The why behind the story
Why do you write? It seems a simple enough question. "I write because I want to be a published author. I want to make my name as a world wide bestselling author."
It's a dream most of us share, but it's not enough to sustain us on the long road of rejections and knocks to our self-belief that is the path to professional publishing.
What we need is a why behind our stories. We need to know why we write what we do, and why writing it is important to us.
Do a review of the stories you've written. What themes keep coming up time after time? In my work, the two main themes I keep coming back to are wildlife and a fascination with artificial intelligence. So when I wrote Panthera : Death Spiral I combined the two. I wrote about wildlife being destroyed, but one of my viewpoint characters was an AI who could provide a commentary on how humans do things.
If you're struggling with your why, try coming at it from the other end, think about who you want your writing to help. And don't fall into the trap of thinking that you're writing fiction so you're not writing to help anyone. Novels have always reached out to their readers, carried messages for them, subtle or otherwise. Fiction does have the power to change people's lives, so think about whose life you'd like to enhance.
If you're having trouble discovering who your writing could help, then try doing an imaginary interview with an ideal reader. Imagine you're meeting them for coffee at your favourite cafe, and that you're going to pick their brains about why they read what they do. What's your ideal reader's name? What do they look like? How old are they? What are their beliefs and interests?
If this seems strange remember that big companies do this all the time. They create a picture of their ideal customer before they launch a new product. They know exactly who their product is aimed at, and so should you. If you also ask the question "why would they read my novel?" you get yourself an insight into how you could market your work.
Why do you want to read this book? is one of the most useful questions you can ask your ideal reader,
It's a dream most of us share, but it's not enough to sustain us on the long road of rejections and knocks to our self-belief that is the path to professional publishing.
What we need is a why behind our stories. We need to know why we write what we do, and why writing it is important to us.
Do a review of the stories you've written. What themes keep coming up time after time? In my work, the two main themes I keep coming back to are wildlife and a fascination with artificial intelligence. So when I wrote Panthera : Death Spiral I combined the two. I wrote about wildlife being destroyed, but one of my viewpoint characters was an AI who could provide a commentary on how humans do things.
If you're struggling with your why, try coming at it from the other end, think about who you want your writing to help. And don't fall into the trap of thinking that you're writing fiction so you're not writing to help anyone. Novels have always reached out to their readers, carried messages for them, subtle or otherwise. Fiction does have the power to change people's lives, so think about whose life you'd like to enhance.
If you're having trouble discovering who your writing could help, then try doing an imaginary interview with an ideal reader. Imagine you're meeting them for coffee at your favourite cafe, and that you're going to pick their brains about why they read what they do. What's your ideal reader's name? What do they look like? How old are they? What are their beliefs and interests?
If this seems strange remember that big companies do this all the time. They create a picture of their ideal customer before they launch a new product. They know exactly who their product is aimed at, and so should you. If you also ask the question "why would they read my novel?" you get yourself an insight into how you could market your work.
Why do you want to read this book? is one of the most useful questions you can ask your ideal reader,
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