Know Thyself, Know Thy Story
I had a conversation with a writer recently who told me they’ve started working on a new fantasy manuscript. As a lifelong fantasy lover myself, I immediately sensed a kindred soul and began asking them about their favorite fantasy books and authors.
I got a shake of the head in response.
“Oh, I don’t read fantasy,” this writer told me. They then rattled off a long – and excellent – list of books they love, with titles ranging from contemporary to romance to thriller.
I paused. Took a breath. Then asked, “So, why write a fantasy?”
“It seemed like fun, to invent a whole world,” they answered. “And it’s a popular genre. I thought I’d try it.”
Fantasy is fun to write. And it is popular.
It’s also just as hard to write as any other book. A job that gets even harder when you don’t know the genre you’re trying to write in.
Get Curious
It’s not the first time I’ve heard this from a writer. We’re a curious bunch. We take in the world around us, store all the bits and pieces that catch out attention in the nooks and crannies of our brains. There it sits until our mental winds swirl it about, and it settles in drifts alongside other bits and pieces, making new and surprising combinations that slowly - or suddenly - rise to our consciousness.
Voila! New story idea.
Sometimes those ideas take us in directions we never imagined. Like writing a fantasy manuscript, even though we don’t know the first thing about the genre.
It might be true that fantasy is the perfect fit for the story this writer wants to tell. It also might be true that a genre this writer actually enjoys reading is a better fit.
So how do you know if you’re trying out a new genre for the right reasons?
The answer, writer, is to know thyself.
Get curious about yourself. Pull out a blank piece of paper and make a list of 10 books you loved as a kid in the upper left corner. Then, in the upper right corner, make a list of 10 books you love as a grown-up. Now, keep going, filling up all the open spaces on your sheet of paper. Who are your 10 favorite artists? Musicians? Blogs? Podcasts? Movies? TV shows? Places you’ve traveled?
Then stand back and take stock. Look for patterns, for common threads that weave through all these things that light you up. Maybe you’re drawn to creative work that explores different perspectives. Or that comes from a deep sense of history. Or that has a rich sense of place. Maybe you love creative work that pulls at your heartstrings. Or that contains puzzles, begging to be solved. Or that demands justice be served.
Once you spot your patterns, find your common threads, write it down. There is power in writing things down. Trust me on this. The words exit your head and come to life in the real world. They become a North Star on your journey as a writer and artist. Let them guide you as you ponder exploring new ground.
There’s no reason you can’t try out new genres. But you need to know why you’re doing it, what you think this new genre will bring to your story. And then you need to dive into this new genre, familiarizing yourself with its conventions, its breadth of stories, its key authors.
As I listened to this writer talk about their new fantasy manuscript, I realized what they were really interested in was stories about overcoming immense challenges, and how immense challenge pushes characters to dig deep and discover strengths they never even knew they had. Fantasy is wonderful genre to explore this terrain of the human soul. The power of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming wrongness becomes a true power that lives and breathes on the page, becomes something to wield, something that shines light in the darkest places. That can cast spells of hope and redemption, of truth and wholeness.
Other genres, too, can explore this rich ground.
As this writer and I wrapped up our conversation, they found they had a new understanding of why they might be pulled to write fantasy and a new list of books – fantasy and non-fantasy – that featured characters overcoming immense challenge to find their own true heart.
I haven’t yet heard whether or not this writer stuck with fantasy. But by taking the time to understand why, they learned something even deeper about themselves as artists that they can bring the pages of their stories, no matter what they write.
Till next time…
Happy writing!
Erin
