back to weblogIf Your Heart Jumped Off a Bridge, Would You
It's fundamental, writers are told repeatedly, not to try following market trends but to write what's what we're passionate about. Don't write something you don't love just because it's selling better. People will know when you're faking it. Follow your heart...
Yet, we also have to sell what we wrote if we want to go from being a writer to being a published writer.
Agents and editors frequently answer the question, “Would you have rejected Twilight?” Most say they would have, in a heartbeat.
What I ask myself is, “Would you have pitched it?” And the answer is no. Had I written that book, it would be sitting in the back of the hard drive somewhere never to be seen by anyone. I may well have never even bothered with revising it from the rough draft. Because while I could clean up the language, there's no changing the fact that the story is slow, Bella isn't the strongest MC in the world, there are a wide array of logic-holes in which to sink, the vampires _sparkle_, the hero spends most of the book stalking a teenage girl a century younger than he is (creepy! And she's flattered by it? WTF?), and it's at least twice the length it should be. Everyone knows vampires are overdone and impossible to sell. And all this from a writer with zero credentials?
Meyer says when she sent out queries for the first book, she didn't know any of this was wrong. People had to explain to her later exactly how lucky she was to have found an agent, let alone a publisher. Her ignorance may have been the reason she's now a word-famous multi-millionaire author. Well, that combined with managing to create a story that spoke to millions of people. We never would have known she'd done it if she educated herself out of trying to see it published though, if she'd moved on to something with a sane word count, a stronger MC, less sentiment, more plot, and something less overdone than vampires.
So if your heart is set on a slow and wordy vampire romance, maybe you should leap off the bridge with it. Yeah, there's a good chance it will get broken when it smashes against the rocks of reality at the bottom. But maybe it won't. And maybe, either way, it's still the right path.
And, yes, I'm talking to myself here. I have far too many stories being ignored because I lack confidence that I can sell them. It's in danger of happening to Shadow. (Seriously. There was a Twitter conversation a few weeks ago where a few agents were going on about how they were seeing way too many ghosts all of a sudden. They weren't trying to fling my spirit on the ground and dance on it in stilettos, but...)
Thing is... The people saying not to force something that isn't there are right. So I'm sitting here quoting Polonius on repeat... Above all, to thine own self be true. If it were easy, we wouldn't have to be told that though.
PS – I finished my National Novel Writing Month novel today. I'll likely talk more about that later.
"People will know when you’re faking it."
Bullshit. I’ve read quotes from comic artists (And I believe this applies to writers and actors as well, though perhaps to a lesser extent) talking about how people will always say things like "Oh I could tell you were really into this comic" on projects they did purely for the money, and just as often have people saying "Man you really phoned it in on this one" when they’d been working really hard on something they cared about… The end product doesn’t always represent what went into making it. If you write a story you don’t care about, but follow all the rules, the latest trends and make it technically superb, even if you personally don’t have your heart set on it, most readers won’t know. It will sell, it will make money, and no one but you will know what you were truly feeling when you wrote it.
"People will know when you’re faking it."
This is just another example of the romanticization of art. People look at great works of art — be they books, paintings, movies, whatever — and they say "Oh what talent you have" and talk about how this piece of art is an "expression of the artist’s inner heart and soul" and rail against those who have "sold out" by creating works of art for money instead of because it’s their "true calling". This is all bullshit.
There’s little meaningful difference between writing a good story and building a wall. Each works best when you follow certain rules and certain structures, put them together in particular ways, and either way, you don’t magically write an awesome story or build a solid wall just from your "inner talent" the first time out — you write a shitty story and build a wall that falls down, then you look at what you did, you learn from, and practice, practice, practice… Until eventually you’ve developed the SKILL to tell a moving story or build a solid wall successfully.
Once you’ve developed that skill, you can use it for any reason. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a story you LOVE any more than it matters if you’re building a wall you LOVE — If you have the skills to do it right, and put NOT your heart and soul into it, but merely your time and effort, 99% of the people who read your story or lean on your wall will neither know nor care how you personally felt about the work you did. They’ll just know that you created a good solid work.
Corey (URL) - 02 12 09 - 20:51
About
Andrea Brokaw is a novelist. And a dreamer, a skier, and a homeschooling mom. As a Navy brat and then a Navy wife, she's lived on three continents, in four countries, in eight states, and in twelve towns. She has three cats and an eight-year-old boy.
To see what others say about her or to say something yourself, see this post.
Works
SHADOW
YA Paranormal Romance
Drew McKinney never liked living in Pine Ridge, NC. But she liked it a lot better than being dead there...
Chapter One
Connect
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Or email Andrea at andrea@andreabrokaw.com.