It never ceases to amaze me when I tell someone I’ve written a novel, they say, “I’ve always wanted to write a novel.” It seems everyone seems to believe they, too, can write a novel. All they have to do is put pen to paper.
That leads me to think about my 5 misconceptions about fiction writing.
Number 1: Everyone has a novel in them. This conception just isn’t true. That’s like saying everyone can paint a picture. Some of us have the skill and ability to write and others do not. Those of us who put the pen to paper or in this day and age, the words on a screen, know how hard it is and often after many months of work, still struggle to find the right place for our work. Just like the visual artist, the literary artist is not something we can all do.
Number 2: Fiction writing is simply writing what you know. Again, if that were the case, most of us would run out of material very quickly. We know just so much. Furthermore, fiction writers will tell you that they may begin with an idea that came out of their experiences, but that idea turns into something very different. If fiction writing were simply writing what we know, where in the world does Stephen King get his ideas?
Number 3: Fiction writers tell “lies.” I have heard this many time. Those of us who create fiction are nothing more that sophisticated liars. Right? Gosh I hate this misconception! We do not lie, we create. The art of fiction is creating a world for the reader with people they can relate to. The world and the people do not exist. But, as fiction writers, we strive to make both as close to the truth as we can. Does that mean we “lie”? No, what we do is create
Number 4: If you write fiction, you don’t need to do any research. This is another misconception and it relates to number 3 above. How many times have you, as a reader, gotten upset with the novelist because you say, “That could never happen”? Indeed if you come out of the story, even briefly with that thought, we, fiction writers, have failed. We must not only research our place and the events that occur in our place, but we must also research our characters and their personalities. We must know them as real people. Furthermore, the dialogue must sound genuine. I find myself eavesdropping on conversations around me, not to discover content, but to hear the rhythm of the talk so I can re-create the way people speak. That is research.
Number 5: Writing fiction is easy because you can change events or kill off characters at whim. Nonfiction is harder because the writer must stay within the reality of the situation. Granted we can kill people off if we want to, but the story and the characters have more control than people realize. I remember writing my first novel and feeling the pull from a character. She wanted to do something I really did not want her to do. This disconnect went on for several chapters until I finally had to give up and allow the character to have her way. Otherwise I would have found myself stuck. In reality, we cannot change the plot or kill off characters at will. Our fictitious worlds have more control on what we write than our readers realize.
How about it? Do you have a Number 6? What do you think is a misconception about fiction writing?
If you liked this post and want to see more author interviews, reviews and more, join me on Facebook by Liking my page. www.facebook.com/joanccurtisauthor
This is a great list, Joan. I might add one misconception: That writing fiction is easier than writing non-fiction, because fiction is just made up and you can pretty much say anything you please. I’ve written both and I don’t think writing fiction is any easier. In some ways, I think writing fiction is harder because you have to keep so many balls up in the air at once: characterization, plot, pacing, conflict, etc. Thanks for the post.
Great post, Joan. I certainly agree with # 5 being a myth. I’ve just realized I had my heroine in my WIP act completely against her character when she agrees to stay in an isolated cottage in Maine, she’s inherited, especially not as soon as she sees it. It may grow on her, or if the bad guy burns down the inn she’s staying in, but not right off the bat. 27 K in and I realize this. Geez! At least it wasn’t 67 K.
I’ll be FBing and Tweeting.
Aloha Joan
Great post thanks. :-). I was particularly fascinated by number 3. I’ve never ha anyone say that. So that was interesting. It’s a story, not a news event. I think I’d look at someone weirdly if they said that to me. And funnily enough, every so often I’ll come across something in my writers group in a story that might sound a bit too far fetched for the situation. When I question the author, they’ll say something like- Oh no. That actually happened to me just as I’ve written it. :-).
My other thing I get a lot is: gosh I don’t know how you get all your ideas. Over active it superbly active imagination – depending in your point of view. And like you and most writers – my characters often take off and do their own thing. I’m just the dictation service. :-). I had my first book expand into a trilogy because I finally let Charlie (now a main character) do his own thing. And thank god I listened to him. :-).
Thanks and aloha Meg. 🙂
Wonderful list! I’d like to add:
6. When you finish writing a book, you can just move on to whatever you want to do next.
Not only are there content and line edits to get through, but the task of marketing a book is never-ending. It can be a lot of fun, but there’s no doubt that it’s a lot of work!
Amen! Heather! Not to mention all the marketing and social media. My gosh! That’s harder than writing the book.
I agree with all 5 of your points. I might add, sitting down and actually writing the story takes a lot of time and planning and persistence. The misconception is that an author taps the story out on the laptop or fills in the pages of a notebook and the book is done. First drafts are never enough!
Fiction authors have so much time on their hands – I’ve got a speech prepared now since many people don’t know where a novel comes from – the stork maybe? It takes a tiring lengthy explanation to ensure people that a 100,000 word manuscript doesn’t just materialize in a week and then leap onto the B&N shelf. I must wear them down with every little natty step from idea to print that include editing and production and social media and marketing – everything in between!
Number 3 is the one I hear so often. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a book, movie, or TV show, people seem to think the author can just “make up” anything at all. I usually get a lot of disbelieving yeah, yeahs when I say that fiction, as well as non-fiction, has to be based on a truth, otherwise publishers will not accept it because of danger of liability. We, as fiction authors, have to be as responsible for what we put on paper as the scientific writer does. Of course, we get a lot of leeway because, yes, some pretty weird and unbelievable things actually do happen in real life!
As a new author, I think the most exciting thing I experienced was the first time my characters “took over” the story as I was writing it, disproving the validity of #5. There are just some things they will not do and you cannot make them!
A little tongue in cheek, and a little not, replying to the original 5 thoughts from the blog:
1) Everyone has a book in them.
Well, yes. They do. Just like everyone has a drawing in them. In fact, everyone has a LOT of books in them, just like we all have LOTS of drawings in us. As young children, we’re encouraged to spill those drawings onto paper. And as adults, we’re often encouraged to spill those novels onto our PCs, via NaNoWriMo or whatever.
The truth is, everyone DOES have not just one, but many novels “inside them”. However, the adage that one’s “first million words are apprentice work” tends to be true. You really have to get those out of the way before you’re going to be producing high quality professional stories. And most people simply don’t have the patience for that. So while everyone has stories “inside them” they can write, most people never build up the experience required to have any skill telling them.
2) Telling what you know.
Fiction writers DO “tell what we know”. We don’t JUST tell what we know, however.
OK, example: I have an urban fantasy series, set at an imaginary military college. I went to a military college, so that gives me some groundwork for the setting. I was never attacked by supernatural critters while I was there, so I made that part up. 😉 But the chunks of the foundation – the setting concept – were in fact drawn from experience. I didn’t need to research what that setting looked like; I knew it.
Another example: science fiction stories involving a moon base, spaceships, distant planets, and an alien species. I have never seen any of those things firsthand. However, I have read a lot of books about those things – other novels – so I share a common core of concepts with other readers of the genre. I can use those common images, derived from novels and films, to help me come up with ideas, and to help convey those ideas. I haven’t ever SEEN those things for real – but I know what my readers expect them to be!
3) Fiction writers tell lies.
This one is a stretch. Technically, fiction writers tell fabrications. But we don’t tell them expecting the reader to believe them – and that’s the difference. A liar tells a story that s/he hopes the audience will believe as truth. A fiction writer tells a story and hopes that the audience will feel immersed enough that the story FEELS real, without actually believing it IS real.
4) Fiction means no research.
Depends on the story! I didn’t need to research my urban fantasies. I have needed to research some little tidbits of science for my SF, but in general my physics background serves me well enough to pass, there. I have written some historical stories, but always in time periods I knew fairly well – so while I might need to look up the precise year Rome abandoned Britannia, I know the background around the decision and its ramifications already.
On the flip side, if I was going to write a US Civil War story, I’d need to do piles of reading first. But another writer – a Civil War buff – would not need to do any. He’d have the data all there at his fingertips. So it depends on the story – and the writer.
5) Fiction is easier because…etc.
This one, you’ve actually set up your own misconception. In your case, YOU “had to let” a character have her own way, and do her own thing, or you’d have gotten stuck.
Other writers outline the entire novel before even starting to type a word, and stick to the outline through the whole thing.
Neither method is wrong. 😉 But people who just let their characters have their head or just outline the heck out of their story sometimes forget that lots of people use the other method, too. 😉 SOME writers have little (conscious) control over their stories. Other writers have absolute control over the tales they tell. And there is a range, a spectrum, spanning the entire distance between the two extremes. And ALL of them are right. 😉
In reference to Number 3, I’ve heard the complaint that fiction is just a “ready-made daydream”. And TV shows are not? Movies are not?
The truth is that, long before the invention of writing, story-tellers were a fixture among ancient tribes. In many primitive societies even today, the story-teller maintains an oral history of the tribe and also entertains with myths and legends that he makes up.
As for Number 5, I learned years ago that characters will surprise you. They often take on life and dictate to you, the author/creator of the story, what is going to happen next. If you resist them, you may pay a price. That’s why I never (can’t) do a detailed outline for a novel. I usually have a theme of what the story is about, a tentative ending, and 4 or 5 major events that I want to take place. After that I just start writing. I try to direct the story in the direction I want it to go, but all too frequently it wends is own way to the end (not always the one I had planned), and I am just along for the ride. The wonder of this method is that I get to “discover” the story before the reader does.