Misconceptions About Writing #1
Sure, you all know someone who’s writing a novel. You know someone who likes to read. You’ve heard all those success stories about authors who never even thought about writing and suddenly published bestsellers. No doubt you have a very set idea of what a writer looks like.
I’ve got news for you. You’re most likely wrong.
I’ve discovered that what half of what people think about writing is mostly false. Somewhere along the way of the evolution of stereotypes, one about writers and writing emerged. And it’s been getting worse with recent publications. So I’ve decided to take some time to write about the common thoughts that people have about writing.
1. WRITING IS EASY
Ok, I can see where you might get this idea. It’s just a person pushing keys on a keyboard in your mind. They’re making this up; it’s their story. They can do what they wish. There’s nothing hard about it at all, you say!
Lie, lie, lie, lie!
Writing is hard! (Where’s my Supernatural Chuck to say that?) There’s so much involved in writing a novel or short story that it’s even harder than writing for academics! In academic writing you have a formula to follow, a format already set up, a page count/word count determined for you, sometimes your topic is even selected for you by a teacher! That’s nothing like the writing that authors do. Nothing!
First of all: creative writers have to pick their subject. And that’s not just: oh, I feel like writing about fairies today. No, it has to be something that they can work with, are interested in because otherwise it flops. If you don’t like writing about something, why would you do it? Especially if it’s going to turn into a novel you want to publish. You wouldn’t, you would pick something you liked. For the most part you can’t just make up stuff about your subject, either. You have to create rules that everything has to follow.
“But rules are meant to be broken!” you cry.
No, they’re not. So shut your mouth about that stupid phrase. Remember Breaking Dawn? The famous epic failure of 2008? The one that had fans crying, “FOUL!”? Yeah, that one. Think about it. Why was it such a flop? Because she broke her own rules. She set it up just so and then decided to ignore them. Not only did she break her own rules but she also broke rules of the universe she was playing in. If you’re in any biology class that ever talks about reproduction, you’re going to cover chromosomes. Did Meyer follow through with that? No, she didn’t. People got angry over that.
Now, why would they do that if you can make up any rules you want? You see what I’m getting at? Rules are set up in any universe to create constants so that there is something that’s stopping your story from getting too out of hand.
That’s where research comes in handy. In fact, it’s something you should do no matter what you’re writing. Why? Simple, you want to know everything you can in order to determine what has relevance to your writing. Research can sometimes take years. One author spent five years researching one little topic before he even started his novel. Jodi Picoult spends time getting information from those who deal with it every day. She went on a ghost-hunting trip for her novel Second Glances. Sure you can write while you do research, but you should always go back through to make sure that everything works perfectly.
Another problem with choosing your own subject is that you have to have a plot that’s going to sustain several hundred pages. No one thinks it’s a novel if it’s shorter than about 150 pages! Really, a novella is closer to what that is. People expect novels to be about 200+ pages, more likely they want it to be 300 pages. Either way, that plot has to be complex enough to send characters darting all over the place, struggling with twists and turns. AND YOU HAVE TO FILL IN THE PLOT HOLES. No one likes those when they find them, but believe me; you have to watch out for them. They happen everywhere. This is also why it’s important to research and brainstorm: the more you know, the fewer plot holes you will have.
Then there are the characters. I could write several essays on characters alone, but I beg you to think this: do you think coming up with people who are complex enough to seem real and to have people care about them is easy? No, it’s not! Think about the ones who you’ve read about who you didn’t care if they lived or died. How hard do you think it was to flesh them out? Let me tell you, it can be a real hassle to drag a character out of their shell, but that’ll be a different misconception.
There’s the actual writing itself. It may not seem like a lot to you if I write five pages a day, but that’s about 3,000 words! (Using my preferred typeface and size anyway.) That’s a lot of work! People whine and moan about a thousand-word essay, how would you feel about writing a 3,000-word essay every single day? That’s what writers do on top of other affairs, social life, school/work, and fighting with writer’s block. You may think that once an author writes down a scene, that’s it.
WRONG.
Writers sometimes revisit a pivotal scene several times. They do it first to make sure that the section is void of typos/problems. Then they check to make sure everything flows like it should. They check it for mood and for word choice. They change details that they don’t like. They edit and edit and edit and edit hopefully three times before it ever reaches an editor. It’s also possible that they might pass it onto a friend or a trusted family member for feedback. They might not even tell you what they want to know about it, they just want your opinion! Half the time the response is the same: it was interesting.
That’s probably the worst compliment to give to an author. Interesting??? What did you find interesting? What did you like? What did you hate? What piqued your curiosity, what do you want to know more about? PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK, DON’T MAKE ME BEG YOU FOR THIS!!!
Writing is difficult. It takes perseverance, hard work, belief in one’s self, and the ability to trust that it’s better to get it out now than to fret about everything at once. It requires dedication to a subject and a group of imaginary people. There are many more reasons why it’s difficult, but these are just the main few. Writing is not easy. It might be fun at times, but it is anything but easy.