish.
Okay, so then I tried "write what you know" and based a novel on
teenage experiences working on a ranch in the 1950s. It wasn't meant to
be a memoir, though, and I inserted a murder plot into what is
essentially a coming-of-age story. See where we're going with this?
This story, The Summer Boy, doesn't fit the young adult
category, doesn't quite rise to the level of a literary novel, and
isn't plot-driven enough to be a genre mystery, and then there's a
problem with a novel that takes place in the '50s
Yet it's not within me to set my sights on a genre and try to "manufacture" a story to fit. I'm not saying that's not a legitimate approach, it's just not something I can do.
Now there's the newest one, Finding Magic, which is out with
my favorite readers for feedback. What is this one? I asked the
managing editor of a small publishing house with whom I swap reads. She
wasn't sure, and she sees a lot of genre stuff. Maybe paranormal? Hmm. A significant factor isn't normal
From a strictly technical point of view it might be called urban fantasy, but that label leads to expectations of vampires or werewolves or other fantasy critters, and there are none to be found in this story. So far the best I've come up with is "magical realism meets thriller," with more of a mainstream feel to it. At least I'm back to some of my roots. Sort of.
And then there's the WIP, a blook that I'm writing online. It's been informed by all the vampire stuff I've read
What kind of writer animal am I, I wonder? A griffin? No, that's only two different critters put together. But, you know, I'm content to write the stories that intrigue me and that let me explore themes that call to me. Maybe one of these days an editor will have an appetite for something he hasn't seen before and one of my non-pigeons will take wing. It just has to be good enough.
What about you? How do you come at this?
For what it's worth.
Ray
Free edit in exchange for posting permission. You send a sample that you have questions about and of which you'd like an edit. I won't post it without your permission.
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© 2006 Ray Rhamey