On Writing The Breakout Novel

[elfs]

I'm posting this here because I know if I posted it to rasfc (rec.arts.sf.composition) a flamewar would break out, the composition and arc of which could be predicted as certainly as a Paris Hilton press spree. Anyway, one of the regulars there has posted about the book Writing the Breakout Novel, in which it is suggested you go to your own shelves and pick out three books you liked highly, and you will find the books all have the same characteristics (and by extention, any story you write should have these characteristics as well):

• The book takes you to an unfamiliar and somehow dangerous world,
• The memorable characters in the book are larger than life,
• What happens to the characters is unusual, dramatic and meaningful,
• The book is about something. It has an overarching theme.

The author then goes on to say that when he's looking for a valuable premise to a story, it has to have the following characteristics:

• plausibility
• inherent conflict (needs to be strong and difficult to resolve)
• originality
• gut emotional appeal

My first reaction upon reading these bullet points was straightforwards: Is there really anyone out there writing who doesn't understand this? That the story has to be interesting, and that includes both the characters and the setting? That the book has to be about something?

The other day I was sitting on the bus and watching the young man across from me. He was reading a book called Writing the Fire: Unleashing the Writer Within You or some such nonsense. I just smiled and wrote another thousand words.

Comments

[woggie.livejournal.com]

I have my own problems with writing.

I'm glad, you, Elf, can write apparently effortlessly and quickly, but I'm not so lucky or talented.

I go through periods where I can't really keep all the details in my head, and so I find myself writing out personality traits and history so later I have something to work with.

Or I write out between two and seventy pages of material and suddenly the story I had in mind all goes completely dry as dust, and I can't find the spark I had which drove the story forward.

I am still figuring out how I write and what works. I've finished perhaps two pieces in my entire life, and they were both crap, unsalvageable. The fact that people like you can write so easily fills me with profound hope, but I'm not there yet. In the front of my head, yes, I know all those things about writing, but at the back of my head where these things matter, it's obvious the message hasn't gotten through completely.

I'm sorry if I was ranting. I'll shut up now.