After writing my
seventh novel, my twelfth screenplay, and my ninth comic book/graphic novel,
I’m still learning what not to do. I often speak to other writers who ask me
for suggestions and the first thing I ask is: “What is your story about?” I’ve
heard things like, “It’s about a world where…?” or “It’s a cookbook, but also a
story about my life in Afghanistan. The recipes are pages sprinkled into the
story.”
My initial response has been
awestruck, but then gathered my thoughts and said in respective reply, “A story
is never about a place, it’s about people.” To the second, “Your book is either
about your life in Afghanistan or it’s a cookbook, it cannot be both. It can be
a cookbook with a little anecdotal companion to each recipe, but you can’t stop
the story to throw a recipe on a page and then continue - it would be jarring.”
The
secondary response to each is the same – “How does the publishing marketing
team market your book?” In the case of the biographical cookbook, it can only
be marketed as one thing, so it’s either a cookbook or it’s a biography. It
can’t be marketed as both. One will always take a backseat to the other. Sure,
there are dual genre stories, like supernatural romance and sci-fi fantasy, but
you’re still marketing to one set of readers. In other words, know your
audience; know exactly to whom you are marketing. If you find yourself
marketing to two different audiences, then there’s an error somewhere that you
must reconsider.
After you choose your genre, then you
must define your story. You can do this in one of two ways: 1) Create a
character and then build the story around them or 2) Create a story and then
build the characters that will run the obstacle course you’ve built for them.
I’ve done both. Especially in the comic book medium, you find yourself building
the character first. From there you must create the hero’s journey, which must
be present in all stories. This is what makes your character not only relatable
but makes the reader root for them. The harder the struggle, the more the
audience will engage. However, that struggle must be grounded in the reality of
your story. If your character falls a hundred feet from a cliff in the 1800s
and in the end must win a foot race against the villain, most readers are going
to check out due to the implausibility. Make sure you’re not going too far out
of the box.
Make sure you stick the landing. I
read a great many books published by major imprints where I find the ending ill
conceived and disappointing. An ending doesn’t have to be epic, but it should
give a nice bit of closure to the main character’s story where have achieved
their goals and become the person they were meant to be. Give the ending a
great deal of thought and make sure you get the opinion of several people
before you settle into the editing process.
cool
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